ADV Production Modular Hardtop!

[MNBigfoot]

You make good points, I don’t know the answers to those questions. We’ll have to see how it plays out. This thread is going beyond 1,000 pages lol

Granted 950 pages are just guys saying "First batch, I'm being told next week".

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[indio22]

Here’s what happened. Two small companies that don’t make anything outside of fiberglass fenders, created a hardtop rendering and got 1k+ people to shell out 7k each. They collected millions and spent it.

It’s literally a scene out of Dumb & Dumber.

Yes and that aspect never got enough play. It appears ADV (and APG as well), had little if any experience and expertise making double wall bonded composite items, and especially hardtops. A lot of people unfortunately assumed they could get these built, with little evidence to support it.

 

[broncos_and_such]

Eh... you don't make lawsuits like this public unless you are headed towards bankruptcy. If they had any intention on refunding preorders and trying to continue as a business, they would have keep this lawsuit private while they attempt to extract money from APG.

But they didn't, which means either they have the worse legal representation of all time. Or they're headed towards bankruptcy anyway... so screw it—let's try to drag down our old business partner with us.

I had the same thought.

It struck me as very strange they shared the full lawsuit. In part because it made it crystal clear of ADVs deceit. They shared the lawsuit saying, "look how serious we're taking this!", but it just made them look worse... It's how I discovered Johns email to me 2 days after the suit was filed that my top was "cruising through production" was an outright lie.

Millions of dollars of fraud could be sufficient to warrant criminal penalties and time in jail.

 

[pakrat]

I came here to ask very similar questions. APG seems to be leaving some extremely important details out. Those details may indicate shared culpability if ever revealed. For a company with their finger on the pulse of the industry(APG) who entered into a mutual agreement with a competitor, a relatively local company, and one with a history of poor business practices, to now plead ignorance is laughable imo. ADV is obviously responsible for their portion of this mess but APG may have exploited an opportunity here as well…allegedly.

All thoughts are purely satirical and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the person who typed the message.

Signed,
Staff at the Onion.

Took a lot of the words out of my mouth. Everything APG said seems to be conveniently lacking facts. They took in over 4 million and didn’t know anything. What exactly were the invoices for? That’s a lot of money for distribution rights. Especially when they just put it on the internet that they always planned on selling directly anyway. In what world does a manufacturer ask for either prepayment of distribution sales or funding of the manufacturing startup. They couldn’t do it without customer funds. Period. They were both fully aware of the plan and they had a falling out when ADV couldn’t keep paying out refunds. APG will be bankrupt as well shortly and not one single top will ever be delivered to a regular customer. Anyone thinking APG is in the clear because of the contract and that statement is sorely confused.

If I was out the money I’d be suing them both because they clearly were both 100% aware of the situation and both companies had an equal share of the stolen funds. Get on it quick before neither of them has any assets.

 

[heyjay]

He hasn't commented since but I see he's reading this post. I wonder if he still thinks they're not scamming folks.

Yes I was dead wrong, and now I'm paying for it. I spent ~$6k last year on a top I will never get. I made a post on this thread about six months ago, sharing my honest experience with a prototype top. I knew I would get hate for it, everyone was angry and impatient (for good reason). I made that post for ADV's sake, in good faith. They thanked me for it, and then I went back to waiting patiently and hearing nothing for another six months. Then I got the email, now here I am eating a nice thick slice of humble pie, admitting I was wrong.

For ADV to play the victim is laughable. Regardless of the circumstances, the only way they can retain any shred of integrity at this point is to make their customers whole and refund our money. I'm no lawyer, but if APG is actually at fault, then the court will hold them liable for all that money anyway. So the fact that ADV says they can't help us with refunds is an admission of guilt, and enough of a reason for me to place all blame on them.

To ADV: your prototype is still here, and I am waiting for you to come get it if you want it. You have my contact info on my order (which I can no longer view by the way, classy). I just want my money back, so I can buy a production-quality hardtop from a company I know I can trust.

 

[indio22]

APG's statement and reply

This is interesting, from the end of what was posted as APG's statement on the matter:

"We will continue to manufacture the finest 6th Generation Ford Bronco
Products in the world and will announce the availability of the hardtop products when
we know, for certain, that we can accept, fill and deliver our customers’ orders."

So, assuming APG can resolve production issues, at some point they might offer for sale the hardtop, which arguably was funded off the backs of people who lost $7000 a pop? How well is that going to go down?!

 

[JJ Bronco]

This is just bananas.

To all who have paid in and got nothing, I feel for you.

I don't know if this case is too small, but I would love to see the YouTuber Coffeezilla do a video on this.

 

[Elonmsk]

I suspect both ADV and APG have had this outcome planned for months. I think they gave up on production several months ago and have been buying time ever since.

Likely it fell apart when the offshore manufacture (Temu) sent them a clip of their mfg operations with some hardtops, then ADV pawned it off as their own.

Wouldn’t be surprised if ADV files for bankruptcy and dissolves, likely planned out well in advance and don’t be shocked if they have new ventures already in motion.

As for APG, it’s just a guy who leased a shop and does installations, literally nothing more - doesn’t make anything outside of well-edited content.

But heck, what do I know… I’ve only been right about every prediction for the past 2 years.

 

[indio22]

I suspect both ADV and APG have had this outcome planned for months. I think they gave up on production several months ago and have been buying time ever since.

Likely it fell apart when the offshore manufacture (Temu) sent them a clip of their mfg operations with some hardtops, then ADV pawned it off as their own.

Wouldn’t be surprised if ADV files for bankruptcy and dissolves, likely planned out well in advance and don’t be shocked if they have new ventures already in motion.

As for APG, it’s just a guy who leased a shop and does installations, literally nothing more - doesn’t make anything outside of well-edited content.

But heck, what do I know… I’ve only been right about every prediction for the past 2 years.

The below message was posted about an hour ago, by the LiteBrite/OnlyFans crew, in the comment section of an All Terrain Nation YouTube post. They say the hardtop is "one hell of a piece of engineering by APG" and indicate it will still be available at some point. Talk about them not reading the room. Maybe the hardtop will be available "by September", lol.

@LiteBrite
1 hour ago
Don’t know y’all, but genuinely would suggest a little more research next time, so you’re not posting a video that’s just speculation. Remember the first rule of journalism - there’s two sides to every story, and we would highly recommend reading APG’s official statement in response to ADV’s post/email to its customers. Kind of wild to us that anyone would sympathize with a company that actually took customer money for a product that wasn’t even developed yet and is now refusing to refund that money.

And you may not like us, but since we HAVE seen this hardtop and have one of the final pre-production versions on our new APG Pro Runner - we can say that it’s one hell of a piece of engineering and APG outdid themselves by a landslide. When it’s ACTUALLY available and ready to ship, we’ll release our video showing and explaining what all went into its production.

 

[O-BRONCO-O]

Funny how ADV removed all the photos and videos of their APG built ProRunner from their social media..

 

[GroovyGeek]

Perhaps LiteBrite can take a lead from Crowdstrike, but instead of sending UberEats go

Does anyone know a good class action law firm that could represent all of us who sadly put their trust in the wrong company?

That is a surefire way to get at most pennies on the dollar, while the lawyers collect millions in fees. Unless you are the lead plaintiff you are usually not getting anything meaningful out of a class action suit.

 

[mcinfantry]

One more time
4.1 million was held in reserve by adv
Four million

where is the half that was never paid to apg

where is all the pre paid shipping

how can you prepay shipping when you have no idea what shipping will be as shipping is somewhat volatile and I’ll dare say tied to fuel/labor availability costs

1) what did adv do with the half they admittedly never paid to apg?
2) the money they spent isn’t considered income? No irs ? I get my question had been answered, but explain how you can spend half of a prepayment with no tax liability?

 

[GreenMtnBronco]

Does anyone know a good class action law firm that could represent all of us who sadly put their trust in the wrong company?

gonna be hard to find, "good" class action lawyers want the big securities fraud cases, there is not a lot of $ in this overall case for a higher end attorney. Best bet is if there is an attorney (or a few) that have been harmed and sue on their own, the Judge would then pool them together to create a class and reach out to others who may have been harmed.

 

[j_marinelli]

Yesterday:

Today:

Looks like they paid Goggle to clean up those reviews and at least get them bumped up back to a 4.7 rating.

 

[mcinfantry]

Yesterday:

Today:

Looks like they paid Goggle to clean up those reviews and at least get them bumped up back to a 4.7 rating.

They should.

they never delivered any tops, so why should anyone be able to talk about non delivered goods?

/sarcas

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