Found article about Symbolic (La Jolla) Whatever happened? | FerrariChat

Found article about Symbolic (La Jolla) Whatever happened?

Discussion in 'California (Southern)' started by bitzman, Sep 15, 2020.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

  1. bitzman

    bitzman F1 Rookie
    BANNED

    Feb 15, 2008
    3,287
    Ontario, CA
    Full Name:
    wallace wyss
    Found old article in san Diego paper. I remember at one time they had all the coolest cars. Rumors somebody was going to jail. How did they ever get approved to b a Rolls dealer? At one time their sales force was like a Who's Who of Dubious Deal car salesmen
    Car dealer linked to funding scandal
    Image Unavailable, Please Login
    Marc Chase, owner of Symbolic Motor Car Co. in La Jolla, in November 2013 when his dealership was broken into by burglars.
    (John Gibbins)
    By LORI WEISBERG
    JAN. 22, 2014
    7:26 PM
    He’s described as the straw donor in a still evolving campaign finance scandal, but what’s known most about businessman Marc Chase are the ultra luxury cars he sells and past thefts targeting his La Jolla showroom.

    An occasional donor to political campaigns, Chase has been linked to a scheme to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Mexican businessman into San Diego elections. The straw donor in the scandal, identified as Chase by a source close to the investigation, is described in a complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s office as having contributed $120,000 to a political-action committee in October 2012. Documents also say around the same time the straw donor contributed $30,000 each to two political party committees.

    Campaign documents show Chase made contributions in those amounts to a committee supporting Bob Filner for mayor -- the $120,000 sum --the Democratic National Campaign Committee and the San Diego Democratic Party

    Chase did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

    The longtime auto dealer, though, made news long before this week. In the 1990s, he was the subject of two media profiles — including one in the San Diego Union-Tribune — about his La Jolla business, Symbolic Motor Car Co., at one time frequented by the likes of such celebrities as Nicolas Cage.

    He was in the news again in 1999, when the Symbolic showroom was taken over by robbers who took hostages during a four-hour standoff and more recently, and last year when burglars stole four watches worth about $100,000 from the showroom.

    Chase, who was not present at the business at the time of the 1999 incident, opened his first high-end car lot in 1988 in Encinitas with this brother Bernie and eventually relocated to the La Jolla Facility on La Jolla Boulevard in 1993. The facility was once owned by Don Dixon, ex-president of bankrupt Vernon Savings, who went to prison in the early 1990s for bank fraud.

    Symbolic’s website boasts that the business is “globally acknowledged as a leading dealership possessing an inventory of thoroughbreds ranging from vintage racing Ferrari, to the new Rolls Royce Ghost, and Bentley Mulsanne flagship.”




    San Diego hotelier Bill Evans, who is also a car collector, said he’s always known Chase to be a reputable businessman and generous charitable donor.

    “He’s a standup guy and has been in a very tough business over the last five or six years,” said Evans, of Evans Hotels, which owns the Bahia, Catamaran and The Lodge at Torrey Pines. “He and his brother made the Ferrari market what it is today.

    “He’s in a business filled with horror stories and from what I know, his has been a fairy tale, not a horror story.”

    In a 1998 Union-Tribune profile, Chase said of his business, “With some of our cars, there are only five people in the world who want them,” Chase said. “But our theory of doing business is like the premise of the `Field of Dreams’ movie: If you build the right car, they will come.”

    Chase, said Evans, is a single father with one daughter, and according to property records, owns a four-bedroom Solana Beach home valued at around close to $3 million, according to Zillow.

    In a 1998 article, Chase and his brother were described as one of a number of high-profile individuals who have helped raise $60 million for the construction of the Scripps Research Foundation’s Institute for Childhood and Neglected Diseases. He also has a charity registered at the address of his La Jolla business, identified as the La Jolla Children’s Foundation. Among those receiving grants from the foundation are the Jammer Family and Marshall Faulk foundations and the Solana Beach Foundation for Learning.

    In addition to the already cited political contributions, records show that Chase made two $1,000 contributions to Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 1999 and donated $500 to the Bonnie Dumanis for Mayor 2012 campaign and $320 to former Mayor Jerry Sanders’ 2008 campaign.

    Chase and his dealership have been named in a number of civil lawsuits, but San Diego attorney Hal Rosner, who has spent 30 years suing auto dealerships, said he has never found Symbolic to be a “problem dealership committing bad practices..”
     
  2. TestShoot

    TestShoot F1 World Champ
    Silver Subscribed

    Sep 1, 2003
    12,026
    Beverly Hills
    Dude, every exotic dealer are mainly dubious scumbags. Shady people are a feature, not a bug, of the exotic car world.
     
    albert328gts likes this.
  3. TTR

    TTR F1 Veteran
    Rossa Subscribed

    Mar 29, 2007
    5,145
    Riverside, CA
    Full Name:
    Timo
    :eek:o_O:rolleyes:
     

Share This Page