The insolvency report of Kienle Automobiltechnik explains the explanations for the chapter and what Mercedes purchased.
The insolvency report explains the explanations for the chapter of Ditzingen-based Kienle Automobiltechnik, a specialist within the restoration of basic Mercedes fashions, 300 SL and 600. The report additionally particulars what Mercedes paid for spare components, equipment, and intangible property and what collectors obtained.
The insolvency report explains that the agency had been in hassle because the coronavirus pandemic when the basic automotive buying and selling enterprise fell dramatically. Kienle estimated prices too low and didn’t consider further prices, the report explains. Subsequently, Kienle needed to ask for big upfront funds from the purchasers, as much as 100% of the estimated prices, to run the enterprise.
The restoration firm bought the corporate property in November 2021 and leased it again to acquire liquidity for additional enterprise operations.
However the chapter can also be a consequence of ongoing investigations, in accordance with a press release from legislation agency Grub Brugger, quoted by German Auto Motor und Sport journal. As a result of the authorities have publicly expressed suspicion of “business fraud involving the sale of counterfeit basic vehicles,” quite a few clients have dropped orders. The insolvency report of February 2024 confirms that getting new orders has turn out to be tough, and a few clients have given up orders that had been already in execution.
The corporate’s monetary state of affairs was strained because the stability sheets for 2020 and 2021 present. The spare components warehouse mentioned to include 40,000 gadgets, had been partially mortgaged to banks and collectors as collateral in 2021.
In response to the report, the chapter was triggered by the scandal that arose from the sale of a Mercedes 300 SL Roadster, which had the identical chassis collection as one other 300 SL.
In response to the insolvency report, the collectors will solely be capable to get better about 20% of the acknowledged claims of 16 million euros. That’s about 3.26 million euros, most of which got here from the sale of great components of the bancrupt firm to Mercedes-Benz’s basic automotive division.
In 2022, the consultants really useful Kienle discover a associate as an investor. Mercedes had meant to take over Kienle Automobiltechnik as early as 2023. Following the insolvency, Mercedes-Benz Heritage GmbH lastly took over the workers, spare components, and instruments on February 1st, 2024, for 3.05 million euros, of which 1.5 million euros for spare components, 350,000 euros for machines and 1.2 million euros for intangible property equivalent to buyer knowledge and the know-how of the workers.
The second that triggered chapter
Within the fall of 2022, Ralph Grieser, proprietor of the basic automotive vendor Depot 3 in Mulheim-Karlich, purchased a crimson Mercedes 300 SL Roadster from Switzerland, that had the chassis quantity 198042-10-002786. The automotive had belonged to a farmer from the canton of Schaffhausen since 1969. The automotive was withdrawn from circulation in Switzerland in 2021, and Grieser wished to register it in Germany.
That was the second that began the scandal: Grieser seen that there was one other Mercedes 300 SL Roadster with the identical chassis quantity already registered in Germany.Grieser was certain that he owned the unique, and two consultants who independently evaluated the automotive confirmed that the crimson Mercedes 300 SL Roadster was the unique mannequin.
The 300 SL Roadster purchased by Grieser had a clear historical past: the primary proprietor purchased it in 1961 and saved it till 1969, and the one who purchased it bought it to Grieser in 2021. The comfortable high roof, windshield, aspect home windows, and carpets had been the unique, and the automotive has by no means been absolutely restored. The one distinction was that the automotive was repainted in crimson, and the unique colour was yellow.This yellow Mercedes 300 SL Roadster was exhibited in March 1961 on the Geneva Motor Present, on the event that Mercedes launched disc brakes as an alternative of drums.
Grieser knowledgeable the authorities and mentioned he would search for the second copy. And he discovered it exactly in Malaysia. He contacted the proprietor and traveled to Malaysia with an professional, who concluded very clearly: “It isn’t just for an automotive professional that the proof obtainable is so clear that manipulation would have carried out.” The professional found quite a few inconsistencies within the automotive bought by Kienle. The engine collection on the yellow automotive was “visibly regarded up,” writes the professional. “Different proof of id such because the chassis quantity on the dashboard, the steering collection, the body head collection, and the collection on the entrance axle halves had been eliminated, which for a automobile are already clear indications that talk in opposition to originality”.
The conclusion was that the examined automotive had a special chassis quantity, specifically 198042-10-002765. This automotive was delivered with a crimson inside in 1961 and was then stolen in Frankfurt in 1983.
Kienle denied all of the accusations and defined to the journal Auto Motor und Sport by means of a lawyer that “The yellow Mercedes 300 SL, which was at Kienle for the primary time and for a short while in 2019, had the chassis quantity 198-042-10 -002786.” Kienle acknowledged that the automotive had the identical chassis quantity from the early 90s and that he solely brokered its sale however “neither constructed the yellow Mercedes 300 SL as a reproduction nor manipulated its chassis quantity.” Kienle bought the automotive in 2019 as a dealer.
Kienle additionally declared to the journal Auto Motor und Sport in the beginning of June 2023: “We’ve no duplicates.” The investigations licensed that of the 30 autos checked, the chassis quantity was right. In response to a press launch despatched by Kienle in the beginning of June 2023, “It’s at present not even clear which of the 2 autos is the unique and which is a reconstruction.”
Based in 1984, Kienle Automobiltechnik was a specialist within the restoration of the 300 SL and 600 fashions.
Wilfried Porth, President of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Membership Germany eV, recommends potential clients pay the experience of 20,000 euros to confirm the authenticity of a 300 SL and says that 20,000 euros is a small quantity in comparison with the value of over 1 million euros of a 300 SL. Additionally, Porth declares that Mercedes Traditional has all the info and documentation of the vehicles produced and might examine very exactly whether or not a automotive is authentic or a reproduction.
On the time of publication of this text, the trial began in Stuttgart on July 6, 2023, remains to be ongoing. That’s the reason, till the trial is accomplished, the presumption of innocence is legitimate.
