Tiffany Classic Luxury Kit Sports Car Owners Club-History

Tiffany Classics were made by Classic Motor Carriages, Inc (CMC) in Miami, Florida.
Some on vets & some on Cougars. The last year being 88/89.
CMC later went out of business. Tiffanys sold new for $50-60k.

Historical Information from an Atlanta, Georgia Tiffany Owner, Thanks for Information

In November of 1977, the company had a sales brochure which showed the company name of "Classic Motor Carriages, Inc.", and that name appears on the letterhead stationery. But the enclosed "Purchase Order" form displays a name of "Motorcar Classics, Inc." with an address of 200 South Federal Highway, Hallandale, Florida.

In 1989, the company was involved in litigation at the Federal 11th District Court of Appeals with the Tiffany Company over the trademark of "Tiffany". The court said, "No", there was no substantial likelihood of confusion as to the source of the product between "CLASSIC TIFFANY" for automobiles and the opposer's mark "TIFFANY" for jewelry, silver, and similar items. I wondered where the "Classic" in "Classic Tiffany" came from - it apparently was adopted to stay away from the jewelery company.

The sales brochure in 1977 offered two kit cars - a "Gazelle" which was a replica of a 1929 Mercedes-Benz SSK roadster sports car, and a "Bugatti" which was supposed to look like a 1927 Bugatti Type 35B race car.

I don't know when the Tiffany was first produced and I suspect that the kit cars were produced along with the Tiffany until 1989 when production stopped on the Tiffany. The company must have had it really rolling since the 1988 sales were $20. million. An article in the "Miami Herald" stated that it was the biggest kit car company in the world.

Also, in 1987 there was a federal recall of the 1986 Tiffany for "GRADUAL HARDENING OF STEERING CONTROL MAY OCCUR WHICH COULD AFFECT NORMAL EASE OF MANEUVERABILITY". The recommended fix was "REPLACE U JOINTS, AS NECESSARY". In the documentation, it was mentioned that it affected 200 cars. I don't know how to verify this number; it seems questionable since it is an even number. But perhaps it is an accurate total of the 1986 production of Tiffanys.

The federal National Crime Information Center lists the identification of the company with the symbol of "CLAI" which has since been adopted by probably every state motor vehicle department (Neveda, Florida and Georgia have been verified).

I saw the mention of the 154 Tiffanys on the Read website. I think that is not accurate, unless, as you say, it might be the total for the 1988 model year. Bob (of Bob's Classics) says he has sold 72 of them, which makes me favor the 1988 total. I don't know when production of the Tiffany began, but I believe that 1989 was the final year because that's what Bob says on his website. My certificate of origin shows July of 1989 as the production date. But the company didn't get into serious trouble until about late 1993 or middle 1994 when several lawsuits against the company began, so I don't know. It seems improbable that they would stop making the Tiffany in 1989 while the factory was still operating until 1994.

Al Hirt auctioned a Tiffany Classic at the Barrett Jackson Auction in Scottsdale about 10 years ago.

Do have any more info about the CMC company ? When was Destiny built ?
Was there a lawsuit over the Tiffany name ?

This web page http://tiffanyclassic.com is being developed to assist Tiffany Classic owners with
maintaining and locating parts for their Tiffany Classic Automobile.

Webmaster: E-mail Roger at tiffanyclassic@cox.net Mutual Fund Screener http://fundscreener.org

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