Saleen Inc Sells Most of Assets to MJ Acquisitions
Posted by: admin in General Saleen News
Saleen Inc, the company Steve Saleen founded and later sold has sold off most of their assets to MJ Acquisitions who owns and operates several automotive companies. The sale of assets does not include the S7 or S5 Raptor supercar or the paint operations, which Saleen will retain. The new owners will continue to produce Saleen vehicles including new 2010 Saleen models that should be out sometime in the fall of 2009. More about the sale after the jump…
Press Release:
After announcing it was looking for a buyer in early November, Saleen Incorporated announced today that MJ Acquistions has acquired certain assets of America’s premier automotive lifestyle brand, relating to Saleen’s supercharger, aftermarket and high performance street vehicle businesses.
The transaction reportedly was finalized last Friday, which left all of the employees (including Saleen Inc. CEO Chris Theodore) with the legal formality of being without jobs — at least temporarily. Some hirebacks have already taken place as the transition progresses.While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, the purchase does not include the assets associated with the supercar (S7 or S5 Raptor vehicles) or the paint operations, which will remain with Saleen Incorporated. The ownership of MJ Acquisitions controls a family of companies which provide full service engineering, design, manufacturing, assembly and control systems for the automotive industry. It’s affilitated companies include Cyltec, LLC, Power-Tec Engineering, LLC, Arrow Racing Engines, LLC, and Control-Tec, LLC. “MJ Acquisitions and its affiliates are a group of true car professionals with vast experience in the engineering, production, assembly and distribution of performance and racing vehicles” said Theodore in a press release. “This influx of new life into the Saleen, RaceCraft and SpeedLab brands is a win-win situation.”
Theodore noted loyal Saleen customers, dealers and enthusiasts can look forward to an exciting transition period.
“We moved on this purchase quickly to ensure that the process of delivering high-quality automobiles and components to the consumers is not disrupted,” said Mike Shields, President and CEO of MJ Acquisitions. “We are working with the talented team from Saleen and our own experts to continue the quality, delivery, and performance the customer base and delalership network have come to expect from the Saleen brand. I am particularly excited about Saleen’s supercharger experience and its synergies with Power-Tec’s development of the next generation of superchargers.”
Immediate plans are to roll out the 2010 version of the newly designed Mustang for the Racecraft brand and commence other Racecraft designs for additional vehicles. The new Mustang is shipping from Ford later this month. Additionally, the Saleen brand will have a new design of the flagship S-Line that is already in the works and scheduled for release in the third quarter of 2009.
While this announcement may provide more questions than answers for some, Saleen owners should be assured that key warranty and sales staff are still at the company to serve dealers and owners, with more hirebacks likely coming in the days ahead.
MJ Acquistions does plan to work with the dealer network and others to establish the future product line. A company spokesperson said more announcements will be forthcoming, so stay tuned.
Entries (RSS)
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Good luck trying to process a warranty claim…………….it will be denied. Either satisfy customers and maintain the saleen name as it should be or dissolve.
March 8th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
I have always had problems with the warranty dept at saleen.
I had my car 1 week then found out the rotors were bad my car sat for 2 weeks
before anything was done.I am tired of the pointing fingers.Handle your bussiness
May 14th, 2009 at 7:36 am
Same here, no joy from MJ or Saleen or any of the other various parties involved with warranty claims for these cars. Lots of inital well wishes and high hopes for service but when it comes time to actually perform for a customer they seem to have little desire to act like a reputable business.
May 15th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Well, let me just say this…i have been waiting for a set of wheels for my red flag for two and a half months. Apparently saleen stopped stocking their parts prior to their sale to MJ. The customer service is terrible…they pretty much just point the finger at the sale of the company and expect you to just sit and wait for the parts to come in from over seas. This is ridiculous…im paying for a car that has been sitting in my garage going on three months…i could just imagine what i’ll be looking at if i were to ever get in a wreck. MJ needs to get their stuff together! Hopefully i can drive my car sometime this summer!!!
July 29th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Saleen was famous for not paying warranty claims. I was a Saleen dealer for over 14 years, the only way we ever got paid was to order more stuff and them short them on the check when stuff arrived. I like Steve a lot, real nice guy, but we could never get paid so we stopped selling their product.