galen govier

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No doubt he has done a good thing or 2 along the way, but he has been pretty much a continual POS within the hobby. It didn't need to be this way but he made it the way it is, so that is on him. If he did you right along the way, then good on him but he has done far too many others wrong to be given any grace. It's not just what he has done but how he has done it, complete dick and very certain he is better than everyone else.
 
Threads like this are how people are warned of Galen. Countless times I have read horror stories of his shitty ethics and piss poor business practices.
Some people get "fooled" as to using him due to pre internet days when he was "trusted".
I think his practices have finally caught up with him.
Only $$ I sent him was for the white books.
Would the dealership analogy be a good comparison if the customers didnt get the work they paid for?
 
SpeedyDart68 said:
I actually met Galen around November 2006, when we delivered a sold fastback to Hollywood, CA. We picked up a 69 M Code Dart that Galen was looking over. After we loaded it up he invited all of us to Goldberg's ranch house. It was the coolest thing! He lives just north of San Diego, CA. Goldberg wasn't expecting so many people, but he was super cool. He autographed his book for all of us and gave us a tour of his garages full of Mopar goodness! The black Hemi Dart did it for me!! I'll never forget it. :thumbsup:
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So he invited you over to someone else's house, a celebrity no less... I am sure it was cool for those who got to visit but I'd bet Goldberg wasn't all that thrilled initially. True GG didn't have to invite you, in fact it wasn't his place to invite you. Sounds to me like he was trying to show off because he knew Goldberg. I am not trying to diminish the experience, I am sure it was awesome but just think about it a little; someone shows up at my place unannounced with a pile of people I don't know and I am definitely not a happy camper.
 
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I’ve talked to him many times and never had an issues with him. I had him decode two fender tags on my cars years ago before his wife passed away and while I waited months and months I finally got them. I know that I’m going to upset a lot of people on here but I’ve got nothing bad to say about him.
 
I know Galen, I’ve seen him at a few shows, and my brother knows him pretty well. That said, there are now others in the hobby with as much or more information than him, so let his reputation speak for itself, which it does. I would like to show him my car and see what he thinks, but I’m not following him around or calling him to do that. If I see him at a show and he sees my car, maybe we will cross paths on it, but I’m not hunting him out. I know everything I need to know about my car, I don’t think he could add much to that.
 
69_340_GTS said:
Not coming to his defense, however: When I bought my Dart it came with a very nicely done write-up by Govier, it's several pages, and it looks very professional. Of course this was all done 15+ years ago... so it sounds like things have changed.
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As I understand it, his wife was responsible for most of his business when he got it going strong. I think she was the dedicated one who took care of the day-to-day operations and maybe he just reviewed and signed these kind of things. They used to have a 2 or 3 week turnaround time. When she passed away quite awhile ago, it was pretty obvious because his customer service absolutely went to hell.

Another thing is he distains A bodies! Obviously doesn't think they are worth his time. He had a monthly column in one of the Mopar mags for a few years and NEVER wrote anything about the lowly A's. It was mostly Hemi this, Hemi that.

It cracks me up when people are selling or advertising their car and say it's only one of the 79 left in existence. NO, what it means is it's one of the 79 in his data base. There are many many more stashed away or not otherwise not reported to him. He used to accept data from owners for free to add to his files with nothing sent back in return unless paid for. So you send him your documentation, he puts it in his data base and then he charges you for a report on YOUR car.
 
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I had a good experience with him, before he got big & famous (and before Al Gore invented the Internet). It was 1986, and I think it was $10 to decode the VIN tag and build sheet on my '70 Swinger. He mailed back a nice summary of all the VIN tag/build sheet codes, but neglected to tell me the hood treatment. I called him on it, and he sent a revised version with the corrected hood treatment.
 
Galen Govier Is the biggest mopar scammer out there!
I would never put that fender tag with his name on it on my car. I would smash that tag. He has screwed over some many people.

 
I was at a Mopar show at Atlanta Dragway some years back and he approached me and told me that he told Rob from Mopar Collector’s Guide that he needed to take pictures of my car for an article in the magazine. Rob took the pictures but lost my contact information so an article was never published and oh by the way the car in question was an A-body.
 
I must say that I've had great experience with Galen. We've had great communication and he answers pretty quick even if it became longer after his wife passed. Re A- bodies and specially early A-bodies he does have some knowledge but not too much. Probably because the market hasn't been so strong so he has worked towards the B and E-bodies because it's more money there. But I think the A-bodies value has really increased over time, at least the last 40 years I've been into them.
The white books he released has helped me tremendusly and I think those books are spot on.
 
Galen was selling these at one time as a joke.

galen v - Copy (3)2020.jpg
 
Definitely would not pay $.01 for anything from him. I would make my own with my own name.
 
What service does he provide that people cannot do themselves with research?
 
Good probability that his wife did all the heavy lifting while he was the "face" of the business. He did not even come up with the idea, rather copied it from a lady named Lois Eminger. She was a Ford corporate employee who came up with the idea of providing owners of Ford products with the option breakdowns of their vehicles based on the V.I.N. and buck tags, or build sheets. She approached senior management about all of the files that were typically destroyed after a number of years and was told that if she wanted them, they were hers. She created a business of providing those reports to owners in the late 60s or early 70s that was later passed to Kevin Marti, and is now known as a "Marti Report".
 
Car Nut said:
Galen was selling these at one time as a joke.

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I was told that somebody else made these up and was getting sued by Govier over these tags. That it was a defamation lawsuit. Regardless, I honestly think they are funny as neither of these cars are numbers matching anything. They are empty shells being built the way we want them to be, not to some specification based off a fender tag and factory sloppiness.
 
I’ve had Mopars since before they were “all that”. Galens been a douche since day three, and that’s probably because the first two days were Monday and Tuesday.
He’s egotistical and arrogant, and only partially reliable to do what he says he will. The govier blessing on a car to me means the owner didn’t know any better than to deal with him.
 
moparmat2000 said:
I was told that somebody else made these up and was getting sued by Govier over these tags. That it was a defamation lawsuit. Regardless, I honestly think they are funny as neither of these cars are numbers matching anything. They are empty shells being built the way we want them to be, not to some specification based off a fender tag and factory sloppiness.
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Need a tag along the lines of

THE NUMBERS FOR THIS CAR MATCH THE ONES IN MY CHECKBOOK.
 
I have many stories about Galen. But this one takes the cake. A person I know and met a few times at that time, when he bought his 69 Dart GTS. He hired Galen to look at the Dart and evaluate it for him. He charged him 3800.00 for his service. No Galen report either just inspection. The Dart at that time was 35,000.00. Told my friend it was in awesome shape with just a few minor things wrong(like some trim had some waves). So he buys the car. It finally gets to his house, holy **** did Galen fu*k him. The car was only worth 15,000 at most. Long story story Galen new the guy selling the Dart and screw the person I knew. I can get into a lot more and show details but I will leave it at that. This was 10 years ago. I have many more like this. What ever you do with him pay buy credit card so when he screws you over you can do a charge back. Oh and it will happen.
 
davescuda said:
Galen Govier Is the biggest mopar scammer out there!
I would never put that fender tag with his name on it on my car. I would smash that tag. He has screwed over some many people.
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Yeah, that's the pot calling the kettle black. I had a conversation with you about the headers I got from you for my A-body and you assured me they would work with Power steering..... Yeah, you are one to trust also.... Puff puff-pass......

JW
 
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