above: candid photo taken in May, 1998 of TecnoDesign's "showroom"
at 42443 Holden Rd., in a rural area of Hillsborough County, Florida.
The sign above the dumpster reads
TecnoDesign, (phone) 941-701-7900

(Dear Mr. Scott):
(Just on a hunch) I searched for locations of Mail Boxes Etc. in Santa Barbara, California, and found one with the SAME street address as that listed on the flyer (from JLGI dealer "European Auto Styling"). "Suite" numbers at a Mail Boxes Etc. location denote mail box numbers. The address on EAS's flyer address reads:

EAS Design (European Auto Styling)
1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 270
Santa Barbara, CA 93108

Mail Boxes Etc.
1187 Coast Village Road
Montecito, CA 93108-2737

Hope this helps,
Bruce N. Lee
Test Lead, Microsoft Corp.

kitcar.com readers, why am I not surprised? This isn't the first time we've nabbed an advertiser (in the kit car magazines) employing a Mail Boxes Etc. "suite" to disguise the fact that the address is merely a mail drop. Check out my similar revelation and consumer warning on Ck3 Design.

Curt Scott

Under the new moniker of "Diablo Express" (see Kit Car Illustrated magazine 6/97, page 81), JLGI invites you to "Visit our shop!" Sounds like a splendid idea, Mr..Lugus. So why don't you list a street address in your ads and your brochures, instead of "P.O. Box 20223, Barrie, Ontario"? What is your street address, Mr..Lugus? And the ad also invites you to "Call for references! Another splendid idea, although I requested references of Mr. Lugus way back in September of 1996, and have received nary a one just yet. Must've slipped Mr. Lugus' mind, what with all these business enterprises he's self-evidently running these days... you see, "Diablo Express" ranks as the TWELFTH company name we've counted for Mr. Jack Lugus' peripatetic scam enterprises (see the roster at the bottom of this page). One of our readers sent us an email message today, pointing out to us that this "Diablo Express" ad also provides what appears to be a Web page address for JLGI Incorporated; the URL listed in the ad reads <http://www.bconnex.net/-jlgi/>. Don't bother to attempt to call it up; the correct URL is <http://www.bconnex.net/~jlgi/>... notice the tilde instead of the (incorrect) hyphen near the end. When you call up that URL, you get a virtually blank page with no graphics or photos, and a bit of text that reads:

To: KitCarPublisher@KitCar.com
Subject: Jack Lugus does it again

I purchased a 355 kit from Just Spyders .Nov '96 . The so-called "complete" kit had no light package nor instruction on how to assemble the kit. Despite my many contacts with Mr Lugus and his many promises to me to send assembly videos, nothing arrived. I've talked with other enthusiasts in Virginia and Florida who purchased kits from Lugus and have experienced similar problems. I also paid $1850 for an interior kit from "Just Spyders." Despite his promises to return my money, I've never received it. I am pursuing litigation against Jack Lugus. Consumers be wary... (if you deal with him) you will be taken! .....Ed O'Leary, Massachusetts

"I am writing this letter regarding a product I purchased from Mr. Jack Lugus of JLGI, Inc., now located at P.O. Box 20223, Barrie, Ontario, Canada L4M 6E9 (previously located in Sarasota, Florida, USA)... I responded to an ad by Lucas Group Int'l for a Jeep Wrangler hard top in the August 1994 issue of Petersen's 4-Wheel Off Road (magazine). On 19 September 1994 I sent a money order for $1086.38 (US Dollars) for their hard top with sunroof, dome lights, rear defroster and tinted glass for my 1992 Jeep Wrangler. Both Mr. Lugus and his secretary indicated that I would receive this top within six to eight weeks.

"After many phone calls to LGI, letters to the Sarasota, Florida Better Business Council, the Florida State Attorney's office and the Sarasota Sheriff's Dept. who did an investigation of LGI, still no top. Mr. Lugus made repeated promises of 'just one more week.' When I demanded my money back by the end of 1995, he continued to put me off with promises of a refund plus payment of interest and my expenses.

"In March 1995, I received a BROKEN Jeep back window with no rear defroster, which I immediately sent back. Then a week later the shell of a top arrived with no sunroof or dome light. The top was of VERY poor quality workmanship (see photos above) and it did not even fit my Wrangler. I returned it to LGI and continued to demand my money back. Mr. Lugus kept promising me a refund.

"Finally in June, 1995 I received an abusive message on my (telephone) answering machine from Mr. Lugus, not only refusing to ever reimburse me, but (threatening also) to take me to court for cooperating with the authorities (which by then included the Federal Trade Commission) and 'lying' to them about what actually happened... (and) I arranged a mediation session with the 12th District Court in Sarasota County (Florida); on the scheduled date of 7 December 1995, Mr. Lugus failed to to appear. To date I have not received any refund from JLGI.

Enclosed are copies of my records, including all business transactions and mail correspondence with Lucas Group International, the Sarasota Better Business Council, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, the Florida State Attorney's Office, the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies."

Recently on this page I referred to an AutoWeek magazine feature story of 1987 which at the time reported that Petersen Publishing's Motor Trend Magazine's Car-of-the-Year .award was a routinely bought-and-paid-for .industry accolade. Since that (1987) incident is etched onto the public record, I'll stand by that reference. However, I received a cease-and-desist .letter from Petersen Publishing Company's legal counsel on Monday, 24 March 1997, that demands that I retract any suggestion that such alleged practices persist under (new) Petersen ownership. Okay, done. And since Petersen's missive painstakingly hints that the firm's new regime does not countenance such reprehensible publishing practices, I enthusiastically applaud the 'new' Petersen. Perhaps now, nary a decade too late, Petersen Publishing Company will join me, as Car and Driver .magazine did beginning with its June, 1995 issue, and as other automotive magazine publishers have done since (notably Challenge Publications' Street Machine .magazine, among others), in roundly exposing and condemning and expelling the reprobates of the replicar and hot rod industries, and promptly take steps to protect its readers, first and foremost by rejecting the advertising dollars of these villains. In light of this unexpected good news, you can expect to see Kit Car .and Hot Rod .and Rod & Custom and Motor Trend and other Petersen magazines lead the industry in taking substantive steps to investigate and report to you the nature of serious complaints they receive... to implement the appropriate measures to inform and protect you accordingly. You should expect and demand no less of any magazine publisher. American automobile magazine publishers in general have long manifested a hear-no-evil, see-no-evil, reader-welfare-be-damned posture towards their dishonest advertisers; typically the only way an unscrupulous advertiser would be ejected was if the predator got behind in paying his ad bill... that is to say, mountains of evidence of reader victimization have NEVER raised any measurable concern at all. This development by Petersen Publishing signals a distinct step in the direction of 'doing what's right.' Update October 1998, again in October 1999: Surprise, surprise! So far there's no evidence that any of this "New Petersen" has ever come to pass.

In December 1992 I proposed to Petersen Vice President John Dianna that the company designate a single "ombudsman," and that this internal "watchdog" be mandatorily provided with a copy of each and every reader complaint received by each of Petersen's magazine editors and executives, so that a central, global computer database could be developed and maintained of reader complaints about PPC advertisers; this individual would also be solely responsible for responding to reader complaints and taking appropriate action. Such a plan-of-action would provide the prompt identification of (and facilitate the determination of appropriate action to be taken against) problem advertisers, rather than permitting each reader complaint to disappear throughout the high-rise maze of Petersen Publishing's offices and corridors. And there should be no bean-counter rebuttals: with our extremely. limited staff resources here, we've still managed to maintain just such a database since 1984, and we've continuously employed it to protect our readers accordingly! I trust that the 'new' Petersen has recently or will soon implement a similar policy. It'd be still another example of 'doing what's right.' October 1999: we're still waiting for such an event to happen...

In any event, I applaud Petersen's new management philosophy, and will keep you posted on its implementation. Not only do you, the automotive enthusiast, gain from this development, but all of Petersen Publishing's honest advertisers will be grateful for the fact that perhaps the day will come that their good reputation must no longer be compromised (read: tainted) by association with these bad eggs. Power in numbers: if you're as delighted as I am with this belated-but-admirable turn of events, please take the time to let your feelings be known by dashing-off your personal words of gratitude to:

above: photos sent to us by Paul O'Bryan in Texas... another of Jack Lugus' unfortunate victims.

Looters' Group International:
the saga continues

1. Diablo Express
2. European Automotive Styling (aka "EAS")
3. Jack Lugus (his real name... perhaps)
4. Jack Lucas
5. Jack McGinn dba JLGI, Inc.
6. Jack Coleman dba Kit Liquidation Center
7. Lucas Group International (LGI)
8. JLGI, Inc.
9. JLGI Ontario 1993 Inc.
10. Lucas AutoDesign
11. Formula 1 Fiberglass Ltd.
12. Kit Liquidation Center
13. Just Spyders
14. Euro Sweden
15. TecnoDesign USA
16. Fiberglass Factory Outlet

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