Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg sues garage for alleged ‘shoddy’ Mercedes restoration after being promised a ‘work of art’
Bruce Springsteen drummer Max Weinberg claims a Florida garage promised him a “work of art” when restoring a 1957 Mercedes roadster — but instead left him with a rusty clunker, court papers show.
“Mighty Max” Weinberg, 72, said Investment Automotive Group Inc. of Boca Raton promised to give a 190SL would-be gem a desperately needed makeover and restore it to “pristine condition” — with owner Stuart Siegle pledging the finished car would be a “work of art,” according to the famed drummer’s Palm Beach County lawsuit, filed earlier this week.
So the long-time drummer of The Boss’s E Street Band signed a contract with the shop April 9, 2021, and paid it a $125,000 deposit in two checks with the understanding that when the restoration was complete, Weinberg would pony up another $100,000 for a total of $225,000 to buy the car, court papers claim.
But the percussionist — who formerly led the band on Conan O’Brien’s shows “Late Night” and “The Tonight Show” — soon sensed something might not be right and told Siegle he wanted to bring in an independent inspector while the work was being done, the lawsuit says.
Weinberg hired a Mercedes specialist who inspected the car May 13, 2021, taking photos of still-existing “defects” and finding the job was “shoddy” and “not being completed properly,” the filing alleges.
In fact, the inspector found a slew of issues including that there was still “excessive corrosion and rust” on the car and that there were “attempts to conceal” these problems, the suit claims.
The chassis number also had been “scratched out” on the engine block, and the inspector determined the body was actually from a year earlier, the lawsuit says.
There were mismatched added parts including wheels from 1962 and 1964 rather than 1957 and myriad other problems with the restoration, the court papers claim, while including photos of the alleged issues.
The inspector “concluded that any attempt at repair or restoration was shoddy, improper, and not to Mercedes’ specifications,” the suit says.
“I guess they figured he’s Max Weinberg, million-dollar drummer for Bruce Springsteen, Mighty Max. He can afford to lose $125,000,” Weinberg’s lawyer, Valentin Rodriguez, told The Associated Press.
Siegle “thought he could pull the wool over the eyes of someone who is pretty well-known and wealthy, but Max wasn’t just going to sit down and take it,” Rodriguez said.
Weinberg and his lawyer informed Siegle on July 21, 2021, that they were canceling the deal and demanding the drummer’s $125,000 back, the suit says. But to date, they still haven’t seen the money, the court documents allege.
A law-enforcement probe eventually found that Siegel did not use all of the money for the restoration project but rather transferred at least some of the dough to a personal account and then to another family member — who used the money to buy a car, the suit claims.
No criminal charges have been filed against the defendants in the case. But a detective recommended that another family member, Arthur Siegle, be charged with grand theft in the situation, the lawsuit says.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office said the case is under review.
The vehicle was eventually sold to someone else through an auction website Dec. 22, 2022, according to the court papers.
Weinberg is now suing the company, Siegle and Siegle’s family members for a total of $375,000.
Rodriguez said Weinberg is not an expert on vintage cars but has just always wanted to own one.
A lawyer for the defendants did not immediately return a Post request for comment Friday.
With Post wires
