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I recently had a good friend of mine come to me asking me to build him a bus.  He said he had some commissions that he needed to invest and he didn’t want to invest it in the stock market.  His goal was to find a place for his money to hedge against inflation.  Obviously I’m biased but what a brilliant idea.  Instead of getting more precious metals (he has quite a bit) he gets the tangible asset of a kombi plus the intangible asset of the enjoyment that comes from said investment.

If you had come to me before I started VW Bus Guy and said investing in a classic car would be a wise choice, I would have probably asked if it was medical or recreation that you were smoking.  But here’s the thing, it’s about supply and demand.  Brazilian buses have been arriving in a more steady trickle to both the US and Europe.  And while they are about half the cost or less, their values continue to steadily increase in correlation with their German counterparts.  My friend asked my honest opinion on if they would lose any value as time went on.  Of course anything can happen in the future and I don’t claim to be a financial expert but it doesn’t take a genius to take into account supply and demand.

Currently myself and my team are having no issues in finding great buses in Brazil.  BUT, the supply is not limited and the demand is red hot.  We are continuing to see values increase by double digit percent in annual growth of a kombi’s value.  I don’t see THAT continuing forever but as the supply dries up, even if the demand cools a tad, I do see the type of growth in value that you would see in a money market fund or another vehicle (pardon the pun) to hedge against inflation.  I’d much rather get some enjoyment out of my investment that just let it sit in a government bond.

Scott Mills

Owner of VW Bus Guy