So you want to buy a VW bus (Kombi)? There’s an obvious benefit to buying a Brazilian bus over a German one which is money. Over the last decade the US Dollar went from less than 2 Brazilian Reals to over 5 Reals per Dollar. In other words, a bus that cost R$100,000 ten years ago equated to roughly $50,000. That same bus costs $19,557.70 at the current rate.
I started VW Bus Guy when the rate went to 3 to 1 as I knew I could provide a quality product with high demand at an affordable cost relative to what was available here in the US (we now ship globally). At 5 to 1, we as bus lovers now likely have a lot of built in equity with an asset that has only increased in value over the last 10 years. Heck, we have clients that buy buses primarily as a hedge against inflation! I’m no financial analyst so I apologize for getting too analytical but I wanted to explain first where things sit on the market side of things to illustrate why there is a lot of value.
The strong dollar and strong demand is one side of the equation. The other side is the strong supply of VW Kombis (VW Buses) in Brazil. You can read past articles of mine on my site to get more in depth but the biggest reason why there are so many split window buses in Brazil is due to the fact that they made them until 1975 at the VW factory just south of São Paulo. This supply is dwindling fast.
Since 2012 or so, the exporting of VW buses from Brazil has been a big industry in Brazil. When you ship buses out, the supply only decreases. We are already starting to feel the financial pressure of this as costs are gradually increasing. There are private investors that are buying up unrestored buses simply because they know the supply will dry up further each month and year. Simple supply and demand logic tells you that will only add to an upward pressure on the value of buses in the future.
I’m not going to tell you that there are no risks. In my opinion, investing in a VW bus is incredibly risky IF you simply buy a bus from someone that posts a bunch of buses for sale on IG or Facebook. Most of these people are direct exporters that charge private sellers a commission and then also add in a premium to sell it to you. I don’t have a problem with an entity doing this per se as long as they are providing value and working with their customers’ best interests with a degree of transparency. HOWEVER, the majority of the time this is not the case.
Most of the time, these exporters simply care about volume and how quickly they can sell buses. When it comes to quality, they look at it through a lens of “is this defect noticeable”. These vehicles were driven hard for 50 years and defects are plentiful. A normal restoration (unless you pay for a “nuts and bolts restoration) will make sure that the mechanical is sound, all metal is replaced where needed with body work where it’s not, new paint is put on, new interior is installed and any new features are added. There are a LOT of items that can be overlooked, ignored or intentionally covered up (bondo) in this process.
I LOVE Brazil. I lived there for a couple years and am still there 4-5 months out of the year. Brazilians are amazing, fun and clever folks. They’ll be the first to tell you that in Brazil, you are considered smart and clever if you can take advantage of someone in business even if you use unethical practices. This is a HUGE reason why Brazilian VW buses get a bad reputation. You just can’t trust the quality of the restoration done by someone who is incentivized to cut corners.
I have an amazing alliance with Brien Hamrick from USA Kombi Connection. We have combined our skills and supplier networks together to work as a team to project manage ALL of our builds. This helps our clients mitigate the risks and maximize the benefits that can be had from buying a Brazilian VW bus.
We have a limited amount of shops but we control the quality of our builds. We often don’t have any openings due to this limitation but we offer the value of peace of mind that you are working with an American based company that has quality control as a priority. We help you from procurement through the shipping process holding your hand the whole way.
If you’re interested in having us start a project for you, send me an email or give me a call and we can chat about the process and answer any questions you may have.
Scott Mills
Owner
VW Bus Guy
scott@vwbusguy.com
303.921.6065
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