Aircooled VW South Africa

hey there guys, i'm new to the whole AC scene so forgive me if this has been discussed before...

what ever happened to Beetle Buddies? my dad used to own a liquor store nearby there when i was younger and remember the owner of beetle buddies coming round to get booze every now and then, always in a different and quite good looking bug... what ever happened to the business? whats the general opinion on the work they did?

I hope the liquor store did not contribute to what happened to beetle buddies?

lols me too...

BB went the same way as all businesses that offer a crap product coupled with a crap attitude.

slightly more details?

They are history and for good reason. Nuff said.

Too elaborate on Figs vague postings.... BB where a rip of, selling dodge repairs and vehicles. Word got out and they died a deserved death.

Their dubs weren't very well under the shiney paint and stuff

So Beetle buddies lost his buddies? lol

bugspray wrote:Too elaborate on Figs vague postings.... BB where a rip of, selling dodge repairs and vehicles. Word got out and they died a deserved death.

Their dubs weren't very well under the shiney paint and stuff

Don't know so much about that. They provided a service to many that was needed at the time. They put a lot of cars back on the road that would have others wise have been carrying baked beans or peeled italian tomatoes around about now. They weren't the best but they did provide a service to those who couldn't otherwise have had bug memories to pass on over the fire to their mates or families.

Think their business plan didn't move with the trends and thus had to move on.

fig wrote:BB went the same way as all businesses that offer a crap product coupled with a crap attitude.

I do agree with this though ! Seems to be the JHB trend

Klaus wrote:... They provided a service to many that was needed at the time. They put a lot of cars back on the road that would have others wise have been carrying baked beans or peeled italian tomatoes round about now. They weren't the best but they did provide a service to those who couldn't otherwise have had bug memories to pass on over the fire to their mates or families.

Think their business plan didn't move with the trends and thus had to move on.

This is all true. They were commercial renovators of Beetles. Their priority was cost reduction and not originality. They painted their cars bright fashionable colours as well as metallics and also two-tone. There are a lot of BB Beetles still on the road and still looking good.

BB's biggest problem was that every car they renovated was that much older and more abused, every Competition Motors engine they bought had been line bored one more time. If they'd moved on to Citi Slickers then maybe they'd still be around ...

so there cars werent essentially sh1t, just not full "restoraration jobs" and more of do enough for it to look good and run good? and trying too much cost cutting bit them in the bum?

Hi Guys - I haven't logged on to the forum for a while. Only read this post now. Unfortunately, beetle buddies DO still exist. They have a workshop just off Ontdekkers road in Roodepoort. The owner is Charl (his dad also works there), if that is the beetle buddies you are referring to.

Thank heavens I found out about Bruce from this forum, because I learnt the hard way not to use them ever again.

VW mom wrote:Hi Guys - I haven't logged on to the forum for a while. Only read this post now. Unfortunately, beetle buddies DO still exist. They have a workshop just off Ontdekkers road in Roodepoort. The owner is Charl (his dad also works there), if that is the beetle buddies you are referring to.

Thank heavens I found out about Bruce from this forum, because I learnt the hard way not to use them ever again.

LOL! The guys you are referring to I believe are Beetle Beauties. In my experience their work does not come close to Beetle Buddies' standards.