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Sun Oct 03, 2010 3:04 am

anyone know of or have seen this bus lately? I heard it went to France somewhere......I found it last year and saved it....just wondering what's become of it. it had a SO-23 camper kit in the back.

Sun Oct 03, 2010 8:41 am

yes in north of France and now for sale : http://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/132519403.htm?ca=6_s

Sun Oct 03, 2010 11:37 am

Interesting. They are still using the photos that were taken in my friend's garage in the Midwest, but the bus is in France, and it never had a title or other paperwork to make it importable. I wonder how that works?

Something is fishy.

Sun Oct 03, 2010 1:12 pm

Hello squirmyman,

i asked you last winter to import this bus in france too,
but i just had another title to make the shipping,
so the deal didn t succes....
and a few weeks ago i saw this ad on a french website,
i called the guy and he tall me that he bought to you a bug and this mango, with "good title" ..... strange,
today the bus is for sale, sure in france but many dollars more !!! damned...
Ben

Sun Oct 03, 2010 4:41 pm

somethings fishy in france

Sun Oct 03, 2010 4:52 pm

Beny happy camper wrote: Hello squirmyman,

i asked you last winter to import this bus in france too,
but i just had another title to make the shipping,
so the deal didn t succes....
and a few weeks ago i saw this ad on a french website,
i called the guy and he tall me that he bought to you a bug and this mango, with "good title" ..... strange,
today the bus is for sale, sure in france but many dollars more !!! damned...
Ben

Some of what you say is hard to decipher due to English not being your first language, but that's OK as I have absolutely no understanding of French.

The bus was sold within the US before it went to France. It was not purchased directly from the OP of this thread by the French owner. It went to the east coast of the US without paperwork. Not sure how that buyer could have procured a title, unless he used ITS or some such. The US buyer tried to get the seller to do extra work after the sale to get a title, even though it was clear before the sale that the bus did not have a title, and it likely never would, at least through the regular channels.

I would like to know if the bus is actually in France, or if it is still in the States and waiting for paperwork. Those pics in the ad should probably not have been used, since they do not belong to the French owner.

Mon Oct 04, 2010 12:36 am

I'll set the story straight here ;)

Good thing you're already sitting down as this could get long...

The bus was sold with a '56 oval all in one deal. The oval had a valid title, (which was lost by the shipping company on it's way to the east coast of the US.) I'll explain this later.....The bus left me with NO title, only a notarized bill of sale.

The guy that I was dealing with was only a front man for the person in France. They have worked a couple deals before, I guess......The level of expertise in this situation didn't show that they had done this before, but I've moved on now with many lessons learned.

I'll explain the title deal on the oval first.

I had bought the pair of vehicles from a local guy. He applied for a lost title and so therefore, the oval did have a good title before it shipped out. The title was sent with the driver of the transporter (lesson learned) DON'T DO THIS. SEND THEM CERTIFIED 1ST. CLASS MAIL. The title never showed up to the east coast where they had them sent. Something there was shady. Since I sold him a car with a title, I was then asked (Threatened) to go and get the guy I bought them from to apply for yet another lost title so I could then send it out to this dude on the east coast and make him happy. All that was done and everything turned out fine.

NOW, the bus....

It was sold with a bill of sale on my part. I never received paperwork with the bus when I got it, didn't really care. I probably could have found the original owner, since it was this dudes cousin that owned it, but it didn't really peak my best interests. East coast dude found out after he bought the bus and had it shipped out there that he could not ship across seas without a valid title. He then wanted me to go through all this bullshit to acquire a title for that thing even though it had already shipped. We went round and round for about 3 weeks on this subject. I told this dude that it had to be just as easy to get a title out there as it was in my state of ND. He then, after a good month or two, went and found out for himself that he could apply for a new title for the bus using the notarized bill of sale he had from me and got a title for it for like $25 bucks. This whole time he was bickering with me back and forth, whoever was paying for this whole transaction was paying for storage fees at either the port or some storage facility in Virginia I think it was. All in all, it was from what I hear, about a $4,000 deal getting the cars from my place to France. It was a mess, but I got paid in the end and I learned a few things too.

It's all good :)

I just like seeing things I owned at one time working their way around the world.......

anyone decifer what they are asking for it over there? is the oval for sale too?

Joel

Mon Oct 04, 2010 12:49 am

Beny happy camper wrote: Hello squirmyman,

i asked you last winter to import this bus in france too,
but i just had another title to make the shipping,
so the deal didn t succes....
and a few weeks ago i saw this ad on a french website,
i called the guy and he tall me that he bought to you a bug and this mango, with "good title" ..... strange,
today the bus is for sale, sure in france but many dollars more !!! damned...
Ben

hey Benny,
Sorry things never worked out. I didn't think that bus would ever make overseas myself......what makes that stuff so completely expensive over there? are there that few of buses in the area anymore? Let me know if you're still looking for something. I can keep my eye out.

Mon Oct 04, 2010 12:50 am

cdennisg wrote: [ Those pics in the ad should probably not have been used, since they do not belong to the French owner.

I emailed the ad and asked them to please take the pictures off the webpage and to use their own pictures. :)

Mon Oct 04, 2010 8:00 am

Thanks Joel. I was just relaying a shortened version, but yours is much more explanatory. I didn't know about the fact that the buyer was able to get a title in Virginia so easily (eventually).

Mon Oct 04, 2010 10:53 am

[quote="squirmyman"]

hey Benny,
Sorry things never worked out. I didn't think that bus would ever make overseas myself......what makes that stuff so completely expensive over there? are there that few of buses in the area anymore? Let me know if you're still looking for something. I can keep my eye out.[/quote]

Sure the deal not succes with you !
You know in France these days, Buy an "Euro" Bus in us , and bring it to France , it s a "duty to remember" ( it s a part of National memory !!!) :D
it s important to keep this model in france , it s a french joke...
I love westfalia models , and get a mango would be very nice ...

In France we ve got many vw buses but not many westfalias.

this story is always crazy ... :?

Mon Oct 04, 2010 3:30 pm

Ian wrote: somethings fishy in france

The soup.

Mon Oct 04, 2010 3:48 pm

cdennisg wrote: Thanks Joel. I was just relaying a shortened version, but yours is much more explanatory. I didn't know about the fact that the buyer was able to get a title in Virginia so easily (eventually).

yeah....it's relatively simple in a lot of states to do it, (not in Minnesota)

In North Dakota there is a formality of paperwork and inspections along with 1 small fee of like 40 bucks. cake.

I believe it was about the same in Virginia.

Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:03 am

This tread is so awesome, because I own the bus now...

The bus is in The Netherlands now.
I bought it for €5800 euro. There's a shitload of work to do to get this bus on the road again, but I'm determined to give this bus a second or third life...

In europe and especially The Netherlands pre60 busses (especially eurospec busses) are rare and wanted. Pre 60 cars only need one MOT to get it back on the road again. After this inspection, I'll never have to go back for a yearly MOT / inspection.

I bought the bus from a dutch guy, who bought it from the french guy. The dutch guy proberly owns the oval as well. He sold the bus to me to get some €€€€ for the resto of the oval (zwitter?).

I'll check the american papers to clear some things up about the 'no title' thing.

Can somebody tell me what's up with the red paint on the bus?

Wed Jul 11, 2012 2:28 pm

the red paint came from a crappy paint job the P.O. did on it. He told me that over the years as the bus sat there it kept getting greener and greener....sorta funny ;)