Tiico, not looking good

[ftp2leta]

Anyone read that?

http://www.tiico.com/

Ben
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Working with rust, grease, dirt and dust is a sad truth.
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FI part for sale: http://www.benplace.com/parts_sale1.htm
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Subi conversion: http://www.benplace.com/vanaru_eng.htm
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/ftp2leta

[Raynor Shine]

what a drag. Those guys were very cool to deal with. glad to see them keep the committments through 4/2009. best of luck to them

[SteveVanB]

Whoh....???!!
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91 CARAT

[mightyart]

Sad, very sad.
I have never even considered a tiico conversion, but hate to see this happen to anybody.
I have a feeling we will see more like this....

[ftp2leta]

[kayakwesty]

Damn shame...with the economy the way it is ...I hate to see it...

I thought the AAZ was a great set-up

The TIICO can still live with a ABA and a Digifant swap for when the time comes.

DAMN shame though...we need every vendor we can get...we aren't driving Chevy's


The TIICO guys can still get support here

http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/search?keywords=tiico&x=41&y=20
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1984 Westy 2.0 Jetta ABA Motor/1.8 head converted to auto tranny, with 180,000 on body, 55K on engine and transmission

B.5.5 Passat Wagen with 30v V6-67000 Miles

DAS AUTO

CHANGE YOUR FUEL LINES!

A post without pictures is useless

http://www.kayakwesty.com

http://www.waldensridgewhitewater.com/

[Perales]

Anybody know what "personal tragedy" refers to?
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-- 1987 Westfalia automatic (Captain Vino)

[ChesterKV]

[Gauche1968]

It was only a matter of time. How long until some of the other vendors start to fail?
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1984 Vanagon GL
1984 Vanagon Westy

[Robw_z]

Dang! and I was just thinking I need to order some parts from them!

-Rob

[VanagOnly]

The TIICO guys can still get support here
http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/search?keywords=tiico&x=41&y=20[/quote]
For a while but the long term prospects look like the end for this option.Sad
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87 Wolfie
Past rides:72 Bus- RIP
72 Volvo 145 wagon-RIP
76 Jeep Wagoneer-RIP
67 Bug Dad's Daily-Project

[SyncroChrick]

I hope the same thing won't happen to Bostig.
Even with a great product, sometimes it may not be worth it financially.

[Ryan Alfonso]

I was an early adopter. Tons of easily won stock options in 2001 and no wisdom about financial planning and management... So, I bought myself a gray market motor for my camper, hoping like many of us, that THIS car, would indeed get me laid. Camaro's are for unimaginative budweiser drinkers.

Well, I've never been to business school or anything, but it kinda makes bad business sense to start a company around the support of an aging utility vehicle with zero aesthetic acclaim (a face only a mother could love) and a somewhat vilified reputation among former owners. The market size for these conversions is ever decreasing as they rot or crash out of existence. The resources of current owners doesn't suggest a large market potential. how many rich vanagon owners do you know? Look at the ones you see out in public. The vast majority are barely running and sorely neglected.

Compare this to what his obvious previous business intention was -- the maintenance and conservation of the BMW 2002 "Tii" = TiiCo. A mid-70s masterpiece and icon. Clearly the VW engine thing was an afterthought.

As a novice venture capitalist, I would never, not for love or money, have funded or undertaken this enterprise. It was doomed from the outset. All it had going for it was incredible exchange rates. I freely admit to being one of those pissy customers that probably drove him to that personal tragedy (mental institution perhaps).

Either way, I'm distraught over the loss of this resource and the years of chatting with an always delightful Peter Broemmelseik. I certainly hope he's ok.

The 'survivors" have started a "support group" which all are encouraged to join. It's a yahoo group which you can easily find. You may be put off by the tone of the posts since it's usually a ranting whiner-fest, but in reality, that's just the mood we're in when our vehicles fail us. The rest of us are there to help with spare parts, BTDTs, and tons of helpful explanations.

The group houses information on a lot of "upgrades" compensating for shortcomings, xls docs with parts lists, a cobbled together shop manual Peter created... yeah, basically we gutted his site along the way, stealing gems, and housing them in our yahoo group files. Damn good thing we did, eh?

TiiCo-heads look out for each other. We even welcome the Eurospec crowd and other I4 experimenters. The i4 can be an amazing transplant. Sure the kit had its faults (and fault codes), but it got us going down a path VW should have gone long ago.

So good luck to Mr. Broemmelseik in his subsequent adventures, where ever they may be. He did a good thing for a great many of us (this point is debatable tho').

Think about this. Since the company is "Tango Uniform", we are now free to rev 'em til they blow and start over with something else fun. Subaru H-6? TDI? Dunno, but I'm really looking forward to it = masochist.

Many happy motoring miles to all! Farvergnugen dudes!

"drive it like ya stole it"

-Ryan

[Crankey]

that guy screwed me out of $300. so.....I won' be missing him.

[foodeater]

[mightyart]

It's sad when someone goes out of business, but They kind of lose my sympathy when they screw people over at the end.

[ftp2leta]

[foodeater]

[WestyBob]

Tiico was a company with a product that was novel in its hey-day which was primarily in the '90's. Not much competition then and it offered a viable alternative to the stock rebuild.

Unfortunately it gradually failed to keep pace with emerging competition so without a long-term game plan it slowly began to decline - I suspected years ago it would eventually phase out. For those of you who are particularly enamored with the tiico, my sincerist sympathies - I have seen many companies who built 'widgets' I liked go under due to a variety of problems.

Customer care is a huge part of any engine/parts operation so any outfit that begins to get a reputation for occasional if not nearly total rip-off behavior is headed for a crash. I regularly deal with most vanagon parts vendors out there and only one has performed flawlessly. But most of the others have always made good on their mistakes so are still a thumbs-up for me. Oddly but happily the few that truly screwed me over are no longer in business.

In the PNW, regardless of one's preference, we are undeniably in the heyday of the subie conversion in terms of shear number of conversions already done or in-progress. In the future I'm sure there will be other emerging options to compete. This year alone we lost BostonBob and now apparently Tiico. In this downturn economy let's hope we don't lose any more.

[GWTWTLW]

Foodeater, if you paid with a credit card, you should be able to get a refund from the card company. You should be covered against paying for something you never received.
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89 Syncro Westy - GW 2.5, now with a double knob job
@gwtwtlw