Newspaper article on KIP closure from Brisbane's Sunday Mail

Brewmaster

Here is an article which came out in the Sunday Mail this morning o9 November 2008.

Collapse shatters Kombi dreams

[color=black]The baby-boomer dream of renovating an old kombi and hitting the road has come to a crashing halt for several international and Australian car enthusiasts.

More then a dozen owners who have spent up to $80,000 on makeovers of the iconic Volkswagen vans, have been caught in the collapse of a Gold Coast buisness that specialised in renovating kombis.

Kombis in Paradise owner Jonhhie Kupsch said he closed the doors of his Burleigh Heads buisness four weeks ago and plans to meet with receivers soon,after completing the paperwork for bankruptcy.

Mr Kupsch estimates he owes about seven people "somewhere in the region of $50,000 to $100,000".

Some renovation projects are well short of completion and several kombi owners have turned up to the buisness in recent days to see their vehicles stripped to the chassis.

Darrell Michael a 68 year old visiting American buisnessman, told The Sunday Mail "All I got back was the shell without the motor".

It doesnt have any electrics and windows.

"It will cost me another $22,000 to fix it"said the kombi fan who had hoped the coast buisness would turn the vehicle into his dream machine.

A Gold Coast buisnessman who asked not to be named, said he had paid $30,000 for a kombi restoration which was not completed by kombis in Paradise.

"I got the vehicle back a few weeks ago. There are no doors, no glass, no handles" he said
"I have a special-needs child who has a passion for kombis, thats why I did this"

Mr Kupsch said he had sold everything to put money back into the buisness but the orders for restorations of retorations dropped off.

"I know its left lots of people with sour tastes in their mouths and all that".

For that, I am sorry. But I cant do much about it" he said.

There was also a photograph of Darrell/2 Yanks standing next to his shell but it has not been posted on the Sunday Mail site yet.

Here is a news photo of Johnnie in his KC T-shirt from far happier days for KIP.

Here is a resto in progress showing one of the KIP workers....

Will be interesting to see what sort of replies the article will get as it has been posted on a few forums.

Archeress

I think this subject has run its race for those who are not directly affected Brett.

Archeress

Actually its a bit like the bali bombers faces...keep seeing them on the news pages etc and its damned tiring. Why cant we talk about me instead lol.

Gabbo's Run

heretic

[quote="Archeress"]I think this subject has run its race for those who are not directly affected Brett.[/quote][quote="Archeress"]

Actually ,it hasnt even started yet kell.
Im sure some people would wish it to go away so that their sins dont see the light of day,but the fact remains that a lot of fellow kombi owners have been ripped badly partly because information was not publicly available after previous episodes in this saga.
There is much more to come in due course.
Some badly affected lives.

Not the sort of thing that should be swept under the carpet and everyone put on smiles and pretend it didnt happen.

Dont like hyprocisy.

col

Piratekombi

I think the more these issues are detailed, the more informed potential restoration customers will be in future - the lessons to be learned are many and ongoing. There is no reason that this can't happen again, either to kombi owners and non-kombi owners - it is only by monitoring and publicising the "resolution" (or lack thereof) that others (esp newbies) can be informed and warned.

I personally think that Johnnie's response is completely inadequate - and the message inherent in his lack of contrition is important to note.

Just because an issue has been moved out-of-sight doesn't mean that there isn't important information for others to note. I am sure that this still has a long way to run - and there will be further revelations of interest to all kombi owners. In my opinion, a disaster of this magnitude (apparently hundreds of thousands of dollars "lost", and dozens of victims) cannot be merely slated to one person's ineptitude.

This saga should be of interest not only to kombi owners but for anyone with a classic vehicle they hope to restore.

Diddlie

As a very interested party, I want to hear how it all pans out for sure.

Brookie

Post from DSK from another one who lost $25,000 plus Kombi stripped

http://www.dsk.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8444