Aircooled VW South Africa

Hey guys,

I'm new to the forums. I'm an ex-saffa from Maritzburg living in the UK. I read this post and decided to register and add my 2c.

I have an interesting story about these guys. This time, the name Tyl Hannemann popped up, along with the Mark James/Jones you guys have already heard about. I was looking at buying one of their vehicles (A blue splitty advertised a few months back) and thankfully, the VW community is quite a close one and managed to find someone who had dealings with them. All I can say is, AVOID at all costs. Seems to be a group of guys in partnership. I called about a couple vehicles they had and spoke the guy they call Mark (quite possibly Tyl). He explained that there are a few guys that all source vehicles and do work for each other. The blue splitty I was interested had been bought by someone else who had just paid the deposit. I received an email from Mark a few days later saying that they had not received the balance of the payment for the vehicle and it was for sale again. It made me wonder if they were taking peoples deposits from abroad and then reselling the vehicle to other people. I kept receiving emails of better offers for the few weeks after but had already been spooked by then and decided to give them a miss.

This is what I know about them so far from speaking to others who have had dealings with them:

Vehicles were quoted in rands, but just before payment when the rand weakened, the prices went up, even through the price in rand was already agreed. His pricing is targeted at the UK and AUZ market as stated previously in this thread. This is also why the pricing keeps changing, as they are obviously looking at the exchange rates and adjusting prices accordingly. When there is a sniff of interest in a vehicle, the prices go back up.

Almost zero communication with the buyer. In some cases, promised vehicles getting resold from right underneath the buyer, then having to source new vehicles which they then say will take another 6 - 8 months! No picture updates as promised. No actual proof of any vehicles being bought or repaired. Vast amounts of money being paid to them with little/no proof of anything actually happening. The one instance I heard about, they actually said they would NOT take any calls from their customer even after dropping the bombshell about all their vehicles being stolen/taken from them. Just crazy.

Vehicles not as described. Don't believe the hype in the description. The pictures don't paint the full picture and I would never purchase a vehicle from them without seeing it with my own eyes, which can be difficult for international buyers. I heard from another buyer in the UK that said their vehicle arrived not as described and what was sold as a "restored vehicle", was probably restored a good few years ago and needed quite a bit of work. 2 different customers, similar stories from both.

I think with the latest drop in value of the pound, he is going to suffer quite badly with the prices he is trying to get. The uncertainty post Britain leaving the EU will affect vintage car exports in SA which should mean cheaper prices for you guys as the demand drops. I'm not a buyer/reseller. I managed to find a '68 bay window while on holiday in the Drakensberg and am currently getting it restored to bring over to the UK. I've had my eyes open for a split screen double cab for a while and noticed that the prices have gone through the roof in the last few months. I recently found a 1967 T1 splitty in great condition over here in the UK for £17 500 so all these guys wanting 400/500k for busses in SA are going to have to adjust their expectations.

Take it easy,

Turk

Thanks for your post Turk. I think we've all been suspecting these guys are dodgy just from the way they go about advertising their wares and the lengths they go to avoid identifying themselves or their contact details, so you've confirmed our suspicions.

No worries Fig. I know they have priced most of the poor saffas out of the market with their vehicles, but thought it best to warn people anyways as there are few internationals who are members. The crazy thing is, everyone goes through hard times at some point or another and if they were just better at communicating this with their customers, people would be more understanding. I think greed has just got the better of them though and all they are after is making a quick and easy buck.

Hi
Sorry if i read it wrong, but what did Tyl Hanneman do? Did he con you out of money?

As I read it, the problems are:

Failure to deliver on promises.
Delays caused by selling the proffered bus for a better offer from another client and then telling the original client he/she will have to wait until another bus is found.
Deliberate deception regarding vehicle condition.
Deliberate deception regarding delays.

I didn't see any accusation of overt scamming but I would say the reported treatment of the customer amounts to as much.

I've had direct dealings with Tyle Hanneman a while back, who bought a '72 Lowlight from me at a very good price after giving me a sob story about always dreaming of owning one, blah, blah. Then he was after another one of my kombi's for his 'father', but by then I'd been tipped off by Johan Britz, who buys and sells kombi's, that Tyle was in fact a reseller to the UK market. I started this thread because of the suspicious nature of these guys' business approach...No contact details, etc, etc. This recent info sheds some light on exactly how they conduct themselves, and it all makes sense now...If nothing else they seem to lie quite easily

My 2c worth - I sold a Baywindow project bus to Tyl about 2.5 years ago.
Nothing suspicious - only that he wants this for himself and his fiancée for travelling - Tyl and his dad came to collect and pay the bus.
Being in the motor industry - paperwork is quite easy for my to do/sort out.
After selling the project bus to Tyl, I did the paperwork for him into his own name.
A couple of weeks later, he sent me photos of the completed bus - which looked fair.
A week or to after this - he contacted me to register the bus into a company - Blue Sky Marketing - together with 2 other buses'paperwork as well - thus 3 buses to be registered and licensed in their name.
I asked him about this - and he said they made him an offer he couldn't resist for his (my old) bus - not that I care what he does, it was his now, and they also bought another 2 for them, and that these 3 buses are going to be used in Nandos' national ad campaign.....
About 2 weeks after this I saw my old bus advertised on Gumtree.....

I don't really know who or what he is - Tyl paid me the agreed price for the project bus, and I got paid for my services RE the papers I've done for him, but his stories does not add up - in Afrikaans we say: "sy oggend en aand praatjies is nie dieselfde nie"......

Hi Nico,

At this stage, as far as I am aware, a substantial amount was paid for the purchase of some vehicles as a deposit and to fund some of the restoration and nothing has been delivered. After their vehicles disappeared/were stolen/what ever other story they could come up with, the buyers asked for a refund which was refused. Imagine you buy some vehicles from someone abroad and then get told that firstly, your vehicles have been taken, and secondly you can't have your money back and that your only option is to wait until they can supply you with something without any given time frame? Even worse, they refuse all phone calls from you. Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence does it. As it stands, technically he hasn't conned anyone... yet.

The thing that put me off them was the fact that they refused to accept phone calls. I had the money lined up and was considering buying 2 of their vehicles (a splitty and a double cab - around R600k's worth. I just couldn't take the chance with people who refused to pick the phone up if there were any issues.

The problem with lying to people all the time is that word spreads and people stop believing you, even if what you are saying is the truth. I've already heard from someone else who has had dealings with them and been to his/their property in Cape Town and have their address. Not surprised at all hearing about their lies when buying vehicles from people. Have heard this from others as well.

Has anyone noticed recently that all their ads have been removed?

TurkishZa wrote:Has anyone noticed recently that all their ads have been removed?

Yes, it seems they pulled them all this weekend. I wonder what's up?

So it's probably time to tally up all the info we have gleaned about these guys so far. I suspect a few people may need it before too long.

Despite most of their ads listing no phone numbers or sellers' names, we have managed to discover the following:

Names:
Mark Jones
Edward Jonker
Werner Kruger
Tyl Hanneman

Telephone numbers:
0618326599 (Werner Kruger)
0729144183 (Mark Jones)
0768751575

Physical addresses:
31 or 77 Webber Rd, Germiston
Marine Drive Tableview, Cape Town
Kempton Park
Cnr Albertina Sisulu (Market) and Von Wielligh, Central Johannesburg

websites and email addresses:
http://www.kombirevival.com (http://www.kombirevival.com/#!about-us/cq2e)
classicvw2015@gmail.com
classiccarsonlineza@gmail.com

All their gumtree ads were listed under "Gumtree User", but clicking on the "Show more ads from this seller", shows either Mark Jones or Edward Jonker were behind all their gumtree ads.

I wonder if our detective work here isn't what's behind their sudden disappearance from gumtree. They've posted their first ad since they pulled everything on the weekend. It's for the original 1969 deluxe microbus that started at R300k (no price listed in current ad). The seller now is listed as Classic Vehicle Broker; clicking on "More Ads from this Seller" takes you to a page with the same seller's name. I suspect they thought that advertising as "Gumtree User" gave them anonymity, not realising that clicking more from this seller gave the poster's name.

http://www.gumtree.co.za/a-cars-bakkies ... 0990730309

I think they're trying a new approach now...Pretending to be selling a personal vehicle. I responded to an advert for a Bay Westy last week with no price listed, and an Edward Jonker responded saying he wanted R 110 000 for it - he later dropped the price to R 100 000 but needed payment within a day, as he 'was going to buy a car for his wife' with the money....I told him no, and then read later that he told another forum member he'd sold it for R 50 000! I think these guys are actually either scamming people, or drink heavily, which would explain random price adjustments which make no sense, etc. I feel bad for people who have paid deposits upfront, and then got spun a tale, but what really annoys me is that that type of behaviour will impact negatively on everyone on these forums who ever wants to sell a classic kombi in the long run. I hope they are stopped in their tracks soon...

Now they're offering this 1969 kombi at the lowest price ever on any of their wares, R55k. But the shiny new paint should ring alarm bells, especially as "The engine starts up and turns, it just need service/tune up". Who will pay for a respray but can't be bothered to service and tune the engine?
http://www.gumtree.co.za/a-cars-bakkies ... 0990730309
As usual, not contact details, 31 Webber Rd Germiston

Probably held together with filler and painted to hide the work. For it to be for sale for less than 120k from the guys, it must be knackered.

Maybe they have used up all their takings and need cash urgently