For Sale: Van With Good Karma
A 23-year-old man in Ventura is getting an overwhelming response after putting his restored Volkswagen Bus up for sale on eBay. But it’s not just the bus that is getting people’s attention. Cody Parsons is also passing along his story about how the vintage vehicle has changed his life in the hopes to inspire others to live with less.
“My bus? She’s a 1969 Volkswagen Bus, fully-restored. This thing is a beautiful piece of machinery,” Parsons said.
After leaving Oregon to travel and live in a similar bus, he landed in Ventura and in need of a skilled mechanic.
“Cody was referred by a local place here in town that sells Volkswagen parts about fixing his current bus,” Endless Customz owner Rob Customz said.
“It wasn’t shortly after that, he said if I got another bus and brought it down he would show me everything on that bus to do,” said Parsons.
The 23-year-old returned to Oregon on a mission to find the right Volkswagen to bring back to California.
“It came on Day One looking like forty-years old, beat up and everything and rusty,” Parsons said.
“It was a lot of work. It was a huge project,” Customz said.
Nearly one year and thousands of dollars later, work on the van is complete and it’s turning heads both in Ventura and online.
“It’s amazing to see what you can do when you really put your mind to it,” said Parsons.
“To have it be at this point and be on eBay and be getting all these phone calls and response, it’s kind of unreal,” Customz said.
The van, lovingly referred to as “Susie Q” has gotten so much attention that it’s been moved to the homepage of eBay. In spite of all the time and money that went into the project, Parsons says that he wants whoever buys his bus to appreciate his story and how the car has changed his life.
“Everything from sustainable living and teaching the art of interacting with people, that’s valuable knowledge,” Parsons said.
More than anything, Parsons says that he’s grateful for the experience and excited to see where his bus ends up.
“To everybody that I’ve met on this journey who has helped me, thank you so much for making this possible.”
As of Saturday evening, Parson’s coastal cruiser had gotten more than seven-thousand page views on eBay. Even with five days left in the online auction and bids already approaching $20-thousand, Parsons says his lifestyle isn’t going to change much when it sells.
For more information, visit eBay, and Endless Customz.
