140 South st. STE #11 Walpole, MA 02081
Send us email to info at bostig.com.
In everything we do, we believe in supporting and educating our customers. We believe that the power in preparedness and self-sufficiency is more important than horsepower alone. We believe that true capability, quality, and simplicity are realized by intelligent, thoughtful, and comprehensive development. We're not VW, we're not Ford, we are Bostig.
Bostig Inc. is an automotive solutions company consisting of Jim, Brady, Nate, and Chad operating a 2250 sq. ft. "campus" in Walpole, MA. Bostig was founded on the philosophy of using relentless reflection and continuous improvement to create products of reliability, simplicity, and value. Bostig's mission is to provide the highest value, most reliable, most accessible, and most cost effective solutions available in the niche we are present in.
Our evolution and work speaks for itself with the voices of our customers.
A picture of our second shop location in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston. From the 1930's as Gus Auto Service, with a New Model T Tudor on the roof(all 2.9L and 20HP of it) to 2010 with a turbocharged 2.0L zetec vanagon(left) out front. This shop had a history intertwined with Ford 4 cylinder engines.
The first turnkey conversion, and the only OBDII(read recent) engine conversion system developed from top to tail by one company:
We started work on an engine conversion in the fall of 04 when Brady asked me which of the available engine conversions would be the best option to replace his recently departed boxer rebuild. I was running Bostig as a custom and repair shop since 02, doing mostly engine swaps, custom fabrication, power upgrades, and head work/porting/flowbenching for the performance market crowd.
None of the conversions available were really worth the money, nor were they up to speed with mainstream aftermarket in terms of something that would be considered of good practical value. This stemmed mostly from the simple fact that while part of the automotive aftermarket, the Vanagon community tended not to be primarily composed of gearheads and car guys; but travelers, eclectics, romantics, academics, scientists, utilitarians, and other rather "non-conventional" human beings. None of the extant solutions were good for 2004. They were ok, but Brady would have destroyed any one of them as he did his boxer rebuild, and would have ended up paying additional thousands all over again to keep his syncro on the road long term. He needed a conversion that would be totally "Brady-proof". Anyone that knows Brady well, knows that he doesn't just use what he has, he uses the **** out of it.
So I took two days to go over some options, and came back with one. "Let's put a zetec in there". Befitting the same principles as the intent of the vanagon itself(more from less, efficiency, utility, capability) and a little creative energy the path was set.
That winter, the prototype was born from a $200, 20k mile zetec engine bought in Brooklyn NY. Shortly thereafter, another one was started, this time for a paying customer. It was delivered in May of 05. Fast forward to present.
At just over 230 conversions, we're a long way from where we started, but still very much the same. The ideas, the refusal to compromise on certain principles even in the face of general market indifference, we are building around the strengths of our knowledge, our perseverance, our diligence, and our genuine love and concern for the interests of our customer base, community, and the general good.
Playing the role of upstart underdog in a micro-market where OEM automotive brand shopping is still understood as a relevant practice, and competitor development is stagnant, we stick to something said by Henry Ford. Said not as the creator of a brand, but as an innovator, he said "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they all would have said faster horses". We didn't want a faster horse either, our customers deserve and can have more. It is not just our responsibility to deliver what the customer wants, but also what is the best possible. As more and more people realize and understand what we are doing(and we get better at presenting it), and realize how fundamentally different we are from our competition both in ideology and capability, we think they will agree.
As far as philosophy, we are closer in ideology to the older VW (accessibility for all, high value and utility to many who could not otherwise have it at a reasonable price through use of technology, and innovation). In the last several decades VW shifted to driver "experience", aesthetics, and performance orientation as they try to stretch their brand away from its roots. Recently this became a move into mid-market, higher end, and luxury vehicles. They exploit nostalgia very well to retain loyalty, even though casual inspection shows marked difference(or is it indifference) in their engineering and manufacturing ideologies compared to the products they grew to scale with, and recent acquisitions support the move to try to increase badge value and move up-market. In the last year they have started to move back a little since the up-market shift is not working. This is subjective in it being good or bad, but in any case VW now and VW of the 60s and 70s are not the same people, nor the same company. Only the brand remains the same. For the unconvinced die-hard brand shoppers out there: Recognize that Ford has a legacy of astounding success with another little inline 4 they produced and installed in a car called the model T. and had over 15 million of them on the road long before ---- insert your favored brand here ----.