The Legend of the VW Gooseneck Camper — A.K.A. El Chico

When I was 12 years old, I remember my dad being excited that he was able to commission a professional commercial for the recreational vehicle that his new company was about to release. At this point in his life (mid-30’s) he was already a veteran of the RV industry, and this was going to be the big idea that would give us a comfortable life.

He had no startup money for this, but he thought a good idea supported by a professional commercial could attract enough investment to make it work. I remember being in his rented space where they built this, but I only ever saw one or two people work on it, and I’m sure they were friends of my dad.

10 or 11 years ago, I came across an online link to his commercial, which I had long since forgotten about. I was amazed to see at the time that it had over 2 million hits.

This is not the original posting that I saw online in 2010, but I know this is a copy of the original commercial. This is Dad driving the car.

My dad’s name was Joe Bostian, and he was a brilliant big thinker. I don’t remember the name of his company, but I see the name on the side of the restored camper is El Chico, which I think is correct. The company didn’t survive long, and El Chico is a unicorn of sorts.

Anyone who knows the RV industry understands that companies come and go overnight, and dad went on to work at several more RV companies, eventually achieving a reasonable level of success in his career.

Dad left us all too soon at the age of 50. It will soon be 30 years since he passed away.

It fills my heart with joy to see how how this 45 year old idea still gets people excited. I have always felt that my 2 brothers and I inherited his creative spirit. Now that my own kids are grown, I see him in them too. I’m sure dad would be surprised and pleased about all of this as well.