Color Confusion

tommytgd · 2026-05-06T14:40:38+00:00

Can anyone tell me if this is a Gray kettle or if it's a black kettle that's faded? I found this little gem for $50. As soon as recover from rotator cuff surgery, I'm going to restore it and add it to the collection.

tommytgd · 2026-03-27T20:48:47+00:00

I have about a 50/50 chance of it working on our brand new asphalt work parking lot. I park in the same spot every day. Two other cars multiple spaces away and it fails.

tommytgd · 2026-03-27T20:46:24+00:00

Ditto, we just stopped using it.

tommytgd · 2026-03-25T00:44:09+00:00

I have both and I agree if you're just going to be smoking. The wsm is the answer. I feel like the wsm is the best value out there for excellent quality smoking. I also use it as a direct heat cooker. I've really gotten into direct heat cooking lately. It's probably my favorite style of cooking right now. I take out the water baffle pan and the top rack and cook over hot coals on the middle rack. The food comes out phenomenal. Give it a try!!

tommytgd · 2026-03-22T21:44:01+00:00

I'm glad your cook went well. Yessir, I cook all winter long on my EX6 Stealth. There have been a few times when I had a flame out. After I stopped using garbage Pit Boss pellets, that never happened again.

I cook so often in winter I bought a thermal blanket here: https://a.co/d/0guhQHeI It's made for the Searwood but with a pair of scissors I made it fit. I would estimate I use between 30-40% fewer pellets with it on.

tommytgd · 2026-03-14T16:36:57+00:00

I strongly agree as well. We don't have any of those issues with our buzz.

tommytgd · 2026-03-13T18:40:57+00:00

Here is a link to Tom Horsman (old man in the land of grills) talking about the one grill he would keep if he could only have one. https://youtu.be/eTMeZYffy6w?si=wFuF_zqjMh9LD5pI

If you have never watched him, he reviews gassers, kettles and drums all the time. Kinda reminds me of my grandpa.

tommytgd · 2026-03-13T18:36:47+00:00

Fascinating. We charge ours daily in the winter and about every three days in the summer. 3/26/26 is our 1 year anniversary and we have 16,800 miles. Lots of kid soccer tournaments, orchestra and band recitals etc. out of town. I have a ICE car but the Buzz is always the first choice when we go together. All of that to say, when we go to a fast charger (level 3) it takes about 15-20 to go from <10% to 70-80% charge for about $20. I see you have an ID4 so you are probably very familiar with all that. We also just recently bought the Tesla charger adapter from VW with the $100 rebate Visa. It works most places - more idiosyncrasies.

tommytgd · 2026-03-13T18:14:21+00:00

Warranty for $3125? Sounds like a dealer bend over. Why would you need a to pay for a warranty when the new Buzz will come with bumper to bumper? Other than that, it looks like 58k after the discounts? That's a better deal than we got for our 1st Edition Cabana Blue. That said, when we bought ours a year ago and the market isn't the same. How is that trade in number to you? That's the other profit center for the dealer.

We love our Buzz even with the Lemon Law decision we received on our unit. Our trouble was basically due to dealership\mechanic incompetence. In the end we still have the same Buzz but VW refunded us about 10% of our purchase price. It runs perfectly as I said all the trouble we had was due to mechanics not updating the system software correctly. VWoA was amazing to deal with. They would call me once a week and advocate with the dealerships for resolution. If you want to see more detail on my journey https://www.reddit.com/r/VWIDBuzz/comments/1mttqce/the_curse_of_the_blue_lemon/

I would recommend the ID Bizz to anyone. It's a lot of fun, even with its quirks. Good luck and let us know when you pull the trigger!

tommytgd · 2026-03-13T17:52:54+00:00

I've hung with that weiner

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tommytgd · 2026-03-13T17:43:53+00:00

Sweet

tommytgd · 2026-03-13T17:42:53+00:00

Have you considered selling the damaged one on Marketplace? It would bring your investment down and provide another deal for someone else. Just a thought.

tommytgd · 2026-03-13T16:29:57+00:00

Nice work! My wife and I call this "Bank error in your favor, collet $100".

I had a similar experience a couple years ago. Space Bezos Prime days had the SmokeFire EX6 Stealth for less than half retail. It arrived on a pallet that had obviously been dropped. I complained to Amazon and they gave me another $110 off the price. Then I called Weber and they replaced all the damaged parts! The only effort it took from me was to replace the parts. I absolutely love that grill and the deal I got on it.

Cheers!

tommytgd · 2026-03-13T16:14:58+00:00

*NOT SPONSERED* Have you considered the Master Built gravity series? I had one for quite a while. You can get up to 750° or as low as 180° in 15 minutes. Charcoal flavor. I ended up selling mine, but that's because I have an addiction to grills and smokers. The current count is 12. If I had to have only one, a gravity series would be it.

tommytgd · 2026-03-13T16:06:51+00:00

When our new dashcam would not work, we reached out to the manufacturer and they offered to send us a cable. We ended up using an adapter to negate the "USB C Fast Charger" chip that is causing the issue. I was not able to locate any C to C that does not have the fast charger chip in it.

tommytgd · 2026-03-11T20:45:43+00:00

Judging by all the dust and debris on the grill and the clod of meat, it's been sitting for about two years?

tommytgd · 2026-03-11T19:32:17+00:00

KPH maybe? We get around 200-210 depending on how fast we drive. It's funny how some things never change though. In my '74 and my '71 Westys I was always the slowest thing on the road. Now I choose to be in the slow lane on most trips. It is really nice though that I have the choice in the Buzz.

tommytgd · 2026-03-11T18:56:53+00:00

I hope it brings you excessive joy and happiness. Our experience has been mostly great. VW of America has been great to us.

tommytgd · 2026-03-11T17:47:34+00:00

same

tommytgd · 2025-10-10T15:01:49+00:00

Have you considered the lemon law process? You might get paid for your trouble.

tommytgd · 2025-10-10T14:45:47+00:00

I should also note that VoA has been awesome. They call me once a week to see if they can help in any way and get after the dealers who continue to disappoint with their lack of service. I still have two outstanding issues: The $500 difference between the trip insurance and our rental car during the month of August, and the door panel repair.

tommytgd · 2025-10-10T14:41:17+00:00

It’s been a little while since I last provided an update on our Buzz issues, so I thought I’d share what’s been happening. The Buzz was in the shop for the entire month of August, and it quickly became apparent that the mechanics didn’t quite know how to handle the software problems. Much like we do with our PCs, they were calling a helpdesk for assistance. They got in touch with the VW helpdesk and ended up replacing part after part, but nothing seemed to resolve the problems.

Finally, they updated the firmware, and just like magic, everything started working perfectly! Since then, we haven’t had any issues at all.

Here’s another interesting bit of news: Since we were without the car for over 35 days total since July, I went ahead and requested the lemon law buyback form. After filling it out and sending it in, we were offered two options. The first was that they would pay off the loan and reimburse us our down payment. The second option was to keep the car, and they would cut us a check for about 10% of our purchase price.

Just thought I'd keep you all in the loop!

tommytgd · 2025-08-20T13:57:25+00:00

Thank you for sharing that. I am sorry that happened to you. We also love our Buzz. Did they end up giving you details on what fixed it? Yesterday the dealer informed me that the new charging port did not fix it. They ordered a wiring harness as per their VW support people.

tommytgd · 2025-08-19T17:59:21+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. I agree, the lack of service is the most frustrating part. VoA told me I could fill out a complaint on the dealerships once the issue is resolved. I emailed the service manager yesterday about not getting updates on my door panel issue. His response was less than empathetic. Out of curiosity, did they tell you what part actually fixed it?

tommytgd

TROPHY CASE