West Coast Samba

I had inquired on a bus and found them to be very knowledgeable with high integrity. The buses are really quite beautiful and you can definitely tell they are taken care of very well. It actually surprised me how amazing it looked in person. I highly recommend them.

Rich is a seemingly nice and honest guy right up until you hand over the money you are paying for your supposed «mint, museum quality», «one owner», «garaged since 19xx», «never driven in the rain», «NEW motor», «NEW transmission,» (etc etc etc) VW.
If you know the ins and outs of VWs, are comfortable looking at the mechanics, then you might get a good looking bus from Rich. But if you plan on trusting him when he says the motor has been rebuilt, or transmission is new, or other such «guarantees», be ready when both your motor and transmission fail on the road trip Rich has just guaranteed that your VW is well ready for. Come to find out the transmission was from a wreck yard and the motor had never been rebuilt (according to the mechanic who physically removed each of these items from our bus). And when you call Rich, he basically blames you for driving too fast. Um, yes, I just bought a VW so I could drive it fast down the 101 and ruin the motor. He no longer stands by his guarantee of a new motor and transmission, stating he now was only taking the word of the previous owner. He offers no compensation or assistance. When you tell him he you will be taking him to small claims court for the price of these two items, he promptly removes the quote on his website which states they stand behind the mechanical work done on the buses. Specifically it said this, «All Volkswagens from West Coast Samba go through a detailed mechanical and cosmetic inspection prior to purchase. All repairs needed are made, the description and details are accurate and
honest.» (For reference, in its place it now currently states, «All vehicles offered by West Coast Samba are being sold as is, where is, with no warranty, expressed, written or implied. West Coast Samba is not responsible for the correct description, authenticity, or defects herein and makes no warranty in connection herewith. No allowance or set aside will be made on account of any incorrectness, imperfection or damage… » So basically now he is legally allowed to falsely advertise or screw you if he so wishes.) I also had the support of Everrett Barnes, owner of the Samba, who gave me access to Rich’s original ad, which stated his guarantee. Unfortunately I was too busy with my wedding that year to actually take him to court. And court is just a pain in the ass. Looking back, I wish I had, especially when I see that Rich has done this to others. Rich wouldn’t give me the names of any of his «satisfied» customers, but I did find a gal from Australia who made an ebay purchase of one of Rich’s buses. I spoke with her via email and she was excited to write a letter to the court about the bus she bought from Rich. She said it was a classic case of false advertising. She said it was so blatant to where there wasn’t even a radio installed, however he assured her there was one before purchase. She said the quality of the bus was not as he had assured her it would be. She was extremely upset about her purchase, and she said RIch refused to deal with her about any of it.
So in a nutshell, if you aren’t extremely knowledgable about VWs, the mechanics, etc. Do not trust Rich. And it would be great if you just avoided him altogether. Buying used items is hard enough, but when you know your buyer is less than honest or fair, I would go the other way. I am thankful to Unilocal to give me this opportunity to express my opinions and experiences about this business and it’s owner. It has been therapeutic. I hope that it might help others avoid a similar situation.

I bought a 73 bus in the spring. I have waited to post this so that I could get a good feel for the condition of the bus. I paid a premium, expecting this bus would be near perfect. It was close, but I did have to correct a few problems. The parking brake assembly was not installed correctly and was not functional. This was an easy fix, but something that should have been done before the car was delivered. After driving the bus through the summer, it seems to be holding up well. A mechanic who took an interest has inspected it and feels it is in decent shape. Shocks could use replacement. The clutch cable broke several weeks ago which again, was an easy fix. Overall, I am very happy with the purchase. I expect things to break given the fact the bus is over 40 years old. If you are thinking of purchasing, please remember that you are buying a very used car, not a new Toyota with a warranty. These cars always have, and will continue to have mechanical issues. The bus I purchased looks great, runs well, and has been a lot of fun for our family. It also received quite a bit of attention at a recent car show (Geneva Concours).

Mr. Monize commented on our review and we would like to comment on his response.
This is our last response to this site as we are pretty much through with Mr. Monize. We have been circumspect in our review and in this response as we are into telling the truth without exaggeration and without name calling. Let’s be clear: Mr. Monize knew that our plan with the bus was to drive it down the Oregon and California coast as a family vacation. We spoke to him repeatedly about this trip to get his assurances about the state of the mechanics of the van before we even bought the vehicle. We stick by our original Unilocal score and write up and we would give it zero stars if that was an option. In fact, the brake failure took place on the first day and the engine failure took place on the second day of our ownership. We were in small towns in Oregon. At that time, our focus was on the safety of our family and on getting the bus to a repair shop. We had the bus towed to the closest shop and there it sat for approximately 7 weeks waiting on parts. We incurred the expense of fixing the bus and having it shipped home to us since we completed our trip in a rental car. We never asked Mr. Monize for those expenses or the expenses of all the other repairs on the bus which were needed to bring it to a «fully restored» condition as he claimed it to be. He still owes us $ 5000.00 for the documented repairs for which we sent him receipts as soon as we assembled them upon the bus arriving in California. This was 3 months after we took possession, not 8 months as Mr. Monize claims. The bus was in repair for 2 of those months. We have the dated receipts for the repairs and the dated receipt of when we sent the written request to Mr. Monize. It’s unfortunate we were unable to move to Mr. Monize’s timeline but we do have a life and a family member with serious health issues. When Mr. Monize received our claim, he ignored us. That prompted us to contact the Better Business Bureau and to file an official complaint. In contrast to Mr. Monize’s claim, they did not close the case with his implication that he was exonerated. They closed the case because that is all they can do when the business refuses to cooperate or negotiate. The BBB referred us to the WA state attorney general to file a complaint. The WA state attorney general also did not find in Mr. Monize’s favor; instead, they referred us to registered WA state attorneys and courts for us to pursue our case. At this time, we are evaluating doing that but honestly we are just tired of it and we really don’t want to spend more resources to get a judgment against Mr. Monize only to then have to pursue him further in court for payment.
We did not make a warranty claim on Mr. Monize. Our claim is for «Treble Damages». This is a Washington state law established to protect consumers from deceptive business practices, especially in used cars. We find it interesting that now he is suggesting we should have called him to have the engine fixed because he had a warranty on the engine. Really? Then why did he sell us the bus in all caps «NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED», which by the way he never informed us of until he emailed us our payment receipt where he wrote it by hand.
Did you read in his response the part where he reached out to us, to understand what happened, to make sure our family was safe, to do what he could to make it right? Of course you didn’t because he didn’t and he won’t. At the end, isn’t that all you need to know about a business?
From our experience, Mr. Monize is honest and forthright as long as he is not speaking or writing.

I wanted a 1972 VW bus like the one my Uncle had when growing up. I wasn’t getting anywhere and found many VW Buses in poor condition. I came across West Coast Samba’s site. I contacted Rich and described him the bus I was looking for. He was able to locate one and had it shipped over. I am so happy that I can now share this with my family. We use it all the time for weekends to the coast and little league games. Thank again, we love our bus.