Buggy inventor Bruce Meyers is dead (obituary)
To say that Bruce F. Meyers, born in Los Angeles in 1926, was versatile is certainly an understatement. He studied art and spent a lot of time at beach parties and surfing. He was also technically adept; after all, his father had worked as a mechanic at the Indy 500.
After the Second World War, which had brought his life to an almost premature end, he began to manufacture boats using the new material GRP. At some point, he came up with the idea of building a leisure vehicle using Beetle parts. However, the "Manx", as he called the kit, was expensive to produce and did not bring in any money.
Meyers went back to the drawing board and simplified his design. The second buggy was sold for USD 535 and still made him over USD 200 richer per model.
The buggy became a trendy vehicle and soon hundreds of buggy kits were being produced around the world, making it increasingly difficult to earn money.
Meyers was unable to reap the rewards of his development. Court cases over patent infringements came to nothing and more elaborate variants, which were more difficult to copy, sold significantly less than the original Manx. In 1971, the company went bankrupt, the remains were sold off and that was the end of the story for Meyers. At least for the next 25 years or so.
From the 1990s onwards, he was frequently seen in the press and even at well over 80 years of age, he still swung nimbly into his original buggy. But now that has come to an end. His intense life obviously didn't go badly for him, as he was 94 years old when he died at home in Valley Center, California, on February 19, 2021.
P.S. We published an extensive report on the Meyers Manx Buggy a few years ago.
