Customer Reviews

Dune Buggy Handbook: The A-Z of VW-Based Buggies Since 1964 (Reference)

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This is the best (and only) guide I've seen to fiberglass buggies (Manx & knock offs.) The only regret I had was that my own buggy was not represented, even though it was mentioned several times with buggies that were 'sired' (copied) from it (the Balboa Lido). But overall it is a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Fiberglass buggies.

A good all round 'spotters guide'. Good to see a UK influence. Nice little historical/ film reference touches. A must for the Buggista.

James Hale hits a home run with this book. It is the first of my knowledge to ever attempt to organize and sort out all of the dune buggy makers. We have waited a long time in the VW hobby for the 'glass buggy to recieve recognition. You get to see everything from the original Meyers Manx buggies that started the fiberglass dune buggy revolution, to the hundreds of clones that were later spawned. Hale does a great job of mixing in facts and photos. This is also a pretty complete look at the rise and later fall of the buggy industry.

There were only a couple of things I didn't like about the book. First of all the organization of the different UK and US models was thrown together by alpha listing only. The problem here is a US buggy owner only gets confused while looking through the UK pictures while trying to track down his buggy. A seperate US UK directory would have kept things easier to follow.

Secondly, there are probably as many models that were left out of the book as ones that appear. I spoke with James after the book was finished. It was a shame the dune buggy archives website has twice as many US models Id'd. I was expecting Hale to have many models the archives website did not have. James had colaborated with many people to write this book and I congarulate him on it's success.

All together the book does have some excellent photography and alot of information on each buggy. It may not have every make ever made, but the ones it has are well presented. I guess it would after all be impossible to list everything about every buggy ever made, but wouldn't that be cool.