Malcolm Bricklin

Malcolm N. Bricklin (born March 9, 1939) is an American businessman, widely known for an unorthodox career spanning more than six decades with numerous prominent failures and successes — primarily manufacturing or importing automobiles to the United States, ultimately starting over thirty companies throughout the course of his business career.

After franchising his father's hardware stores at age 19, Bricklin founded Subaru of America, Inc. in 1968, founded General Vehicles to manufacture the Bricklin SV-1 (1974–76), imported and marketed Fiat X1/9 and Fiat 124 Sport Spider (1982), imported and marketed under the name Yugo the Zastava Koral hatchback from the then-Yugoslavia (1985−92), manufactured and marketed an electric bicycle as the EV Warrior (1982), and contracted to import and distribute vehicles made by the Chinese company Chery (2004). In 2017, at age 78, he promoted a plan to transform high-end car dealers into high-end art dealers, after becoming interested in the business aspect of art.

Born March 9, 1939, in Philadelphia to Jewish parents,^{[citation needed]} Mr. Bricklin had one of his first jobs stretching hides in his family's furrier shop. He grew up in Orlando, Florida. Bricklin said that as a child, he never liked to eat; "stopping to eat meant I had to stop playing."

"The things that people see as failures are often the steps to success. I got my fame and power from the failure of the Bricklin."

Malcom Bricklin

At the height of his success, he owned a desert ranch in Scottsdale, Ariz., and a 5,000-acre home in the Colorado Rockies with an indoor shooting range, a riverfront swimming pool, helipad, and pet camel.

Bricklin has six sons. As of 2017, he has been divorced three times, and lives in Monroe, New York with his wife, artist Sania Teymeny.

Bricklin built his father's Orlando, Florida building supply business into a franchised chain at age 19. Named Handyman America and open seven days a week, Bricklin left behind his interest in 1960 after dozens of lawsuits and judgments stemming from the chain, — shortly before the chain's bankruptcy.

In the mid-1960s, after he sold his interest in Handyman, Bricklin moved back to Philadelphia. When he was exploring establishing a network of gas stations that would rent scooters, he went to Japan to meet with the manufacturer of the Rabbit scooter, Fuji Heavy Industries, to arrange for the purchase and importation of their scooters — at a time when Fuji was just getting out of manufacturing scooters and was concentrating on their automotive business.