A Chery concept car -- a convertible created by the Italian firm Pininfarina, designer of the Ferrari -- won the top award at the Shanghai auto show in May. Bricklin intends to sell a version of that vehicle plus four other Chery models in the U.S. All are still in the earliest development stages.
Depending upon the size of the sales territory, Bricklin is asking each potential dealer to invest $2 million to $4 million for a Visionary Vehicles franchise -- an amount roughly equal to the going rate for Lexus or BMW, according to Gordon Page, a dealership broker in Tampa. The futuristic show rooms will cost another $10 million each, but Bricklin isn't requiring that these be built before the first cars are sold.
Bricklin says he already has tentative agreements with the 14 dealers he brought with him to tour China this past April and that he's still on track to line up 250 by the end of the year. "It's like a tipping scale," he says. "Once you crack the ice with the first few, it's all downhill from there."
But there certainly will be bumps in the road ahead. Keith Crain agrees with Bricklin that a lot of car dealers in America would love to get in on the next big industry avalanche. But he doubts Bricklin can turn his vision into a reality in anywhere close to the time frame he's staked out. "If you had an unlimited amount of money and resources, you might be able to build a car from the ground up in five years," he says. But both Chery and Bricklin are still a long way from assembling the critical mass required to enter the U.S. market in meaningful ways.
Meanwhile, General Motors has a pending lawsuit asserting that the design for Chery's current bestseller, the QQ, is a knockoff of the Chevy Spark. GM has also warned Bricklin in a letter that, as far as its lawyers are concerned, the Chery name is too close to its Chevy brand to be sold in the U.S.
GM has warned Bricklin in a letter that, as far as it is concerned, the Chery name is too close to Chevy.
Then there's David Shelburg -- the man who is likely to beat Bricklin in being the first to import Chinese-made cars to the U.S. In 1968, Shelburg read a press report about Bricklin's plan to bring Subarus into the U.S. Shelburg, who had worked at American Motors, hopped into his car and headed to the port in Newport Beach, Calif., to apply for a job. He was hired on the spot.
Today, some 40 years later, Shelburg, 75, has distribution agreements in hand from three Chinese automakers and the Department of Transportation is test-driving the four prototypes he parks in his garage in Scottsdale, Ariz. Shelburg himself commutes every day in a Chinese knockoff of a Lexus -- a far cry from the early model Subarus he helped Bricklin unload back in the 1960s. One of Shelburg's first tasks as a Subaru employee was to drive one of the newly imported 360s from Newport Beach to Los Angeles so that it could be featured at the Pan-Pacific Auto Show. The car never made it: Shelburg says about 10 miles into the journey, the 360's engine blew, flipping the car like a tin can and leaving him with a nasty head wound and a scar on his forehead that he still proudly points to today. "Believe it or not, working for Malcolm is still the most fun I've ever had in this business," he says. "Even though he's my competition, that man is all right by me."
Sidebar: How to be like Malcom
During a 50-year career in business (so far), Malcolm Bricklin has had highs and lows that are higher and lower than most. Example: He made a fortune importing Subarus and then blew most of it converting a rusting paint warehouse into a sports-car factory in Canada. Below are a few of his observations about what he's learned along the way.
On the importance of perseverance:
"Where would we be if Edison had stopped after 10,000 tries?"
On hiring:
"I love nepotism. My friends and family are smarter than most people and they certainly care more."
On leadership:
"As CEO, I don't have all the answers, just the questions."
On failure:
"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. What did I get for the biggest failure of my life? I got a stamp and a $20 coin in Canada with my car's likeness on them."
On dealing with international partners:
"I have gone out of my way not to learn other languages because I will inevitably say something incorrectly. Besides, listening to me is like listening to a fire hose. So I depend on an interpreter. If the person I'm speaking to isn't smiling, then I know the interpreter is saying the wrong thing."
On the right kind of savvy:
"Being smart can keep you from being wise. Logic is the biggest deterrent to awareness."
On the value of e-mail:
"If there are too many e-mails on my computer, I just turn it off. I had so many e-mails recently that I just got up and erased them all. If you want to be in touch with me, you'd better do it in person."
