Interview: Malcolm Bricklin, The founder and CEO of Visionary Vehicles

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Malcolm Bricklin is the stereotypical great American entrepreneur, an impresario-huckster with more chutzpah than capital. He sits on a stylish black Le Corbusier chair in the open-plan office of his latest venture, Visionary Vehicles. Bricklin doesn't go for the functional factory-chic traditionally favored by automakers: Visionary's HQ is in the heart of hip TriBeCa, surrounded by some of Manhattan's trendiest restaurants. Relaxed yet energetic, Bricklin alternates between sips of morning coffee and peach-colored juice, overrevving with enthusiasm for his latest venture as son Jonathan films an ongoing documentary project that'll surely rival a Ken Burns epic for length.

What if this China thing doesn't work?

"I'll have to commit suicide."

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Bricklin delivers this line with the Cheshire-cat smirk of a man who's been to the brink and back more than once. A biography on his P.R. company's Web site glosses over the demise of his Handyman hardware chain in the early 1960s and the 1989 bankruptcy of his Yugo import operation. The 1975 collapse of the company manufacturing his eponymous gullwinged "safety" sports car (which presaged John Z. DeLorean's DMC12, though in plastic rather than stainless steel) is blamed on "an idea before its time."

The founder and CEO of Visionary Vehicles is convinced this is "The Deal," a joint venture with China's Chery Automobile Company that gets him in on the ground floor of what he believes will be the next Lexus. Yes, Lexus. Ah, but there's A Catch (and veteran Bricklin watchers will say there's always A Catch with Malcolm). He needs to raise $200 million before he can unlock the treasure chest. That's the price Chery president Yin Tongyao has put on Bricklin's buying into the company's manufacturing operation in Wuhu, China.

"My first impulse was, 'What, are you outta your mind?' Why would I want to invest in a factory? The only thing I can tell you about investing in a factory is that's where I lost most of my money in my life," he says in an oblique reference to his failed sports-car manufacturing venture in New Brunswick, Canada, which collapsed in 1975 owing almost $35 million, a lot of which, it must be said, came from dealers and Canadian taxpayers. "Building a car. I don't think I want to repeat that. I'm not a manufacturer. I'm an importer. I know how to sell cars. I know how to sell dealers. I don't know how to build cars. I don't want to know how to build cars. I'd be happy to bring in people to help you build a car, but why would I do that?"

But, says Bricklin, Chery's young president explained why, claiming the investment would net him the company's factories (which Yin says can build a quarter million cars) as well as five models to be built exclusively for the United States (worth $100 million per model for the design and engineering and tooling, says Yin). "He said, 'We're going to give that to you for $200 million,'" says Bricklin. "And I go, whoa, okay--I like that a lot."

Skeptics might say it sounds too good to be true. Same with Visionary Vehicles' schedule to import 250,000 cars in the first year to the U.S., beginning in 2007, with sales doubling in the second year and doubling again by the fourth year. Back of the envelope math suggests that's one million Cherys a year by 2010. To put that in perspective, Subaru, for which Bricklin bought the U.S. import rights in 1968 (and sold back to Fuji Heavy Industries in 1971) last year sold just under 187,000 vehicles here. Breathtaking doesn't even begin to describe Visionary's ambition. And it's the bait Bricklin's holding out to dealers who sign up to build one of Visionary Vehicles's elaborate $15 million "Auto Show" showrooms. Some 250 of these Saturn-style, no-haggle sales channels are planned.

"Of course, it's going to take more than four years," Bricklin says, when asked the obvious. But he promises to meet each sales goal at an annual rate--e.g., 250,000 per year on a monthly basis before the end of the first year. Chery also plans a U.S. factory when it's ready to sell two million cars here, equaling Toyota. What happens to the labor cost advantage? "I have no idea. How does Hyundai keep a cost advantage by building a factory here? My goal is to sell a million cars from China. Let the other generation figure out how to make money on the other million."

More obstacles delay the launch. General Motors has threatened legal action because, it says "Chery" is too much like "Chevy." Visionary is still kicking around names for the brand and for the individual models. They won't be badged "Bricklins," although hybrid models further off in the future may become "The Bricklin Collection."

The bigger obstacle, however, is that the cars still require work. "My first problem was that I hired Dennis Gore, who took a look and said, 'Okay, here they've got a 3.0-liter V-6 that's not big enough, I need a 3.6. And that V-8, that's okay, but I don't need a 4.0-liter, I need a 4.8. And that four-speed transmission, I need a six-speed.' That blew six or seven months right off the bat."

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Constant readers will note this stuff doesn't take six or seven months--it takes several years. Visionary Vehicles chief engineer and president of R&D Gore sits in on our talk, unmoved, even though he's familiar with such schedules having worked on U.S. manufacturing for Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi in the 1980s and 1990s. But things happen quickly in China. In this decade, it's transformed itself from a nation of bicycle riders to the third largest auto market in the world. It'll be number two before the decade is out. If Bricklin is concerned U.S. buyers might end up doing Chery's R&D after they've bought the cars, he doesn't show it.

"I brought the worst car in the world into this country, and I could only get 50,000 a year, and I sold 163,000 in the first three years, and, in some cases, dealers got $3000 over list," he says, recalling his early success with the Yugoslavian-built Yugo. "I know how to take something that's dramatically less than perfect, so coming in and seeing something that's perfect is easy to see. What I saw [in Wuhu] with an untrained eye was a beautiful facility with all the right equipment. What I saw," he says with a staccato emphasis on each word, "were happy people working on the line. What I saw were industrious people. Intelligent people. Hard-working people. You add that to low cost, you've got a combination. Low cost alone doesn't do it."

Bricklin says China wants more than trade dollars. It seeks the prestige of selling respected, quality cars to the world's premier markets. And Chery probably could figure out how to do it without Bricklin, but Bricklin's input into the U.S. lineup is important.

Let Malcolm tell you a story. It takes place in Turin, Italy, where Andrea Pininfarina and the mayor of Wuhu/Communist Party honcho/Chery founder--for some reason referred to by Bricklin simply as, The Founder--have a surprise to show. It's a concept for Chery's Mercedes S/BMW 7/Audi A8 fighter (most fledgling automakers would be happy to build a better Golf, but not the hyper-ambitious Chery, it seems), a front-drive, V-8-powered $35,000 sedan "in a horrible blue color."

"We have dinner. I turn to The Founder and say, 'Our job is to make sure you never embarrass yourself. And that piece of shit is going to make you embarrassed.' I know that's not the way to talk to a head of the Communist Party. He asks, 'What's wrong?' I say, 'First of all, it looks like a Lincoln. You've got to let Pininfarina design something you can be proud of. Number two, it's a V-8, front drive. It should be a V-8 rear drive, all-wheel drive. But your interior is terrific. '"

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Well, the interior looks a bit too shiny from the photo Bricklin shows, but, hey, he's on a roll. "You remember any [automakers] changing cupholders when they're told? This man just spent eight months paying somebody to do something that cost millions of dollars on his say-so, and his new partner in the United States is telling him it's a piece of shit. And he turns to Mr. Pininfarina and says, 'Do what you wanted to do,' and, 'the reason we made that mistake is that we're not qualified to make that decision.' My comment to him is, 'You just became the most powerful people in the car business. If you rectify a wrong decision before it becomes a wrong decision, you cannot fail, and my people will follow you to the ends of the earth. '"

Malcolm's people will follow him to the ends of the earth. That's what makes him an ingenious entrepreneur to some, a shameless snake-oil huckster to others. He's on the precipice between suffering another Yugonian failure and becoming one of the most powerful people in the car business himself.

"Building a car is a heady thing. The most fun I had in my life was building the Bricklin. The most money I ever lost in my life was building the Bricklin." He had to put all his money on one model. Chery will build him several models. "Now I don't know how that lucked into my life, but I can't imagine anything more exciting than finding a way to build four or five cars." Other than selling the idea, perhaps.

Pininfarina-designed convertible/coupeWhat is it: FWD compact coupe/convertible, 200-horsepower direct-injection DOHC turbo four, Webasto vario roof.Price: About $19,000.Target: Mercedes SLK at Honda Civic price.

CoupeWhat is it: FWD four-seat coupe with decent rear-seat space for adults, 3.6-liter V-6. Price: About $25,000.Target: Beat the Alfa Romeo Brera to the U.S.

SedanWhat is it: FWD or AWD midsize sedan, 3.6-liter V-6.Price: About $19,000.Target: Audi A4 for the price of a Camry I-4.

CrossoverWhat is it: FWD or AWD wagon/SUV/minivan crossover with very Asian styling, 3.6-liter V-6.Price: About $19,000.Target: Chrysler Pacifica style at Chevy Equinox price.

MiniVanWhat is it: FWD minivan, 3.6-liter V-6, seven-passenger with second row that rotates to face the third row.Price: About $19,000.Target: Meet or beat the best minivans' safety ratings.