Time To Welcome Back Malcom Bricklin ?

There is a great piece by a Fredericton based business person Ruck Buckingham in today's Telegraph Journal on the re-emergence of Malcolm Bricklin with a Chinese automotive company bringing low cost cars to North America. It is a worthy read and a great idea to boot.

The piece is titled It's Time to Welcome Back Malcolm Bricklin and postulates a theory that Premier Lord and Prime Minister Harper should embrace this automotive industry developer one more time. His newest project is called Visionary Vehicles.

Here is what the columnist has to say in excerpt and you can read the complete article on why New Brunswick should welcome back Malcolm Bricklin. And I whole heartedly agree.

Entrepreneurs, as someone told me last week ( alright, it was David Campbell), appear to have a mutant gene that requires them to keep trying to overcome any defeat, right up until the last days of their life.

Malcolm Bricklin, now a less flamboyant character sans the cowboy boots and western hat with a giant feather fan that adorned his long haired 70's Fredericton look, is perhaps that kind of entrepreneur.

He is, as the photo here shows, now a stylish, officially a senior with white, close cropped hair and running hard like a man of half his age in this new quest to be the first to bring in a revolutionary product. Revolutionary for his timing, either as the fastest new avant-garde stylish, aero ( Bricklin) design, or the furtherest on a tank of petro fuel for the least amount of dinero. ( A dinero is a Free Trade induced virtual dollar in this case. )

He was a powerful presence, as he strode confidently down the marble hallways of the then Economic Development Department and left bureaucrats- some of whom are trying to retire now as ADM and DM's of current departments, - literally quaking in their loafers.

Talk about Banquo's Ghost.

He held then Premier Richard Hatfield enthralled with their shared notion that eastern Canada could have and even deserved a car plant. Now a limited release movie, and a source of humor-in-song along the St John Riverbanks where Woodstock radio personality and NB balladeer Charlie Russell still lives, the Bricklin still evokes a " what-if-we-could-have-pulled-it-off quality, even today.

Nostalgic car shows bring these collectors item cars out today and marvel at their current styling cues and with a world that is bringing back the pony car era, the Bricklin is, like the Tucker car before it, an oddity and quirk of entrepreneurial gamesmanship. Oh, and if you want the collector's item they have become, click here for a current Bricklin list price and availability of New Brunswick's only automotive company.

Yesterday, New Brunswick's muscle shirt car, now tomorrow's econo-car and sold for the price of a snowmobile.

More on this another day, but here is Ruck Buckingham's take today. It is doubtful he was even in school when willing women swanned and nervous politicians and their groupies in New Brunswick gleamed, when Malcom came to town. For a moment in time in the early 70's, we believed we could be Oshawa or even a Windsor, Ontario. A car town.

RUCK BUCKINGHAM "FROM THE HIP" Telegraph Journal Excerpt

Much has been written over the past 30 years regarding Malcolm Bricklin's attempt and then failure of the Bricklin automobile plant in Saint John.

At the time, it was reported that the New Brunswick government lost tens of millions of dollars with their direct investment by way of loan guarantees and other grants.What most people don't know is that after this failed venture Malcolm Bricklin went on to import Yugos very successfully in the United Stated.

Prior to the Bricklin, he imported Subarus from Japan in the 1960s. Maybe he was before his time while toiling in the automobile business here in New Brunswick?

Maybe that business model didn't work, but guess what?

The one he employed to importing Yugos and Subarus certainly did.Mr. Bricklin is back at it again. He is working with Chery Automobile Co., a state-owned enterprise that is one of China's fastest-growing automakers.

He plans to introduce into the United States a line of made-in-China sedans and sport utility vehicles priced at approximately $21,500 Canadian. They are designed to steal customers away from cars like Toyota's Camry and General Motor's Buick La Crosse. ( Complete article click here )

LocalintheKnow Blogger David Campbell in his It's The Economy Stupid, first highlighted this story of what Malcom Bricklin is up to next. And there's more.

Here's a 2005 Interview and strangely enough the vehicle that bore his name and $23 million plus of New Brunswick taxpayer's money is missing from mention as it is in his official biography. Shame

Malcom Bricklin's Vision - Visionary Vehicles

By Steve Purdy The AutoChannel Detroit Bureau 2005 For the Full article click here or read this short excerpt

THE GUY Taking his place among the movers and shakers of the world’s automotive industry is the charismatic Malcom Bricklin, whose newest project has the potential of accelerating the already blinding speed of change in the industry.

Speaking to the Detroit Society of Automotive Analysts this week, Bricklin charmed and fascinated the audience with a vision of revolution based on his plan to bring Chinese cars into the US. His new company is called Visionary Vehicles.

Because of a jaded business history Bricklin’s credibility requires a close examination. His remarkable business acumen was first evidenced when he left college to work in his family’s building supply business in Florida where he created a computerized inventory system. He turned that family business of three building supply stores into 174 franchised hardware stores in less than two years.

Looking for opportunities to provide new products to new markets, Bricklin sold his interest in the hardware stores and began importing and selling the Japanese-made Rabbit Scooter manufactured by Fuji Heavy Industries. The scooter was a hit. On one of his trips to Japan he discovered the unique, all-wheel-drive Subaru automobiles, another FHI product, and began importing them – another big success, though some claim that Subaru USA became a success only after Bricklin left the company.

Next, the energetic young entrepreneur decided to design and produce his own car – a “safety sports car” called SV-1 – with gull wing doors, built-in roll cage and even side air bags. This lovely two-seater was built in Canada and had the distinction of being used by police in Scottsdale, Arizona. Nearly three thousand units were built before the car went away in 1975. Not really a run-away success but certainly innovative.

When Fiat abandoned the US market, Bricklin kept two of the more sexy models in play for a few years by importing the Fiat Spider 2000, which became the “Pininfarina” and the phenomenally crisp-handling, mid-engine Fiat X-1/9, which became the “Bertone.”

Then, perhaps Bricklin’s best known automotive venture, was the importation of the poorly built East European Yugo. It was cheap. It was simple. And it lasted about as long as a sneeze. Within two years it was quipped that you could double the value of your Yugo . . . by filling the gas tank.

By the way, the 8-gallon gas tank was barely enough to get the stingy motorist from one gas station to the next in the west. I say that from experience, having driven a Yugo GVX in the fabled One Lap of America and nearly having to push on one stretch in eastern Utah. Bricklin reminded our co-publisher during an interview at the Detroit auto show that the Yugo was the only car in America never recalled. Perhaps they didn’t last long enough for the government to catch up with them.

During the intervening years the energetic Mr. Bricklin has been involved with electric vehicles, fuel cell technology and who knows what other ventures. Now, at a youthful age 66 he is just hitting his stride with this new venture. For the rest of this interview , click here