Malcolm Bricklin is deeply regretting his plan to import Chinese Chery cars to the U.S. Automotive News (sub) reports that the man who brought Subaru to America is suing his erstwhile Chinese colleagues for corrupt practices. This after losing $26m (of someone's money) trying to bring Cherys to the US. The suit alleges Chery has "systematically broken contractual obligations, stolen plans for vehicles, made cars designed by Western companies without paying for their rights, and made deals without the slightest intention of carrying them out." In other words, business as usual. Bricklin once described his partnership with Chery in glowing terms: "I have never met a more cooperative, more intelligent, more aggressive group to do business with. We're working together as if we've been working together for 100 years." And now… "We're going to get them for everything they've done." Bricklin reckons Chery is legally vulnerable in the states; an American designer has successfully sued his overseas imitators. No matter how this shakes out, it's good news Chrysler's plan to import Cherys into the US.
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Too bad this isn’t their first American lawsuit; I guess he won’t be popping their legal Chery! Thank you, I’ll be here all night!
Bricklin is behaving like a babe in the woods. The Chinese have never been concerned about intellectual property rights. Why does he think he is so special.
On the other hand, he may have given the D3 a chance to block imports of Chery vehicles into North America and Europe. If they can show that Chery built the vehicles with stolen industrial designs or processes, then they can go to court to block their import.
A couple of years ago Bricklin was soliciting money from wannabe dealers, and got a few to bite. I was never clear if they fronted him the money or just agreed to hand it over if and when he did whatever or just wanted some publicity for themselves. He had a web site with videos of him spouting off about how lucky he was to be involved with the Chinese people he had hooked up along with some bios of his executive team. So I wonder if anyone actually gave him some money and whether he claims to have paid any to his Chinese friends. They all deserve each other.
Got swindled by a Chinese business? You were expecting…?
crackers:
“If they can show that Chery built the vehicles with stolen industrial designs or processes, then they can go to court to block their import.”
Can, yes. Will, no.
GM famously went through this when the Daewoo Matiz they were having made in China showed up as a rival’s Geely brand minicar, with only the slightest facelift.
GM objected, and of course GM could have put their foot down, insisted that their rights be respected, but then China would tell GM not to let the screen door hit their corporate bottom on their way out of the country, too.
(China is said to stipulate that all partnerships like this require upfront sharing all blueprints, processes, etc.)
i’ve sold lots of china made generators at import tool stands that are “honda” designed.. i’m sure rights were paid though. This isn’t something new sadly.. but the public would rather save money than their countries long term competiviness.
Many years ago, when doing business with China was a novelty, I was a junior manager assigned to a project in which our company had sold equipment to a factory in Shanghai. Negotiating the contract was a far more time consuming project than it had been with any of our other customers, be they European, North American or Asian.
The kicker was that when it came time to deliver on the contract and various small issues came up we were told: In China we consider the contract only a starting point for further negotiations. Interesting it was, not doing it again I am.
“I am shocked, shocked to find corruption in China.” Here are your winnings, sir. I am certain that none of that $26 million is actually his money. IF he lost anything, it was something nebulous like future profits.
hmmm, corrupt business practices? They stole that from us too!
So, a shyster like Bricklin claims he’s been shysted by the Chinese. How ironic.
The pot calling the kettle black……..
Every company that Bricklin has been involved in has gone belly up leaving the investors (never Bricklin himself) to absorb the losses. You can be sure that wasn’t *his* 26m that was lost…
Quarter of a century ago he unleashed Yugo on the US. 6 years ago he tried to bring in a new generation of Yugo under its real name of “Zastava”. That didn’t work out. In the meantime there was Fiat/Bertone. Now he is trying to unleash a new wave of &%*# and is furious that someone is even more unscrupulous than he is. My heart bleeds.
Here there be dragons.
Doing business in China means accepting a level of corruption seen in few other places. I’m not surprised he is losing money, foreigners are pretty much fair game for whatever over there. Compare with Taiwan or Singapore which are culturally Chinese but easy to do business in.
I’m shocked! Shocked!, I tell you, shocked!
Rix Says: “Doing business in China means accepting a level of corruption seen in few other places.”I don’t know. That other former bastion of communism, Russia, would seem to rival the worst corruption anywhere in the world, and I would imagine it is every bit as structured, organized, and government-sponsored as the Chinese. There is virtually no aspect of Russian life that has not been infiltrated by the Russian Mafia (referred to as blatnoy, i.e., the Russian word for ‘connected’).
Nice to know that the USA suffers at the hands of the Chinese just like the rest of the world. Oh for the old days when a Warship up the Yangste was all that was needed to bring the chinese to their knees!