Would you buy a used car from this man?

January 5, 2005 8:38 PM

Hardware stores + lawsuits + scooters + Subaru's = a gull-winged sports car, bankruptcy, and recriminations. Yugo's + electric bikes + a replacement Yugo = a movie and more money! Malcolm Bricklin may not run a business well but oy the chutzpah!
posted by arse_hat (8 comments total)

My highschool biology teacher drove a Bricklin... I don't think it's a very well designed car though, it had a lot of problems unfortunately. The Delorean on the other hand is a wonderful car (I owned one for a while)... Everything works as it should, the fit and finish is great, it drives nicely, still looks great, etc... my only complaint, and ultimately the reason I sold it, was that it's pretty underpowered.

Bricklins though? You get wet every time it rains and you're lucky if the doors don't droop.
posted by glider at 9:02 PM on January 5, 2005

my only complaint, and ultimately the reason I sold it, was that it's pretty underpowered.

as in, it didn't actually travel through time?
posted by blendor at 9:53 PM on January 5, 2005

Clever.
posted by NickDouglas at 10:14 PM on January 5, 2005

Geez I didn't know the same guy was responsible for bricklins and Yugos. Chutzpah indeed.

It unfortunate that between bricklin and DeLorean the market for gull wings has been so tarnished.
posted by Mitheral at 7:44 AM on January 6, 2005

Did anyone see the DeLorean documentary on BBC 4 last night? Think it was a repeat. Turns out the DeLorean was basically a modified Lotus Esprit, and that the first few hundred cars to arrive in the US had to be completely rebuild due to shoddy work by the then inexperienced workforce.
posted by kersplunk at 7:55 AM on January 6, 2005

Not that that is unusual. Most modern manufactures budget the first few hundred cars of a new platform for testing and eventual scrapping. Small car companies can't afford to do that of course.
posted by Mitheral at 9:11 AM on January 6, 2005

Bricklins were manufactured in my hometown, which is one of its claims to fame... which should tell you something.
posted by picea at 10:00 AM on January 6, 2005

Oh dear, this guy is now in business with Chery Automobiles of China? Now, that could become entertaining. You see, Chery's main claim to fame is that of being the most shameless copycat of the Chinese automobile industry (and that takes some). It first somehow got hold of the discarded production line of the first-generation SEAT Toledo (SEAT is a Spanish subsidiary of Volkswagen, and that car was based on the VW Golf) and started churning out copies for the Chinese market. Then it went on to sell an almost identical copy of the Daewoo Matiz/Chevrolet Spark called the Chery QQ. Neither Volkswagen nor GM are amused.
posted by Skeptic at 2:17 PM on January 6, 2005