Visionary Vehicles has run into another snag when it comes to bringing Chinese cars to the slavering American masses. Apparently, Bricklin and co. offered two hundred mil in seed money to Chery Automobile to get the ball rolling on development of an American-spec vehicle. Thus far, Visionary's been unable to raise the entire amount from investors and the Chery people are getting a tad anxious. Plus, thus far, Visionary only has one dealership publicly announced, and franchising was supposed to raise a large portion of the cash for the venture.
Beyond the monetary issues, Chery has stumbled upon safety and quality peccadilloes when it comes to American tastes and safety standards everything from exposed corners on dashes that would fail crash tests to crappy stereos and unorthodox color choices. However, while development for America is stopped in its tracks for now, European development is continuing forward, meaning that Chery may pop the Continent before it deflowers the New World.
Chery's U.S. plan stalls: Bricklin's Chinese partner wants cash — not promises [AutoWeek]
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Spy Photos: 2008 Chery Crossover [Internal]