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George Soros said to be pouring $200M into Chery export venture


George Soros is said to be looking at investing $200M into Chinese automaker Chery to help its efforts in exporting low-cost vehicles to the United States. How this dovetails into Malcolm Bricklin's efforts to do the same with his Visionary Vehicles company is not yet clear; Bricklin is said to have confirmed the amount of the pending investment, but won't state the source of the money. Soros' fortune, earned mostly by currency speculation, is estimated at $7B, but we're not aware of any prior investment in automotive ventures.

Bricklin earlier this month stated that the stateside arrival of Chery vehicles will be postponed and ratcheted down his sales projections. Last month, executives from Chery are said to have met with representatives from Chrysler concerning the production of an inexpensive small car for the US market. It would appear that this saga has a few more twists and turns left in it before the first Chinese import lands in America.

1985 Redux? Soros Backs Cheap China Car Exporter

New York - Warning: Those haunted by images of bruisers and drunken rascals tipping over Yugos, brace yourselves.

George Soros is poised to give you flashbacks from 1985.

The billionaire financier is backing Malcolm Bricklin's vision of importing autos from China to the U.S.

The latter name might not spring immediately to mind, but his claim to fame will: Bricklin was instrumental in bringing the Yugo to the U.S. market. Made in now-defunct Yugoslavia--the rare Communist country outside the Kremlin's control--the car's standard base price was $3,990, making it the Reagan Era's cheapest ride.

Unfortunately, sometimes you get what you pay for. The lightweight Balkan number gave its owners endless trouble: barely-touched virgin models had engine, brake, transmission and electrical-system failures. And even a friendlier people's republic offered lousy international dealer service. In 1989, the export experiment ended: Yugo America went bankrupt.

But 1989, the year Beijing shocked the world with the slaughter in Tiananmen Square, was a long time ago. And with gasoline prices now at all-time highs, Bricklin and Soros figure Yanks are ready for another super-cheap import from the East.

Reportedly, Soros infused $200 million into escrow for Bricklin's Visionary Vehicles, backing the company's joint venture with China's Chery Automobile. Together, Visionary and its Asian counterpart will develop and manufacture autos for Western export.

Over the decades, Pacific Rim automakers have earned the world's respect, as Toyota Motor (nyse: TM - news - people ) took Ford Motor (nyse: F - news - people ) and General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) to task. And the South Korean new wave of Hyundai and Kia even showed Tokyo a few new tricks.

The Chery cars are slated to be made cheaply and undercut the pricing of all rivals, including thrifty Korean makes. Sounds good? Hey, it works for the bric-a-brac China supplies to Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ). But durables are another matter. And if, like the Yugo, Bricklin's brainchildren are too good to be true, the entrepreneur and his partner Soros may be smarting like it's 1989.