Import Date of China Firm’s Cars Is Shifted

Imports of cars manufactured by China’s Chery Automobile Co. will probably begin at the end of 2007, the founder and president of importer Visionary Vehicles said, moving back the target date for a second time.

Malcolm Bricklin, best known for bringing the low-cost Yugo car to America in the 1980s, initially set a target of January 2007 for the first sales of the vehicles, expected to list for around $20,000, and later moved the date to the summer of 2007.

“Now the dealers are involved, and they’re going to tell us the things they want in the cars. The timeline will change only from the input of the people we say we want input from, which is the dealers,” Bricklin said at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

From Reuters

* Kirk Kerkorian’s top aide, Jerome York, will urge General Motors Corp. to halve its $1.1-billion annual dividend and speed up plans to end losses, a person familiar with the plan by GM’s third-largest shareholder said.

From Bloomberg News