My Huge Automotive Dealership Opportunity Missed

Passport1

Passport1

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True story,

Way back in late 1969 I was a line mechanic at a VW dealer in a northern Chicago suburb. Had a friend named Arthur who was a casual car guy but a shrewd, hungry entrepreneur. He approached me with an offer to become a partner in his latest business venture. Needed $20K to purchase a new car line franchise, Mazda. It was an unknown Japanese brand coming to the US and they were building a dealer network. My buy in cost would be half, $10K. I was making $5000/ year and barely had bus fare. Before backing out he showed me their product line. The Cosmo, a rotary engined jewel. Just one car with a promise of more in the near future. Mazda became a nascent US import car company in April, 1970.

Lacking my support, Arthur scrapped the idea, moved to Mexico City and married a pretty señorita with business connections. We kept in touch from time-to-time. He made a fortune importing Japanese colored TVs and microwaves to Mexico.

Oh what shoulda/coulda have been.


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WE have 2 Mazda's and if I could have gotten one when I was younger, I probably would still have it and be driving it still. Ours are easy to repair and hold up amazingly.
 
Passport1 said:
True story,

Way back in late 1969 I was a line mechanic at a VW dealer in a northern Chicago suburb. Had a friend named Arthur who was a casual car guy but a shrewd, hungry entrepreneur. He approached me with an offer to become a partner in his latest business venture. Needed $20K to purchase a new car line franchise, Mazda. It was an unknown Japanese brand coming to the US and they were building a dealer network. My buy in cost would be half, $10K. I was making $5000/ year and barely had bus fare. Before backing out he showed me their product line. The Cosmo, a rotary engined jewel. Just one car with a promise of more in the near future. Mazda became a nascent US import car company in April, 1970.

Lacking my support, Arthur scrapped the idea, moved to Mexico City and married a pretty señorita with business connections. We kept in touch from time-to-time. He made a fortune importing Japanese colored TVs and microwaves to Mexico.

Oh what shoulda/coulda have been.


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If it makes you feel better we could take turns slapping you ???? 😁
 
My parents bought their first Japanese car, a 1989 323, from a combo VW-Mazda dealer. I've run into a bunch in my travels! It seems like VW didn't mind.
 
Same thing happened to my dad. 1980s. He worked for a large well known frozen food company that was bought by even a bigger one we all know. One of executives high up wanted to start a food/snack company. He offered my dad 50% of the stock. The guy was hell bent at competing with the company my dad worked at. Thought he is way overboard pushing starting this company, to much of a zealot for my dad . So he said No. 20 years later the guy sold the company for $900 million. And the other guy who he hire instead of my dad was still there I guess. Later I said to my dad, you do know those are the people you want in a start up. He had the drive to win and succeed, and he did. Just not with my dad. My dad would of like to do it , but he was never a guy that money drove him. If he had the money, he still would of bought another Chevy Impala with posi traction and an AM radio and crank door handles. And I would be guy on here with multiple cars with 500 to 1000 hp and a couple of track cars. With streetable road race setup WRC Hyundai i20 rally car. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
Mazda had a kind of rocky start through the 70’s - the rotary engines were fast, but had problems.
Mazda didn’t ‘get good’ until the 1977 GLC came out - they were everywhere in the early 80’s.
 
50 years ago the company we now know today as Nissan was preparing to launch their US dealer network. Import/export agreements were in place, business licenses being drawn up, first dealer arrangements were established. 6 months prior to launch, one of the meetings brought up the problem of naming, as the marketing studies had not concluded on an appropriate American name for the make. One of the partners said, “you realize we need a name still, we only have six months left before we’ve got to sell.” At the table, the manufacturers agent said, “oh! DatSoon?” “Yes. Datsun it is.”
 
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