"Someone once said, 'The greatest genius is perseverance,'" says ' Malcolm Bricklin over coffee at a greasy spoon in Manhattan. If that's true, Bricklin ranks somewhere ahead of Leibniz and Einstein. Despite a history of personal and corporate bankruptcies over the last 35 years that left a trail of furious investors and creditors, the guy just won't quit. "If you give up, that's when you're a failure," he says. Bricklin's latest scheme is to import what would be the cheapest car in America. The ZMW (for Zastava Motor Works, which is in Serbia) can be built, he says, for $3,000 and would list for $5,000 to $9,000, putting it in competition with Hyundai's Accent ($9,494) and Kia's Rio ($9,590). The name Zastava (Serbian for "banner" or "standard") should ring an ominous bell: It made the Yugo.
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