xcel
10-06-2007, 08:26 PM
Roger Penske adds the Smart car to his $17 billion automobile empire - and rewrites the rules of the auto business. (http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/04/autos/smartcar_penske.fortune/index.htm?section=money_latest)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2008_Smart_fortwo.jpgAlex Taylor III - Fortune - Oct. 5 2007
The Smart has the potential to become the hippest car introduced in the U.S. since the original Volkswagen Beetle.
The term is antiquated these days, but "industrialist" would appear to be tailor-made for Roger Penske. Through his eponymous holding company, he runs a string of businesses that conjure up images of shabby factories, dirty coveralls, and greasy lunch buckets: truck leasing, logistics, component manufacturing, auto retailing, and car racing.
Penske seems like a throwback to an earlier era of industrial titans like Henry Ford and Walter Chrysler, when American business was more about nuts and bolts than symbols and software.
So much for appearances. Penske, silver-haired and 70, has become the exclusive American distributor of the strangest, the most citified, and potentially the hippest car introduced in the U.S. since World War II: the tiny, egg-shaped Smart.
Just getting potential customers to consider the car will be a challenge. The Smart is smaller than any car most Americans have ever seen - eight feet shorter than a Ford Taurus. So Penske is launching the vehicle in an unusual way that combines the Internet with old-fashioned tire kicking.
On top of that, he has developed an ad hoc build-to-order delivery system that, if applied to higher-volume vehicles, could slash thousands of dollars off the cost of a car. In other words, he's rewriting the rules of the auto business as he goes.
Penske (PEN-skee) has been a maverick his entire career, shaping his blue-collar businesses into a mini empire on wheels. Starting with a Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia in 1965, he has built Penske Corp. into a $17 billion amalgamation of public and private transportation enterprises. Its crown jewel is Penske Automotive Group, the country's second-largest network of car dealers … http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/04/autos/smartcar_penske.fortune/index.htm?section=money_latest
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2008_Smart_fortwo.jpgAlex Taylor III - Fortune - Oct. 5 2007
The Smart has the potential to become the hippest car introduced in the U.S. since the original Volkswagen Beetle.
The term is antiquated these days, but "industrialist" would appear to be tailor-made for Roger Penske. Through his eponymous holding company, he runs a string of businesses that conjure up images of shabby factories, dirty coveralls, and greasy lunch buckets: truck leasing, logistics, component manufacturing, auto retailing, and car racing.
Penske seems like a throwback to an earlier era of industrial titans like Henry Ford and Walter Chrysler, when American business was more about nuts and bolts than symbols and software.
So much for appearances. Penske, silver-haired and 70, has become the exclusive American distributor of the strangest, the most citified, and potentially the hippest car introduced in the U.S. since World War II: the tiny, egg-shaped Smart.
Just getting potential customers to consider the car will be a challenge. The Smart is smaller than any car most Americans have ever seen - eight feet shorter than a Ford Taurus. So Penske is launching the vehicle in an unusual way that combines the Internet with old-fashioned tire kicking.
On top of that, he has developed an ad hoc build-to-order delivery system that, if applied to higher-volume vehicles, could slash thousands of dollars off the cost of a car. In other words, he's rewriting the rules of the auto business as he goes.
Penske (PEN-skee) has been a maverick his entire career, shaping his blue-collar businesses into a mini empire on wheels. Starting with a Chevrolet dealership in Philadelphia in 1965, he has built Penske Corp. into a $17 billion amalgamation of public and private transportation enterprises. Its crown jewel is Penske Automotive Group, the country's second-largest network of car dealers … http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/04/autos/smartcar_penske.fortune/index.htm?section=money_latest