If VinFast can crack quality code, it may have a shot

In the spring of 1975, about the same time I was failing seventh grade math at Glenridge Junior High School in Winter Park, Fla., communist soldiers were making their final push into Saigon.

By April 30, it was over for South Vietnam, and the first of roughly 140,000 refugees began making their way to the U.S.

Not long after that, while my friends could look forward to summer vacations, "Star Trek" reruns, fishing, sand lot baseball games and swimming in nearby lakes, my butt was headed to Howard Junior High School in Orlando for a summer school immersion in math.

I loved every minute of the summer of '75.

Many American companies sponsored Vietnamese families, giving them jobs, places to live and hope for the future. My mom's company, the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, sponsored a family with four children, the Nguyens. None of the children spoke a single word of English. And they ended up at Howard for ESOL classes (English for Speakers of Other Languages).

It became my job to ensure the Nguyen children made it to their classes on time, and then, using rolls of quarters given to me by the newspaper, I paid for their lunches. I became friends with the Nguyen family, and I ate many Sunday dinners at their house.

All of the children graduated from high school and then college. Several started their own businesses, and all have been successful, I learned in 1995, when as a reporter at the Sentinel, I suggested to the editors we find the Nguyens and update their story on the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

Flash-forward to 2013. I'm about to wrap up restoration of a classic 1973 Triumph Stag here in Detroit. Trim and body parts are difficult to find for the low-volume four-seat convertible sold in the U.S. from 1971 to 1973. Somewhere in my car's life, it lost its chrome bumpers. Since used bumpers are rarely offered for sale in good condition, the only choice was to take a chance on reproduction bumpers made of stainless steel at a cost of nearly $1,000.

I was astonished — and worried — when they arrived postmarked from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I doubted a Stag had ever been to Vietnam. How could the bumpers possibly fit? Two hours later, I had my answer. The bumpers fit the car perfectly — think original equipment quality — and they looked fantastic.

The arrival of VinFast, the Vietnamese automaker trying to crack the U.S. market with a pair of electric crossovers this year, has me thinking of the work ethic of the Vietnamese I have known, about the quality of the bumpers I bought for the Stag, and how Vietnam, by producing quality goods, has risen to become one of America's largest Asian trading partners.

VinFast could follow in the footsteps of automakers from Japan and South Korea and become a force in North America. About a dozen automakers build vehicles in Vietnam, either complete or CKD — complete knockdown kits — of vehicles shipped in for assembly, with some local content. The operations, no doubt, were like going to summer school for at least some of VinFast's engineers and manufacturing experts.

The template for import brands to succeed in America is well known. It takes quality first. Then it takes good value, attractive design, reliability and repairability. A little luck helps, too.

My friend Jeff Holland, who joined VinFast about a month ago to lead the company's U.S. communications, tells me many of the VinFast employees have worked in Vietnam for other automakers or on VinFast's projects with other manufacturers. "Quality is at the top of their list," he says.

One early push for the company, he says, will be in California and other states with generous electric vehicle incentives. Another marketing effort, he said, will be focused on Vietnamese Americans, who hopefully will become brand ambassadors, he said.

Many Vietnamese refugees left their country nearly 50 years ago filled with fear and anger. While some of that undoubtedly remains, could there also be some pride at Vietnam's rise?