R.I.P. Cross Lander U.S.A.
Barring any waning seconds Hail Mary antics, the Cross Lander's chances for U.S. sales are over.
Just last month, company officials looked to finally be ready for American distribution, after cajoling the EPA into giving their Romanian-built body-on-frame bruiser a pass on U.S. airbag regulations on the grounds of economic hardship.
Well, apparently they weren't kidding about the last part, as the would-be discount truckmaker has apparently run out of funding. In fact, the situation is so dire that Romanian officials are now apparently looking to level fraud charges against the company's owner, John Perez, a Floridian who bought the Cross Lander factory in 2003.
Cross Lander's website is still active, but we wouldn't recommend making any downpayments.
[Source: Edmund's Inside Line]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Devin Lussier 1:19PM (2/26/2006)
It's a shame, more competition is always good and for a specialty vehicle it could have sold quite well. Might have even prompted the folks at Land Rover to consider selling us the Defender.
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Gelu Romanu 1:36PM (2/26/2006)
Well, that "floridian" Perez came to Romania and told everyone that he can rebuild the ancient "ARO", invest some money, and, drums please, even export some to the "SUV land", USA.
The guy paid peanuts for the factory (I suspect that he had some inside info, as always in Romania), in exchange with some promised investments and enough work to keep the workers out of unemployment.
Guess, what...not only he did not make any investments, but he sold some land and buildings (here comes the insider info in play) for three of four times (at least) of what he paid to get the factory in the first place...
As for the "cars" he presented...they were not produced under "his" ownership, but were old chasis and parts that were left since long ago in the factory.
The engines are foreign, thus there should not have been any problems with the "emissions", electronics (ABS, ASR) could have been bought and regarding the airbags...Renault is building the price breaker Logan just 150-200km away...WITH airbags...
I really hope that they will bust him and kick his *ss.
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Bevo 3:18PM (2/26/2006)
This is a shocker...
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rwcmick 8:31PM (2/26/2006)
Just a quick note, the website you mentioned is actually crosslander of houston, a dealer and not crosslander the
main importer which is http://www.crosslander4x4.com/
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required 10:59AM (2/27/2006)
good riddance to bad rubbish. as much as i love body-on-frame SUVs, we have enough here that meet EPA and NHTSA regulations..
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lalaland 2:34PM (2/27/2006)
surprise surprise surprise... anyone who gave money to this guy deserves what he got.
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