Not optomistic, and a request to journalists

[Inclag]

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As much as I would like to believe that these pickups will be making their US debut in the near future, I couldn't help but shake the feeling that these stories of delays were all to familiar and similar to a story that I read in a WIRED Magazine article a few years back about an auto importer promising delivery of a number of different Green and EV's to many floundering dealerships that banked what little funds they had on the promise of vehicles that would thrive in a lean, snakebitten, auto market.

Hype Machine: Searching for ZAP's Fleet of No-Show Green Cars


The similarities in stories between Zap and Global Vehicles USA, were enough to pique my interest in delving further into GV USA's history. In this day of age, with all the information outlets available, it just seems so odd that valuable pertinent information regarding a US launch of a new vehicle would be so hard to acquire. As to why Mahindra and their representatives have been so tight lipped and have released such little information specifically targeted to the US market, I guess I will never know. But after a little looking, I happened upon John Perez's earlier venture with the Cross Lander

ARO - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please come to your own conclusions upon reading some of this information. Personally, I'm no longer interested in hearing of anything from GV USA. Operating within a vacuum and releasing cryptic information may be enough to maintain sustainability, but I want to hear from Pawan Goenka and other Mahindra brass, about what is really going on. Why the reluctance to address this market that Mahindra is attempting to enter, the lack of disclosure of information, and the murky details and relationship between GV USA??? Lucky for me, I'm only a prospective consumer so I really don't have any vested interest in the vehicle sales in the US, aside from wanting to potentially purchase one.

But please, to the few journal...(I mean bloggers) that seem to be the only mechanisms of the GV USA/Mahindra hype and marketing scheme, can we try to find out what the heck is going on??

[pee wee]

The ARO/Crosslander story has been known by many of us for awhile. I think the worst thing you can say about Perez's involvement was maybe a more cunning or cagey businessman wouldn't have gotten burned so badly. I keep hearing from people who know something about the man that he is really a good person who is being vilified. Perhaps a parallel could be made to this situation with Mahindra, GV seems to have gotten themselves in a no-win situation. As exclusive distributor for the U.S., I would have expected them to be more responsive to interested parties and critics alike. We've all been wondering aloud just what the deal was. I now wonder if the arrangement with M&M is so restrictive that GV hasn't been able to do their job properly. I bet nobody is having fun at this point in the process, but hopefully things will keep moving and we will get our trucks and be able to say it was worth the wait.
As for a debut in the near future, I doubt it- but that's the beautiful thing about this situation where, in a factless void, opinions and speculation rule the day.

[DickIsGone]

Inclag,

Allow a grouchy old bastard to give ya a bit of relief.
Don't worry about 'em cause they ain't nothing but another truck.
If they arrive, great.
If not, no biggie, and definitely no skin off your nose.

[pirate11652]

The Wikepedia article is correct except for a couple of things.

Crosslander did not sell it's offices and fire its employees in early 2006. February 2006 is when Crosslander sent a group of its dealers to India to meet with Mahindra. That trip cemented a deal and led to an agreement for Crosslander to distribute Mahindra vehicles.
The Corporate name had to be changed and Crosslander selected as its' new name of Global Vehicles. They quickly leased a more appropriate office space in Alpheretta, Ga and moved most of their employees there including staff and managers, and hired others.

The reason the original corporation had to be continued is that it could not be changed to a new corporporation without completely replacing every dealer agreement and refileing in all 50 states for licencing.

Also: it is misleading to say that Crosslander fraudulently sold off assets. Instead it sold some manufacturing assets to local Romanian intrests who had been making parts for ARO previously. In actuality, Crosslander was providing those people with the opportunity to own their own business of supplying Crosslander parts. This was later validated by Crosslander/GVs success in defending and countering the AROs claims.

As for wanting to get launch information directly from Mahindra, that is the best course of action particularly since Goenka has claimed that role. Only Mahindra and US authorities have any control over the launch timeing.