machine gun mounted on top. Top speed was 100 km/h. In 1986, 5 were delivered to Liberia and in 1987 10 were delivered to Algeria. Export variant was called AM 100. The remaining 2 were destroyed during the Romanian Revolution and now their wrecks can be seen at the National Military Museum, in Bucharest. Privatization In 1998 a Cuban-born American businessman, John Perez, offered franchise agreements to US auto dealers. Some 200 dealers paid $75,000 each for franchise rights, for a total of $15 million. These rights were offered by a company called East European Imports. The ARO was offered as a Warsaw Pact surplus military vehicle. After the franchises were sold, dealers were pressured to send cashier's checks or wire transfers to start receiving vehicles that were allegedly being held in a port in Florida. Dealers refused and insisted to pay upon delivery which eventually led to East European Imports closing its doors. In September 2003 the Romanian state sold 68.7% of ARO to Cross Lander, a company owned by John Perez, for $180,000 US. The contract stipulated that the company had to invest $2 million US, which allegedly never took place. Instead, all of ARO's production tooling and equipment were sold off; this was an action which violated the privatization contract. The Romanian state sued John Perez in 2006 for falsifying documents in order to acquire the company. It was planned to enter the US market with the ARO 244 as the Cross Lander 244X, but funding ran out in February 2006. The company Cross Lander USA Inc fired all its employees, sold its headquarters and closed down in February 2006. ARO went into bankruptcy in June 2006. Amrom The company Amrom Automotive 2006 was negotiating with ARO creditors to purchase the company from bankruptcy, and plans to resume production of the ARO line of vehicles under the ARO name at the Câmpulung factory. Models IMS Series (1957–1975) ARO 24 Series (1972–2003) ARO 10 Series (1980–2003) References Further reading ARO 245 4WD Romanian Cars: ARO ACM Off history (in Spanish) External links Official website (archived) Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1957 Car brands Car manufacturers of Romania Truck manufacturers of Romania Defunct manufacturing companies of Romania Companies of Argeș County Romanian brands Privatized companies in Romania 1957 establishments in Romania