The off-road vehicle-manufacturing industry in Romania
started its production line in the late 1950s. During the Second World War,
off-road vehicles were being used particularly by the US Army. The Jeep make
became a classical landmark of off-road vehicles and the name of the brand
proper became a common noun for this type of cars. After the war, the Jeep-type
vehicles, with a four-wheel drive, were also manufactured by the Soviet Union
and exported to the states controlled by the USSR.
Large-scale
manufacturing of off-road vehicles was initially intended to supply the army
and the troops of the Interior Ministry. Romania began manufacturing SUVs at the car-making factory based in
Campulung Muscel, in 1957. The name of the factory was Aro, which was an
acronym for Autoturism Romanesc, that is Romanian Motorcar. Aro had also
existed between the wars, but it was the property of a company known as
Romanian Insurance. The first Aro off-road vehicle platform that drove
outside the gates of the Campulung car-making factory was the IMS-57 make.
The car was an adaptation of the GAZ-69
Soviet motor vehicle, which in turn had been an adaptation of a model
manufactured by the American consortium, Dodge. The binnacle had no roof, it
only had a tarpaulin top to protect passengers in case of bad weather. The car
body had two doors, while its 50 horsepower engine had a cylinder capacity of
3,200 cubic centimetres. Aro could develop a maximum speed of 80 kilometres per
hour, and its fuel consumption ratio stood at 24 litters per 100 kilometres. As
a curiosity, the IMS-57 had manually operated screen wipers. For two years
running until 1959, roughly 1,000 such cars had been manufactured.
In 1959, the IMS-57 make was replaced by
an improved model, IMS-59. It was improved in terms of the binnacle design but
also as regards the engine efficiency. Two IMS-59 versions were manufactured,
with two and four doors, respectively, the tarpaulin top disappeared and the
binnacle got turned into a full-body automobile. The engine horsepower was
enhanced to 56, and the car could develop a speed of 90 kilometres per hour.
The manually operated screen wipers were replaced by electrical ones. The
IMS-59 was manufactured until 1963, when the output stood at roughly 3,000
items.
The IMS platform continued to be
improved, and in 1964 the third model started being manufactured. It was the M-461 model, with a new design
and a higher capacity engine, standing at 2,500 cubic centimetres. It had 70
horsepower, and its speed limit was enhanced to 100 kilometres per hour. The
fuel consumption ratio was also improved and it stood at 17 litter per 100
kilometres. The novelty of the model was that it began to be export-bound, with
China as the main beneficiary, with 2,000 purchased items.
At that time, Columbia also took interest
in the Romanian off-road vehicle. The car had won two international rallies,
one in 1970, Forest Rally in Belgium and another one in 1973, in Oregon, the
USA. Overall, the Campulung Muscel car-making factory had an output of roughly
80,000 M-461 items, most of which were export-bound, with part of the M-461
vehicles even reaching the German market.
The second platform used by the Aro
engineers for the creation of other models was Aro 24. The first model, Aro
240, appeared in 1972 and following suit were the 241, 242, 243, 244, 246, 263
and 264 models, as well as the 266 model. The Aro 264 model was tailored for
the American market, with an enhanced axle base, from 2,350 to 2,600
millimetres. The Aro 24 models had 2,3 or 5 doors, some of them were
convertible, they were petrol as well as Diesel-based, they had a four-wheel or
a two-wheel drive. The Aro24 models were manufactured until 2006.
The third platform, Aro 10, was
considered the lighter version of Aro 24 and appeared in 1980. Just like the
Aro 24 models, Aro 10 was equipped with petrol or Diesel-based engines; they
had a four-wheel or a two-wheel drive. In the 1980s, the Aro 3XX and Aro 4XX
models appeared, as a pickup truck or coach shuttle. Worth mentioning here is
the fact that the export-bound ARO motorcars were equipped with engines
manufactured by other carmakers.
After 1989, the Aro car-making factory
was following a downward trend. In the early 2000, it found itself at a
financial and economic deadlock. One of the causes that led to the bankruptcy
of Romania’s only off-road vehicle manufacturer was the one that led to
Romania’s de-industrialization as well: obsolete technology and lack of
competitiveness. Subsequent privatisation attempts have repeatedly failed. In
2007, the year Romania gained its EU membership, the ARO car-making factory
closed its gates.