The off-road vehicle-manufacturing industry in Romania
\nstarted its production line in the late 1950s. During the Second World War,
\noff-road vehicles were being used particularly by the US Army. The Jeep make
\nbecame a classical landmark of off-road vehicles and the name of the brand
\nproper became a common noun for this type of cars. After the war, the Jeep-type
\nvehicles, with a four-wheel drive, were also manufactured by the Soviet Union
\nand exported to the states controlled by the USSR.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Large-scale
\nmanufacturing of off-road vehicles was initially intended to supply the army
\nand the troops of the Interior Ministry. Romania began manufacturing SUVs at the car-making factory based in
\nCampulung Muscel, in 1957. The name of the factory was Aro, which was an
\nacronym for Autoturism Romanesc, that is Romanian Motorcar. Aro had also
\nexisted between the wars, but it was the property of a company known as
\nRomanian Insurance. The first Aro off-road vehicle platform that drove
\noutside the gates of the Campulung car-making factory was the IMS-57 make. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The car was an adaptation of the GAZ-69
\nSoviet motor vehicle, which in turn had been an adaptation of a model
\nmanufactured by the American consortium, Dodge. The binnacle had no roof, it
\nonly had a tarpaulin top to protect passengers in case of bad weather. The car
\nbody had two doors, while its 50 horsepower engine had a cylinder capacity of
\n3,200 cubic centimetres. Aro could develop a maximum speed of 80 kilometres per
\nhour, and its fuel consumption ratio stood at 24 litters per 100 kilometres. As
\na curiosity, the IMS-57 had manually operated screen wipers. For two years
\nrunning until 1959, roughly 1,000 such cars had been manufactured.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In 1959, the IMS-57 make was replaced by
\nan improved model, IMS-59. It was improved in terms of the binnacle design but
\nalso as regards the engine efficiency. Two IMS-59 versions were manufactured,
\nwith two and four doors, respectively, the tarpaulin top disappeared and the
\nbinnacle got turned into a full-body automobile. The engine horsepower was
\nenhanced to 56, and the car could develop a speed of 90 kilometres per hour.
\nThe manually operated screen wipers were replaced by electrical ones. The
\nIMS-59 was manufactured until 1963, when the output stood at roughly 3,000
\nitems. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The IMS platform continued to be
\nimproved, and in 1964 the third model started being manufactured. It was the M-461 model, with a new design
\nand a higher capacity engine, standing at 2,500 cubic centimetres. It had 70
\nhorsepower, and its speed limit was enhanced to 100 kilometres per hour. The
\nfuel consumption ratio was also improved and it stood at 17 litter per 100
\nkilometres. The novelty of the model was that it began to be export-bound, with
\nChina as the main beneficiary, with 2,000 purchased items.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At that time, Columbia also took interest
\nin the Romanian off-road vehicle. The car had won two international rallies,
\none in 1970, Forest Rally in Belgium and another one in 1973, in Oregon, the
\nUSA. Overall, the Campulung Muscel car-making factory had an output of roughly
\n80,000 M-461 items, most of which were export-bound, with part of the M-461
\nvehicles even reaching the German market. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The second platform used by the Aro
\nengineers for the creation of other models was Aro 24. The first model, Aro
\n240, appeared in 1972 and following suit were the 241, 242, 243, 244, 246, 263
\nand 264 models, as well as the 266 model. The Aro 264 model was tailored for
\nthe American market, with an enhanced axle base, from 2,350 to 2,600
\nmillimetres. The Aro 24 models had 2,3 or 5 doors, some of them were
\nconvertible, they were petrol as well as Diesel-based, they had a four-wheel or
\na two-wheel drive. The Aro24 models were manufactured until 2006. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The third platform, Aro 10, was
\nconsidered the lighter version of Aro 24 and appeared in 1980. Just like the
\nAro 24 models, Aro 10 was equipped with petrol or Diesel-based engines; they
\nhad a four-wheel or a two-wheel drive. In the 1980s, the Aro 3XX and Aro 4XX
\nmodels appeared, as a pickup truck or coach shuttle. Worth mentioning here is
\nthe fact that the export-bound ARO motorcars were equipped with engines
\nmanufactured by other carmakers. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After 1989, the Aro car-making factory
\nwas following a downward trend. In the early 2000, it found itself at a
\nfinancial and economic deadlock. One of the causes that led to the bankruptcy
\nof Romania’s only off-road vehicle manufacturer was the one that led to
\nRomania’s de-industrialization as well: obsolete technology and lack of
\ncompetitiveness. Subsequent privatisation attempts have repeatedly failed. In
\n2007, the year Romania gained its EU membership, the ARO car-making factory
\nclosed its gates. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The off-road vehicle manufacturing industry in Romania started its production in the late 1950s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168060,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45268,45269],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-168059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-aro","tag-vehicle-manufacturing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n