ARO (company)
Romanian off-road vehicle manufacturer
ARO (short for Auto Romania) was a Romanian off-road vehicle manufacturer located in Câmpulung. The first ARO vehicles were produced in 1957, and the last in 2003. For a short while, Daihatsu-powered AROs were sold in Spain and produced in Portugal under the "Portaro" brand. In Italy, AROs were produced and sold under the ACM brand, often fitted with Volkswagen engines.
In 2009, an attempt was made to restart low volume production of ARO vehicles under the aegis of a Czech company called Auto Max Czech (AMC). During the mid-2000s, Russian manufacturer Derways used ARO chassis to produce its Derways Cowboy model.
History
The first factory in Câmpulung was built during the Second World War, under orders from Marshal Ion Antonescu, starting 1942. The facility was initially meant to produce airscrews, being an extension of the Romanian aircraft manufacturer IAR. After the war, this factory formed the base for ARO.
The beginning
ARO manufactured over 380,000 vehicles, 2/3 of which were exported to some 110 countries on five continents (before 1989 about 90% of the ARO production was exported). AROs were also produced in Brazil, Italy, and Portugal (Portaro) often under another brandname. ARO vehicles were also produced for Spain and marketed under the name Hisparo managed by the company Enasa.
The public source identifies “ARO (company)” as romanian off-road vehicle manufacturer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around company, Romanian and off-road.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q27061. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957, 2003, 2009 and 1942.
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This entry incorporates text from “ARO (company)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.