ARO 10 was an off-road vehicle produced by ARO and manufactured in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. It shares auto-parts with Dacia 1300, from engine to front axle, and was inspired by the

Renault Rodeo The Renault Rodeo was a series of off-road mini SUVs produced between 1970 and 1987 by ACL for Renault. In total there were three generations of the Rodeo. At first the car was called the ACL Rodeo and the name was changed to Renault Rodeo in J ...

and Citroën Méhari. The ARO 24 Series got a "little brother" in 1980, the ARO 10 Series. While the ARO-24 can be classified as mid-size

SUV A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...

s, the ARO 10 is about the size of a Jeep Wrangler. It was produced in many body trims, equipped with seven different engines (both gas and Diesel), and came in both 4x2 and 4x4 versions.ARO 10 Versions
/ref> The ARO 10 was also sold as the ''Dacia Duster'' in the United Kingdom and ''Dacia 10'' in some international markets. A model derived from the ARO 10, named ARO Spartana, was also produced starting 1997. The last evolution of ARO 10, produced from 1999, was called ''ARO 10 Super'', had a slight design revamp and was built on ARO 24 Series chassis. The vehicle was available to many exports markets, and in the United Kingdom it was available as the ''Dacia Duster'', up until 2006, when it was discontinued. The Duster name was later used on another SUV that in some way replaced the previous model.

First generation (1980)

In addition to being sold as the "Dacia Duster" in the United Kingdom and a few other markets, the car received several different names in Italy: Local company Ali Ciemme (ACM) assembled the ARO 10 there in the 1980s and sold it as the "Aro Super Ischia" with the 1.4-liter Renault petrol engine license built by Dacia. When fitted with Volkswagen's 1.6-liter petrol or diesel engines it was sold as the ''Aro Enduro x4'', from 1987 until 1989. A turbodiesel was presented at the end of 1988. Sales volumes of Italian-assembled cars were not very large, reaching 2500 examples in 1987 and 1800 cars in 1988. Volkswagen-engined cars had 28 percent Romanian parts content, with the remainder being Italian and German. The Volkswagen-engined versions also received a stronger differential, to handle the additional torque.

Engines

Spartana

Versions

Sport Utility Vehicles

* ARO 10.1 2-door Convertible * ARO 10.4 3-door * ARO 10 Spartana * ARO 11.4 5-door

Light Commercial Vehicles

* ARO 10.6 Regular Cab Pick-up * ARO 11.9 Double Cab Pick-up Other Versions: 10.0, 10.2, 10.3, 10.5, 10.9.

Gallery

File:1980 ARO 10.jpg, ARO 10 (1980–1991) File:MHV Aro 4x4 01.jpg, ARO 10 (1992–1999) File:ARO 10.JPG, ARO 10 in Lavelanet Canton of Foix arrondissement, Ariège, Midi-Pyrénées, France File:MHV Aro 4x4 03.jpg, ARO 10 rear view File:Mihai Leonte in Dracula Rally Raid 2008.jpg, ARO 10 Super (1999–06)

References

External links

ARO

ACM Off history (Spanish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aro 10 10 Cars of Romania Off-road vehicles Mini sport utility vehicles All-wheel-drive vehicles 1980s cars 1990s cars 2000s cars Vehicles introduced in 1980