November 1992
The unusual Aro Hunter 244 might be emerging as the best four-wheel deal in town.
By Colin Sargent
“It’s cool—it looks kind of Soviet.”
The man standing with a group of friends in Dock Square, Kennebunkport pronounces Soviet so that it rhymes with sobriquet.
Another person just stops, drops his hands.
“Is this … ?”
I nod my head yes to his unfinished question, his Larry Rivers of a question.
“I love the way it looks! It’s got that Land Rover mystique or whatever!”
Yes, it does.
Driving up to an automatic bank teller in Portland, I see a teenage driver behind me lean out his window and then get very animated. “This isn’t one of those Romanian-imported cars they were talking so much about a few years back, is it? Like they have at the International Terminal? It is? No way!”
Way.
I am test driving the Aro Hunter 244… and I’ve never felt so delighted, or so surprised at having my expectations exceeded or my preconceptions reversed, in quite some time. Everybody wants to stop and talk about this car.
It’s tight, hums wonderfully with an all-U.S. drive train and 130-hp. 4- cylinder fuel-injected S-speed engine (automatic transmissions are also available), and is decidedly “not Soviet!” says Catalin Tutunaru of Aro North America/Maine, the “automobile factory outlet” distributing the cars here on the coast of Maine. In fact, this vehicle is the pride and joy of a free Romania. With pickup like an NFL running back and a tiny 16.S-foot turning radius, the Aro Hunter 244 spins as nimbly as a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter swiveling over a spot.
It’s incredibly sporty and fun.
Its detailing is in brushed stainless steel, not plastic.
And in spite of its low price ($9,SOO new; used as low as $S,SOO or $6,000), from all external appearances, I don’t think anyone’s built a more solid chassis on a moving hunk of metal since the B-17 Flying Fortress.
“I didn’t know I’d like these so much,” says a man on Forest Avenue, who has walked up to it in a parking lot. “It’s built like a tank!.”
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