November 1992<\/p>\n
By Colin Sargent<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s cool\u2014it looks kind of Soviet.\u201d<\/p>\n The man standing with a group of friends in Dock Square, Kennebunkport pronounces Soviet so that it rhymes with sobriquet.<\/p>\n Another person just stops, drops his hands.<\/p>\n \u201cIs this … ?\u201d<\/p>\n I nod my head yes to his unfinished question, his Larry Rivers of a question.<\/p>\n \u201cI love the way it looks! It\u2019s got that Land Rover mystique or whatever!\u201d<\/p>\n Yes, it does.<\/p>\n 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. \u201cThis isn\u2019t 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!\u201d<\/p>\n Way.<\/p>\n I am test driving the Aro Hunter 244\u2026 and I\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n It\u2019s 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 \u201cnot Soviet!\u201d says Catalin Tutunaru of Aro North America\/Maine, the \u201cautomobile factory outlet\u201d 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.<\/p>\n It\u2019s incredibly sporty and fun.<\/p>\n Its detailing is in brushed stainless steel, not plastic.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t think anyone\u2019s built a more solid chassis on a moving hunk of metal since the B-17 Flying Fortress.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know I\u2019d like these so much,\u201d says a man on Forest Avenue, who has walked up to it in a parking lot. \u201cIt\u2019s built like a tank!.\u201d<\/p>\n