Surprisingly, Romania is amongst the leading centers of automotive engineering in Europe. It might not be as much of a car haven as England, Germany or Italy, but a lot of prominent brands are located here. That includes Dacia, but also a lot of other companies.
ARO
ARO is a Romanian car manufacturer that operated between 1957 and 2006. Their focus was on building off-road vehicles. That included big 4X4s and some armored military vehicles, primarily. Their logo depicted a blue shield shape with the company’s acronym written inside. It was made out of tall, lowercase letters, which were also completely blue. The font is a rather normal sans-serif style.
Aurel Persu
Aurel Persu was a Romanian engineer who lived in 1890-1977. He’s best-known for a conceptual car he made that featured a rear trunk with the engine and the rest of the innards inside it. It was revolutionary for the Romanian industry, but wasn’t too popular commercially. The Persu brand uses his last name, written in an elegant hand-writing. These are thin, tall characters with a lot of twists and turns. Normally, they would be white, grey or black, depending on the color of the background.
Dacia
Dacia is the biggest carmaker, and amongst the most successful brands overall, in Romania. It was established in 1966, and they mainly made passenger cars since then. Later, they were bought by Renault and effectively became their subsidiary. The logo depicts the company’s name, written in a very linear manner. Each letter is comprised of the minimal amount of lines possible, but each of these is thick and visible. The modern logo looks like two ‘C’ letters from the wordmark combined into a mirrored picture.
Justin Capra
Justin Capra was a Romanian engineer who lived in 1933-2015. He’s famous for building ‘Soleta’, which was basically a 4-wheel scooter. These car has 2-seat and 1-seat variations, but they also had everything to be constituted as a car. Besides that, he built a variety of other cars, many of which obscure to anyone besides Romanians. Capra’s cars don’t seem to have any real badges or logos. Some that exist belong to the factories where these were assembled.
Lastun
Lastun is a name for a popular car, produced under Dacia in the late 80s. It was a compact model with a moderately powerful engine. It was very affordable, although not as cheap as some other Dacia cars of that era. Dacia cars from that time used a shield logo. It was usually black and had a metal eagle painted onto much of it. The top was occupied by a little ‘UAP’ (the contemporary name) acronym.
Malaxa
Malaxa is a Romanian car, designed shortly after WW2. It was supposed to be an affordable car that could be bought by anyone. To achieve this, it was designed using some ideas from Volkswagen Beetle. As a result, they got a compact, chubby car with a moderately powerful engine. The company that built these later moved to Soviet Union. They don’t seem to have had any significant emblems on them,
Oltcit/Rodae
Oltcit was a Romanian car company that operated in 1976-1991. They mostly built compact cars for use by populace. Afterwards, the company was turned into Rodae, which was largely a Daewoo subsidiary until 2008. In this period, the company built Daewoo cars and other models. During their Daewoo period, they used the symbols of their parent company. Before that, however, their logo was a grey arrowhead with an oval around it.
ROMLOC
ROMLOC was an old Romanian carmaker that technically operated between 1921 and 1948. Much later, the name of this company changed to Roman, which is what they’re called now. They mainly build trucks of various sizes and utility vehicles. Back then, however, they mostly made cars for trains and similar products. The company doesn’t seem to have any logos from their ROMLOC period. Now, they use an emblem that is basically tall ‘A’ & ‘B’ letters.
El Car
El Car is a Romanian vehicle manufacturer, launched in 2003. They primarily build buses and similar vehicles, although there are some El Car passenger cars prototypes. Their biggest bus brand is called Igero. The logo depicts a metallic oval with a blue outline. There’s also a blue line running through its middle with the company’s name written on it. The letters in it are also metallic and fully capital.
ROMAN
ROMAN is a Romanian brand that appeared in its current from in 1990. Their predecessors go as far as 1921. The current company, also known as Intreprinderea de Autocamioane Brașov, makes trucks for the most part. Their logo depicts letters ‘AB’, written inside a vaguely rectangular figure. The other bit of the logo is the company’s name, written on two levels. One says ‘ROMAN’ in big, bold letters; the other says ‘Autocamioane Brașov’ below. The two are divided by a yellow line.
