Arrol-Johnston (later known as Arrol-Aster) was an early Scottish manufacturer of automobiles, which operated from 1895 to 1931 and produced the first automobile manufactured in Britain. The company also developed the world's first "off-road" vehicle for the Egyptian government, and another designed to travel on ice and snow for Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole.

George Johnston was by training a locomotive engineer from Neilson, Reid and Company Limited of Springburn, Glasgow. Johnston was commissioned by Glasgow Corporation Tramways in 1894 to build an experimental steam-powered tramcar to replace their fleet of horse-drawn trams.

During a final test before a Corporation committee, it caught fire and work was abandoned. Johnston's attention was then turned to a detailed examination of continental makes of motor cars and he came to the conclusion that he could design and make a better vehicle than any of them and, in particular, a better engine. The first British-built motor car was thus conceived and by the end of 1895 was ready for financial backing. In the autumn of that year Johnston was joined by Norman Osborne Fulton and T. Blackwood Murray. Fulton was Johnston's cousin and was made responsible for manufacture and assembly, while Murray had electrical engineering experience, having been Works Manager with Mavor and Coulson, makers of mining machinery in Bridgeton. His first task was the development of electrical ignition in place of the incandescent platinum tubes of the Daimler engine.

George Johnston had an experimental vehicle on the roads in November 1895, and there was an account in the Scotsman of a 3 hour journey in it, reputed to be the first Auto-Car to be seen in Scotland. The driving of a horseless carriage in Glasgow resulted in a prosecution under the Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act 1878, where George Johnston conducted his own defence arguing that the vehicle was registered as a carriage and did not fit the definition of locomotive in the act. While he lost his case and was given a nominal fine, there was growing pressure to amend the so called 'red flag acts' that were holding back British motor vehicle development, and later that year the passing of the Locomotives on Highways Act 1896 allowed motor vehicles to travel at as much as 12 mph.

In 1895 Johnston formed a joint venture with Sir William Arrol MP, an engineer of the Forth Bridge to form the Mo-Car Syndicate Limited, which was to produce his car. Sir William was Chairman and Johnston was Managing Director, and the Syndicate included a Mr. Archibald Coats with a Mr P M Coats of Paisley, and a Mr. John Millar also of Paisley, while Norman Fulton was Works Manager. Sir William's main interest in the business was as the financial backer.

The first Arrol-Johnston car was a six-seater "Dogcart" (a vehicle with two transverse seats placed back to back), which went into production at a factory at Camlachie, in the East End of Glasgow.

The Dogcart was a wood-bodied vehicle powered by a 10 hp 2 cylinder opposed piston engine mounted beneath the floor, which was started by pulling on a rope. The vehicle boasted chain final drive and its high-wheeled, solid-tyred, horse-carriage type of body was retained well into the 1900s. The brakes were arranged in the form of shoes which could be pressed on the back of the solid rear tyres, and the suspension comprised full elliptic leaf springs at the front, and half-elliptics at the rear. Transmission and brake control levers were mounted close to the driver's right hand.

The company's Camlachie premises were destroyed by fire in 1901, and production was moved to Paisley.