Vestiges
of old times vanish without trace ….. in olden days every town had a taxi stand
– the vehicles the rich, famous and needy used for hiring and moving around in
times of emergency….. and one familiar sight was – most of them were Ambassador
cars and others were ‘Fiat’ cars…. Uttarpara is a town of Hooghly West
Bengal which manufactures the car Ambassador.
Once the royal
vehicle, the white one particularly at that, the Hindustan Ambassador is a car
manufactured by Hindustan Motors of India. It has been in production since 1958
with few improvements or changes. Amby
was based on the Morris Oxford III model, first made by the Morris Motors
Limited at Cowley, Oxford
It is stated that
when the Birlas wanted a new model to replace their already old Hindustan models based on the Morris Oxford Series Il
(Hindustan Landmaster), they scouted for the new Morris Oxford Series III. The car at that point was quite an innovation with
a fully enclosed chassis, making it most spacious inside. Those who travelled would vouch
that it was far more comfortable than many luxurious cars of date – the owner
would sit comfortably in the rear seat with driver changing the floor gears
(later day versions had hand gear too). Besides there had been many other
variants including Contessa, which perhaps did not do well – then there was the
lancer… made at Thiruvallur where HM and Mitsubishi partnered. Remember visiting the plant and even going
for a ride in the rumble-tumble testodrome ~ Lancer and its sports model were
to be for the up-market but was not a runaway success.
Read from their
web that Hindustan Motors Limited was
established during the pre-Independence era at Port Okha in Gujarat .
Operations were moved in 1948 to Uttarpara in district Hooghly, West Bengal , where the company began the production of
the iconic Ambassador. Equipped with integrated facilities such as press shop,
forge shop, foundry, machine shop, aggregate assembly units for engines, axles
etc Ambassador of various hue (1500 and 2000 cc diesel, 1800 cc petrol, CNG
and LPG variants) were rolling out. HM also
has operations in Pithampur near Indore
Read
with some sadness that Hindustan Motors Ltd, on Saturday announced suspension
of work at its Uttarpara factory near Kolkata, putting at risk at least 2,500
jobs. Economic Times and other newspapers report that in a stock market filing,
Hindustan Motors said it had to halt production in view of “low productivity,
growing indiscipline, critical shortage of funds, lack of demand for its core
product, the Ambassador, and large accumulation of liabilities”. West Bengal ’s labour minister Purnendu Bose said in
television interviews that the state government will intervene to find a
solution. Trading in Hindustan Motors’ shares had to be halted on Friday after
it jumped 19.9% to Rs.13.30 on BSE. The company sold about 2,200 Ambassadors in
the fiscal year ended in March 2014, a tiny share of the 1.8 million passenger
cars sold during the year in India
Some industry
watchers opine that it would be
difficult for the “grand old lady” of the Indian car market to make a comeback.
Last year, despite its dwindling sales,
the distinctive car with its bulbous design and roomy interior was named the
world’s best taxi by the BBC’s popular Top Gear television show. Sadly, the
present imbroglio is pushing to its end. From the time when it was considered
so roomy to house the entire family, the pride is gone – though there are
smaller families with small cars flashily moving around. It had
no power steering, no power windows; no music systems; no side mirrors, no power brakes, no stick
shift gears, no seat belts. The seating resembled two sofas placed one in front
of the other; yet these cars were sold
at a premium, and the manufacturers got as rich as they wanted, controlling the
supply side to ensure that a black market premium thrived.
In
winning the crown of durability in BBC show, the Hindustan Ambassador taxi saw
off rivals from Britain, America, Germany, South Africa, Mexico and Russia ~
but sadly could not survive in the local market.
With regards – S. Sampathkumar .
26th May
2014.
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