Car Articles

This hulk of a car tops the list for the simple reason that this car has been on Indian roads for about 60 years now and still continues to do so without any fracas. Amby, as we like to call the bulk of a machine was incepted in 1954 by Hindustan Motors. The Ambassador has been going through constant changes in terms of engine and body designs to keep up at the pace of the changing world and taste of the Indian people.

The oldest design of the Ambassador was adopted from the old Morris Oxford model. This car came with a pig-iron body unlike today's metal sheet body. The Ambassador also came in a shell-on-ladder-chassis construction with independent front suspension.

There were different versions of the Hindustan Ambassador including the traditional-look Classic 1500, 1800 and 2000, the peppy Grand and the Avigo. The Grand and the Avigo had been furnished with power steering and disc brakes.

The Ambassador is still remembered for its generous interior space. The seats used to be comfortable, upright and perfectly cushioned. There is plenty of legroom and head space and a huge boot. Most variants of the Ambassador had the standard, basic dashboard, with rudimentary instrumentation.

The Ambassador was available in three engine variants: a 1.5 diesel, a 1.8 Isuzu-sourced petrol and a 2.0-litre diesel. The performance is not up to the mark compared to present day cars except for the 1.8 Isuzu engines, which can be matched with a Honda City.

The Premier Padmini was manufactured in India from 1968 to 2000 by Premier Automobiles Limited (PAL). The car ruled the Indian roads for more than three decades. Fiat had decommissioned the car after three years, with Italian production ceasing in 1960. The entire production line was shipped to India in 1967, with production based at Kurla, Mumbai.

The Premier Padmini debuted in India as the Fiat 1100D in 1964 with a 1,089 cc 4-cylinder engine. With minor renovations over a period of time, the Fiat 1100D was named Fiat 1100/103, Fiat Millecento, Fiat 1100-Delight, Premier President and finally the Premier Padmini.

The Premier Padmini was quite an appealing car and performed much better than its contemporary Ambassador. The car was designed for Indian road conditions. The fuel consumption and maintenance was low. This was a perfect family car with a spacious interior with a medium trunk.

At Present the Premier Padmini abounds the roads of Mumbai as taxis and run on CNG for fuel economy.

The Hindustan Contessa is a model of car manufactured by Hindustan Motors of India. The Contessa utilised the tooling of the British 1972-1978 Vauxhall Victor/VX FE series. It was launched in 1983 and was one of the few Indian manufactured luxury cars in the 1980's and early 1990's.

The Contessa Classic was a popular choice for government limousines. There were three versions of this car, 1.8GLX (Isuzu Petrol), 2.0DLX (Isuzu diesel) and 2.0T (Isuzu diesel). Even though it was based on a 1970s Vauxhall Victor, the interior of this car especially the rear seat was extremely cozy for passengers.

The car has remained the same throughout its life, though its parent company made minor updates from year to year. The last series of the car which was in 2002 had was loaded with features such as fuel injection, power windows, power steering and air conditioning as a standard. However, the demand for the car eventually became quite low and it was phased out.

Hindustan Motors officially stopped manufacturing the car in 2002 because the car buyers felt that the style was going down. The car has become a legend. It was a sign of opulence and luxury till the advent of the open economy in India in 1991, which led to the flooding of foreign cars into the market. Another reason for the car to lose its popularity is that the spare parts for the car were expensive compared to its Japanese and Korean counterparts.

Premier Automobiles introduced Fiat 124 in India as the Premier Padmini in 1986. The car was very similar to the 1966 version except for a few changes in the external body design. Premier Automobiles incorporated the Nissan A12 (1171 cc/52 bhp) powertrain instead of the original Fiat engine along with Nissan gearbox in this car. The car got a tremendous response in the beginning. Many car magazines praised its gearshift as the slickest of all. But the sedan was prone to rust. At the end of production an improved model called Viceroy was released in collaboration with Peugeot, France. Later on, the NE118 was outmoded by other contemporary cars and production was stopped in 2001.