[vshankarhere]

For me, undoubtedly, it is the Contessa! I was studying LKG when I had first seen a white Contessa parked outside our apartment in Madras and I loved it instantly. After that, whenever wherever I see a Contessa, I will stop and ogle at it. For many years, I used to ask my dad to buy one for our family.

Another snap from the internet, picture courtesy Wikiwand.com. Clearly a beautiful and timeless design! If at all am blessed to own a modern classic, this would be the one .

Also, any reason why Maruti Zen is not there in the list? I would love to pick one in a yellow shade and unpainted bumpers.

[SandyX]

Why did I vote Contessa instead of my first favorite Ambassador? Conty is just harder to find and running out each passing day. When(If?) I have that, the next for sure will be an Ambassador, both preferably in 1.8ISZ.

[eyeman]

It would be the 18NE for me. I started my driving days in a Premier Padmini and in those days the Amby and the Padmini were the common cars to be seen . 118 NEs were rare those days and were considered as symbols of affluence . And I just used to love that car for its looks. So , I always used to have one as my goal for the next upgrade. But by the time I worked up enough money for an upgrade, they had all but disappeared. Still have a soft corner for that car.

[irdevanand]

Voted for Amby as it is the first car I ever drove :-) . But Contessa has a special place in many car lovers mind. BTW is this a Contessa? Found this abandoned in Chennai, Madipakkam a year ago and even in this condition it looked damn stylish. Theres something to this car that pulls hearts. Hope someone rebuilds it some day.



Regards,
Dev

[fhdowntheline]

Voted for the Gypsy. It offers the most value amongst all these as a reliable rugged 4x4. As far as the rest- their time has come and gone, and compared to the comfort and conveniences of their modern sedan/Crossover equivalents, they are hopelessly antiquated.

[HeavyRightFoot]

My choice is Ambassador, specifically, one with a platform gear. Born in the early eighties, Ambys & Padminis were the cars I used to behold and admire during my childhood. Being in a village, other 'luxury cars' (read - Contessa, Maruti) or a 'life-style vehicle' (read - Gypsy) were pretty much a rare sight. Obviously, heart and head went into Amby's direction and I still relish the idea of owning one at some phase of remaining life....

[Amukherjea]

I had learnt to drive in an Army Jeep followed by A friendly Tea planters Amby which took us everywhere, and I mean everywhere. So I look at those with a rose tinted glasses.
Later I owned a 1964 Fiat for 16 years M800 for 3 year and also Tata Estate from the first batch horror of horrors!
If I am asked to keep a car now from the list given I would choose the STD 2000 eyes closed. The best handling car of those days. I had the good fortune to drive the Rover 3500 in UK for quite a few miles. Total rush! and a head turner.
So when it came out I picked up a preowned one only 1 year old pretty cheap.
The engine was terrible and fuel system and electrics were suspect. But I had access to Baharain and UK car graveyards so was able to change a lot of stuff from original british spec cars like Fuel pump from Rover SD3500, the Alternator made in UK etc got a pair of headlights ex London for 5 pounds.
A labor of love and lot of pleasure it gave when running nicely after the parts change.
Slow to accelarate but once it hit 70Km Plus then it came into its own The best handling car thru the ghats in Mumbai Pune old highway. Made some record timings on that road mainly beacuse I could hold at least 10 to 15km higher thru the twisties than anybody else on road that time.
I wish to have that car with a modern engine from Merc stable.
If I could I will vote for STD 2000.

[mohansrides]

Contessa with that 1.8 liter engine. Nothing but regal that car was.

If I could vote for more than one car, I would have chosen the 118 NE next. That was a wonderful car. Thoroughly modern at the time, and not in an in-your-face way. Transmission was butter smooth. You could literally shift with one finger.

[suzuki san]

Gypsy without a doubt. Having owned 2 of them in the past - the 1.0L and the 1.3L and having driven the length of India from Kanya Kumari to Manali (at different times) without even a puncture, I would definitely vote for this car which I fell in love with at first sight in 1986!!

Regards,
SS

[HrB]

Voted for Contessa. Only time I sat on the driving seat was somtime in '98. It was only to back the car up for a very short distance. But the feel I got sitting there was surreal. Wanted to own one ever since but afraid that maintaining it would be a task.

[Dr GB]

Voted for Gypsy.!
I am a proud owner of Gypsy - Mfg. Dec 2018. One of few from the last Batch for civilian purchase.

[Ravi Parwan]

Voted for the Gypsy! Amby with the 1.8 Isuzu would have been my second pick...

I have driven each of the cars on the list extensively except for the Standard and the Contessa. Sat in an uncle's Contessa once and while it looked awesome, the interiors were another story altogether. Maybe it was that particular model but even as a 7-8 year car crazy guy, I could see so many things out of whack in the interiors, including misaligned dashboard dials, broken gear lever boot, failing headliner... to name a few. Somehow, the most premium car of its era, it failed to give that impression from the inside.

We owned a brown '85 M800 for 17 long and memorable years and almost the whole family cried when we sold her off as she was not being used at all for weeks on end.
Had a number of premier Padminis, two Sipanis and one 118 NE in the family friends' circle and drove those extensively as well. In fact, I was driving for more than 2 years before my dad got to know.

Ambassadors I used to wrangle from my dad's drivers without him knowing. The old ones used to be extremely lethargic, but once they got going the car was the original magic carpet for Indian roads. The last iteration I drove was a white petrol 1.8 one with less than 5K on the odd, which was so quiet (more silent than the M800, which was the gold standard), that I revved it up in second gear to nearly 75-80 kmph, before the driver pointed out I had forgotten to change gears.

Drove a lot of official gypsies and the plastic dashboard and dials in front of the driver were a step up from the Mahindra jeeps. But the 1.0 engine always felt less powerful than the torquey diesels from Mahindra. And the doors and body panels were so light that it never felt as solid as the jeeps. As part of a project, my dad got a brand new Gypsy 1.3 King which I ran in, along with the official driver, who was equally passionate. The getup-and-go of that 1.3 engine was stuff of dreams for me. But the tall gearing was a let down for that car, rendering the fifth gear nearly useless for the car.

[Raulspace999]

Voted for the Contessa or atleast i believe to say so. This is your truly posing with what looks like a Contessa somewhere on the streets of Goa circa 2009 but the ‘emblem’ on the snout might be a revelation. I was just not able to resist posing with this classic and The masculine stance just grows on you. It has that magnetic feel to draw one towards itself. I really had not idea as to what sat under the hood but by the looks of it assumed it to be powerful.

The mustang is to America what Contessa was to India in the license raj. While one would like to believe that the mustang is an exotic in the states it isn't. The mustang review on BHP surely threw some light on the mustangs lineage and I feel HM did an awesome job by drawing inspiration from it.

[jkrishnakj]

For me it shall be the 118NE. It was aspirational. During the mid 90’s and about a couple of years of starting work, I used to look at the managers then, who drive in to the factory parking in the 118NE. I used to love it’s horn too. It was more like a ‘I’ll buy one , the day I become a manager’.

Sadly, when I could finally get to buy my first car, it was no longer being sold.

[jbpanda]

Voted for the Gypsy. This car looks modern generations after generations and I cannot stop drooling over this in spite of its shortcomings. We never owned one in the family and the lack of power steering and AC did not permit me to own one even when it was available for the civilians until recently. But given an option, I would love to own an open Gypsy with a rollover bar, some great looking alloys and tyres.

In our family, we had Premier Padmini (about 3 of them), Ambassadors (about 3 of them including the monstrous 1.8 ISZ) and the Maruti 800 at different points in time. In those days, one Premier Padmini replaced another and similarly one Ambassador replaced another, which is hard to find these days with the sheer number of options one has at his/ her disposal. I learnt driving on Diesel Ambassador and honed my skills on the 1.8 ISZ and still admire the engine. The Maruti 800 was the beginning of the transition and most modern of the lot. I still remember, village children encircling these cars when one of them reached from the cities/ towns and also run behind these cars till the village road merged unto the main road.