[Sayan]

Having grown up and currently residing in Kolkata, I have never considered the Ambassador to be a cultural icon or something worthy of reminiscing.

It's a relic of the British era, which combined with lack of innovation, became irrelevant with time. Reminds me of something else.

In my (unpopular) opinion, this car symbolizes everything wrong with our automobile industry, as well as the era it belonged to.
It's no coincidence that we associate the image ministers and bureaucrats of the time with convoys of Ambassadors.

The decline of the Ambassador was necessary for the industry to move forward. And I'm glad we no longer see them on roads. Good Riddance!

[Stribog]

Interesting travelogue, and as an Amby aficionado very insightful.

One thing though, the security barracks reminded me of my visit to Auschwitz for some reason.

[refaircargo]

Extract from the company's annual report for 2017-18 ...

Sale of Brand “Ambassador” to PSA Automobiles SA ultimately materialized and the consideration of nearly ` 80 crores was received during the year and as a result the Company managed to reduce its debt liabilities including the loan liabilities of banks and financial institutions. In fact, as on 31st March, 2018, there is no outstanding secured loan taken from banks and financial institutions and all the pending charges have been released and at the same time pledge of promoter shares have also been released.

So in effect HM cannot use the brand name “Ambassador” any more.

[Truck_Monk]

It is simply wonderful. Threads related to the Ambassadors and Fiats always give another level of happiness to me. I really enjoyed reading this thread.

[FamilyTraveller]

'Ambassador', the name itself evokes nostalgia. I am sure everyone has memories associated with this name. Very comfortable and spacious. When I was a kid I remember sitting inside one with 7-10 additional people for short rides I don't think even an Innova can accommodate as many people in case of an emergency.

It did not give any one any reason to complain!

[AnnaRocks]

Thank you babyhindustan for this delightful post which I am sure brought a lot of nostalgia along with it.

Originally Posted by Babyhindusthan

Overnight 22000 people lost their jobs, and the people who live in the quarters are without electricity or water.

This ended the post on a sad note.
Always hoped and still hope that this brand will someday rise up like a phoenix.

[xcentrk]

Nice thread and Amby as usual brings nostalgia of the past. I still remember how hard I struggled to make a U-turn with this beast. And all those comfortable rides.

I tried to see why HM had to shut shop and most of the articles mentioned that it is due to the lack of innovation. But in the OP, it is mentioned like below:

Union room, one of the main reason leading to shut down of the plant.

Can someone shed light on what does the above statement means? Just intrigued to know!

[Ajaybiz]

I am not able to find now but there was an article on Hindustan Motors over the net, covering many pics of current state of factory, people, their residential area, schools, hospitals etc.
I'll share if I can find the same.

[RahuKetu]

Thank you Babyhindustan for taking us virtually through HM. I worked for some time in WB in 2007, We used ambassadors for commuting from railway station to our township. The place was Farakka.

In 2011, We went for a family trip for 7 days booked through GMVN to Kedarnath & Badrinath. They asked us to choose from Indica or Ambassador and we happily selected Ambassador. It was one of the most memorable family trips. Comfortable & Safe.

[SS-Traveller]

That wasn't much of a visit, was it? Unless you explore the insides of the compound at a leisurely pace, and manage to see the insides of the factory if you can make the right connections, what is the fun?

I've been inside the factory when it was working many years ago, thanks to an uncle who used to work there and took us on a guided tour (those days, hardly anyone had a readily available camera). Later, very recently, I had the honour of visiting Distinguished BHPian Samba, who lives a stone's throw away from the factory. We had taken a quick tour of the Hindmotor compound then, and here are a few more pics from my side.

[refaircargo]

Originally Posted by AnnaRocks

Thank you babyhindustan for this delightful post which I am sure brought a lot of nostalgia along with it.


This ended the post on a sad note.
Always hoped and still hope that this brand will someday rise up like a phoenix.

As stated above, the brand "Ambassador" has already been sold for Rs. 80 Cr to a South African conglomerate. It is doubtful if we will ever see an Indian Amby ever again

[Mustang Sammy]

Originally Posted by Sayan

In my (unpopular) opinion, this car symbolizes everything wrong with our automobile industry, as well as the era it belonged to.
It's no coincidence that we associate the image ministers and bureaucrats of the time with convoys of Ambassadors.

The decline of the Ambassador was necessary for the industry to move forward. And I'm glad we no longer see them on roads. Good Riddance!

Good points. I think people are just nostalgic for the simpler and slower times of their childhoods.
No denying that a world where the Ambassador continued to sell would likely be one where Team-BHP wouldn’t exist in its current form.

[rakesh_r]

Thanks for bringing back the memories. Even though I was born and brought up in Mumbai, my yearly trips to my native Kerala always used to invoke my interest towards Ambassadors. One of my known associates have had ambassadors with varied engine combos-

Mark 4 Petrol Converted to Diesel - Matador 305 engine, good on power, very heavy, front suspension used to take a beating, nightmare to drive in summers as the engine was way too hot.

Nova with the BMC Diesel, had a longer right turn radius for some reason (faulty rack?). The engine had oil consumption issues, anything above 80 or 90 was suicidal for the engine. My first trip on the Nova was from Trivandrum to Kanyakumari and back.

1500 DSL - BMC Stride (KL taxi drivers used to call it Slide)- One of the most anaemic engines I have seen but was good on mileage.

Last version owned- 2000DSZ - Isuzu Diesel - Loved the air conditioning and had ample power, spares were a bit on the expensive side as compared with its 1500 sibling.

Again, these are just my views and may differ.

[ads11]

Growing up, especially when we returned to Calcutta, Hindmotor and Uttarpara were words I quickly became familiar with thanks to my grandad. Post partition, having made it across to WB as a young man barely out of his teens, I think his first major job was at HM's Uttarpara facility. For most of his adult life he worked his way up from extremely humble beginnings (as my parents were loathe to remind me as a teen, and rightly so), to eventually set up his own ancillary business providing the copper wiring and servicing for motors that helped bring dad's family into the middle classes. Understandably the brand and that particular plant meant so much more to him than just a production facility, especially the car itself. However as a child, it would annoy me to no end when spending my weekends with my grandparents, grandad would without fail scoff at all the modern cars that I would try to tell him about. The Ambassador was practically holy to him and could do no wrong. When our cars would end up in a bit of an accident, he'd not waste an opportunity to decry crumple zones - I used to find it infuriating. Now that I'm older and he's long gone I have a wry smile just thinking about it.

My dad, his siblings, all of them every so often make reference to their childhoods growing up in the shadow of this once bustling facility, one that I'm afraid I've never gotten around to visiting. So thank you those of you who shared some photos, it's really meaningful for me to get a glimpse of this place I'd only heard about till now.

[TrackDay]

Nice to see pictures of a place that once churned out a milestone car in Indian automobile history. However the products were outdated and never upgraded to changing times. The ambassador and Contessa nameplates could have been used to bring on newer generation products. Those were truly one of the first mass car brands in India before Maruti set shop. I recall the last ambassador series sold was something called 'Grand '. Here is another thread covering the car:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...ve-review.html (2009 Ambassador Grand BS-3 2.0 Turbo Diesel and 1800 ISZ MPFI: Test drive and review)