Bad
news is always painful, even when you knew that it is coming and is
inevitable; like demise of a long ailing friend. News has now come
that the good old Ambassador car would no longer be produced by
Hindustan Motors Ltd. Their official announcement giving reasons for
closure of the plant making these cars says "worsening
conditions at its Uttarpara plant which include very low
productivity, growing indiscipline, critical shortage of funds, lack
of demand for its core product the Ambassador and large accumulation
of liabilities. The suspension of work will enable the company in
restricting mounting liabilities and restructure its organisation and
finances and bring in a situation conducive to reopening of the
plant."
This
car, based on design of Morris Oxford car, first went into production
in 1957 and the design has not been changed much. The car design is a
far cry from cars of other make, available in India today and all the
experts and analysts agree that the Ambassador has no chances of any
revival. In the year ending in march 2014, the company had managed to
produce only 2200 cars, a figure that can hardly sustain any car
manufacturing plant. Simply saying, Ambassador car has come to an end
of its production cycle, having been hopelessly outpaced by its
modern cousins coming from Toyata, Suzuki, Honda, Volkswagen and Tata
Motors.
But
for people like me, who have used an Ambassador for most of their
active professional years, nostalgia of this car would linger in our
minds for any number of years. I bought my first Ambassador in the
year 1977. Even by today's standards, it was a macho car with its
rugged body and 1.4 liter gasolene engine. It was extremely
comfortable, particularly if one had a chauffeur to drive it. That
is why most of the Government officials and corporate bosses used it
then. The car ran really well. I remember having driven it around 140
Km/hr speed on highways with car remaining rock steady even at that
speed.
My
association with Ambassador however got little closer in 1986. In
that year, there was an industrial exhibition that was held in
Mumbai. I had taken a stall in it to display some inspection gadgets,
which I used to manufacture then. The only other major automobile
manufacturer of those times in India, who manufactured Fiat 1100 cars
under his brand name, was already my customer. During this
exhibition, some people from Hindustan motors came to see my stall
and what I was manufacturing. They must have been apparently
impressed, because after about a month, one of their top engineers,
visiting Pune, called me and visited my factory. Sometime later, I
received a call from a friend, doing business with Hindustan Motors
ltd., saying that Hindustan Motors wanted me to visit their plant in
Uttarpara on outskirts of Kolkata city. There was neither any
official communication nor any indication of likely business. I
decided to take a chance and left for Kolkata.
Next
morning, I visited their plant. The engineer, who had visited my
factory in Pune, told me that they have not not invited me all the
way to Uttarpara just to discuss my products. They have decided to
buy what I was producing. After usual negotiations, I got the final
order. After the commercial transactions were over, I was offered to
visit their plant. My only previous experience about car
manufacturing plants was the Mumbai factory that made Fiat 1100 cars.
The skeletal assembly line and other manufacturing sheds however did
not make a good impression on me.
Even
then, what I saw in Uttarpara really had shocked me. Almost all the
machinery was age old. There was no automation of any kind and the
cars were moved forward on hand carts. Working conditions were also
not very good. Since that day, I have often wondered how those guys
managed to produce such reliable cars with that old machinery and
lack of any automation. The simple reason for that perhaps was that
the staff and workers working there were really proficient and
dedicated in their work.
My
visit to Uttarpara was in 1986; that means for 28 more years that
plant has kept making the Ambassador car, which must have been a
record of some sorts. Uttarpara plant was perhaps a classic example
of frugal engineering; so much being talked about now-a-days.
When I
compare Ambassador car design with cars of today, I often wonder why
I liked that car so much in those days. May be the choice was
limited, but in any case Ambassador car to me is like an old
fashioned friend, who does not know anything about computers and
smartphones but has so much warmth for you that he still manages to
effectively communicate without use of any of the modern gadgets.
Ambassador
was like that friendship. Trusted and faithful. R.I.P. Dear
Ambassador
27th
May 2014
I also had more or less similar experience when I used to visit Fiat car manufacturing plant in Kurla, Mumbai. My visits were there for heat treatment required for a firm.
ReplyDeleteI used to see rows of machines lying idle and workers had hardly any work. This was the state of our automobile industry on an average during 1980 to 90. Later, the industry grew with new models and the history is known to everyone.
Mangesh Nabar