|Date: 10-1-93 10:43am
|From: Dean Zywicki:dcrt:nih
| To: {british-cars@autox.team.net}:BITNET
|Subj: The Morris is alive
------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry for the length of this, but I think that many of you will find it
amusing. Reprinted without permission
INDIA'S AGED WARHORSE ON EXPORT CONQUESTS
=========================================
by Christopher Thomas
Original article from The Times, London,
copied without permission from The Statesman, Calcutta
September 19,1993
India's ubiquitous Ambassador car, a plodding clone of the 1946
British Morris Oxford, is to be marketed in Britain. Decades of
foreign ridicule have done nothing to alter its popularity or
shape, and India remains hugely proud of its fossil-on-wheels.
Ten people can cram into the cavernous interior, and a
short man could practically stand upright. The car plunges into
potholes and clambers out the other side no worse for wear.
In accidents, it crushes lesser vehicles. The engine,
which seems to be immortal, can propel it at 60 mph. Village
mechanics fix it with a screw driver and a couple of spanners.
It belongs to a simpler age: it is timelessly Indian.
In the late 1940s, Sir Miles Thomas of the British
Motor Company teamed up with the Birlas and in 1949 the Morris
Oxford made its Indian debut. A decade later it became the
Ambassador, initially assembled from a kit provided by Britain.
The shape of the car has not changed since.
In just over four decades nearly 700,000 Ambassadors
have been produced by Hindustan Motors, and 25,000 continue to
roll off the Calcutta production line annually. Men, not robots,
assemble the hefly bodywork. The metal is so thick a hammer
blow would scarcely dent it. The Japanese, entranced by this
dinosaur, have started importing it, as have a few African
countries.
But it is Britain that offers the prospect of sizeable
foreign sales, if only for nostalgia's sake. "The Ambassador:
an institution conserving the traditional flavour of Britain,"
pants a bilingual glossy brochure produced for the Biritsh and
Japanese markets. "The Ambassador remains not an imitation of
the Morris Oxford, but the genuine thing. Once again, it is
being celebrated and revived in England." A bit over the top,
may be, but then this is no ordinary car.
Times are changing. India's Prime Minister has a white
Ambassador that looks like the real thing, but is not. Under
the bonnet is a Japanese engine, powerful enough to carry the
burden of bullet-proof metal plates, bomb-proof and inch-thick
glass. The same engine will be in the exported models. Soon,
Indians will also be able to buy the upgraded Ambassador.
It is surely the world's cheapest car, costing Indians
Pounds 3,829, including taxes; the upgraded model will cost
Pounds 1,000 more. The price in Britain will be something
over Pounds 6,000. Export models will have a catalytic converter,
fuel injection and a range of mechanical and safety improvements
to meet European Community standards. But Mr. S.K. De, president
of Hindustan Motors' export division, complains about hidden
trade barriers in Britain.
The company is seeking clearance to sell a maximum of
five cars a year in Britain. Any more than that and tougher
safety tests would be required, including driving the
Amabssador into a stone wall at 25 mph. Doubtless the wall
would lose.
Later,
Dean Zywicki
|