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It's the second time in India it seems, we already had XENON and NEXON.

Hi

Got an interesting trivia as a whatsapp forward from my friend, who got it from a city group. Never heard or read of it before, so Googled immediately. And just like the article of Kerala ministers using foreign cars in the 80s, only India Today had a 1982 article uploaded on 2013.



In the early 1980s there was an option of airlifting Padminis to Kerala instead of it being transported by road. While it would cost ₹2,900 for it to be transported by road, you could have it airlifted and delivered at the Trivandrum (present day Thiruvananthapuram) airport for ₹3,000 !!!

Only catch, it had to be paid in foreign currency. The scheme was a hit with the NRIs. Aah, the license raj.lol:

The article also talks about the car sales or rather car wars of that era.

https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/e...571-2013-10-18

So what model did the ordinary tourist taxis used? rl: Pity these kind of language is still being used by the media here. Any news articles/accident report/smuggling reports would use the term aadambara- luxury for any private vehicles that is not an 800/Alto/Omni/Ambassador.

Interesting trivia from 1930's Calcutta. Seems we had Zebra carts back then :cool:

Must be the Ola "Prime" version of yester years. :)

That's an one off incident where one of the prominent member of an aristocratic family of Calcutta (and Calcutta had quite a few) took up the challenge to tame wild zebra, and use for domestic purpose instead of the quite common horse. He bought two zebras for Rs. 6000 then.

Haha thanks for the extra info. 6000 rs then sounds like a princely sum.

Here's a bit of Trivia about the Maruti 1000.

When it was launched in 1990, the journos who test drove it were raving about the smoothness of the engine and the incredible power and acceleration compared to anything else on Indian roads at the time. Importantly, it was still powerful even with the AC on, something few cars at the time could boast about. Priced at 3.81 lakhs, it was one of the most expensive cars on sale at the time, priced on par with the Contessa and the Premier 118NE. There was even a comparo of the three cars by Indian Auto Journal, which easily went in favour of the M1000, as the other two were basically 70s cars with crude interiors, and bad power to weight ratios. It was amazing that the 970cc mill from the Gypsy could be so different in a proper car.

But when the actual production cars were tested, customers and journos alike were crushed to find that the car they had paid for was nothing like the media test drive model. The production M1000 was underpowered, and had none of the thrust they had raved about, and it was a dog with the AC on.

Later, it turned out that the test drive vehicles were fitted with the 1298cc G13B engine, and not the 970cc F10D as touted by Maruti. :Shockked: The G13B would later make an appearance on the Esteem in 1994.

Imagine if such a stunt were pulled by any car manufacturer nowadays. Such was the clout that Maruti Udyog held in the era. :Frustrati

The tatkal version had some niceties also to it. I got a 1996 model used in early 2001 and remember the owner telling me this. If I remember correctly it was a small ash tray on the rear door pad, cigarette lighter, grab handles, rear seat centre arm rest etc.

Oh man, what a story! In this era of social media & user comments, Maruti would be finished. Not to mention, sued. They are now more accountable as a listed company.

But I guess, even then, word-of-mouth ruled strong. Even though I was a kid when this happened, I remember the flak the Maruti 1000 got for being under-powered and having a weak a/c. The Esteem, on the other hand, was the Octavia vRS of its time. What power :thumbs up. I used to brag to my friends / college girlfriends that my Esteem can do 100 kmph in 2nd gear :Cheering:

The kind of goodies we made a note of then. Today's customers now want ventilated seats & 360-degree cameras!!

Seems like we also had sunroof (car in the middle).

Even the first generation Maruti Swift had a long waiting period. But it was available faster if you could purchase/book it through an NRI account and paid in foreign currency.

Fun Fact: The original Mahindra Armada was designed by none other than Dileep Chhabria of DC Designs. The Armada has its origins in a one-off custom MM540 created by DC. Unfortunately, I have lost the original IAJ issue in which this one-off was featured, but the entire front fascia was exactly the same as the Armada. It even had the distinctive hubcaps that hid the big FFA hubs. Sorry for the poor quality pics, they're all I could find on Google.




The front bumpers were made of poor quality FRP on the original Armada, and were prone to breaking. Even today, it is difficult to find an Armada with the original front bumper, because it invariably broke off from an impact or age, and was replaced with the one from the facelifted model, shown below. The facelift also brought a horde of improvements including AC, laminated windscreen, NGCS, front Disc brakes, Halogen headlamps etc, which were not offered initially, as M&M had no idea whether the Armada would take off or not.



At the time, DC Design was known for their modern facelifts and customs of the outdated and crude designs which were all Indian OEMs were offering. Noteworthy examples include the Sierra Karma and the Maruti 1000 coupe, which were surprisingly good looking.




The Mahindra Armada was a success, and Mahindra later evolved it into the Armada Grand, which featured the XD3P 2.5L engine and BA10 5 Speed gearbox, which were 'grand' improvements over the 2.1L XDP 4.9 and the KMT-90. At the time, the Armada offered incredible value, offering 8 seats, luxuries like AC, PS and reliable mechanicals (well...considering the competition) at a reasonable price. The Grand also introduced the full size alloy wheel-lookalike wheelcaps which are offered atandard on the Bolero even today.

Awesome post :thumbs up. Thanks for sharing. I found the Armada dead ugly when it was launched. Hated DC's modifications then, hate them today.

The Grand looked better for sure. I have the XD3P 2.5L in my Jeep, bought brand new from Mahindra. It replaced the 2.1L XDP. Frankly, other than a minor increase in power of ~10 BHP, the two are identical in nature, power delivery & sound.

The biggest improvement with the Armada Grand was that 5-speed gearbox. I have the 4-speed in my Classic as the 5-speed won't fit. The 4-speed's short gearing makes the engine scream even at 80 - 90 kmph.

Well said ! The Armada plastic fairings appeared to be all like after-thoughts on the bodyshell and on that old CJ 4A chassis. While new, these remained intact, but pity those old ones where the fairings either fell off in part or were shattered or had fissures and cracks or else even if intact had faded in colour from black to shades of grey or greyish white. And in its later years, by the late 1990's many Armadas were bought by our defence forces. Those in the Army were painted in the olive green shade.

The 2112 cc, 65 bhp, Peugeot XD90 engine, with the 4-speed Kia BA-10 gearbox used in the earlier Mahindras since the early 1980's (incl the 540 DP) was a very tough workhorse and a very welcome change for regular Mahindra users, from the rattling MD 2350, 38 bhp, International tractor engine, with its antique Willys, three speed gearbox (first gear was non-synchromesh), that propelled the first generation, diesel Mahindras.

The 2498 cc, Peugeot XD3P engine, with its five speed gearbox was also a very tough workhorse. I have extensively used a 1999 Bolero to travel long distances. The engine noise was though quite high, in fact NVH levels were on the higher side, but the gem of an engine could cruise all day long at 70-80 kmph for days together, during long journeys. The dash plastics and interior door upholstery looked very cheap though. Instrumentation on the meter console was spartan. Due to the BS II norms getting into plce, M&M had to abandon the engine. But I believe they developed the 2.6 L Scorpio (1st generation) engine with the help of AVL Austria from the XD3P engine, readying for the Scorpio's 2003 launch.

The 2609cc Scorpio engine was derived out of tractor, weighted over 350 kg. This was infact the reason why first generation Scorpio had poor handling despite taking consultation from Lotus. The heavy engine mounted high up in the SUV was enough to once again let physics win. Its the current 2179cc block which has AVL inputs.