Team-BHP - Fun & Interesting Trivia on the Indian Car Scene

Quote:

Originally Posted by slicvic (Post 3416212)

It was quite a car for its price. The car came with a single wiper

Sure was. I would like to add that though the car had a refined power output, fully integrated robotized engine (FIRE), the motor from the wiper came from a Ferrari. It had a very fast sweep.

Quote:

Originally Posted by slicvic (Post 3416212)

(Fiat Uno) was quite a car for its price.
The car came with a single wiper like the Mercs of those days, and a massive 1.9L diesel engine like the Skoda Octavia
There was some quirk with the door lock too. Don't remember what exactly it was.

They underpriced it (sold it at a loss) and were ordered by the SC in 2012 to pay Rs 400 crores as excise duty (ie, pay on manufacturing cost, not sales price).

I had a used Fiat Uno, 1.0 Petrol (not FIRE, carburetted) from 2004 to 2010. Nice car, smooth ride, comfortable seats, reasonable fuel economy, and I got it cheap, but it was definitely outdated at that point. I had to get rid of it when the distributor developed problems and couldn't be replaced (the mechanic replaced it with a scavenged unit, but that failed too in a few months). The single-blade wiper was nice, and effective. I don't remember a quirk with the door lock. The fuel tank needed to be opened with the key, unlike with my current Punto (2010) where it is opened with a lever from inside, but key opening seems to be normal in Italy (I drove a Punto 2012 model there recently -- diesel multijet, awesome car, I often drove close to the 130 km/h speed limit and still got close to 20 km/l.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by noopster (Post 3416162)

... must have taken a great deal of courage to say that (and not sound insincere) to the great man himself.

The story about the Sumo being named after Sumant Moolgaonkar is popular, but not sure if that was the really the case.

The man himself was with Maruti Udyog before that, and had even said that MUL being a govt undertaking, should be more into (manufacturing) public transport.

Speaking of MUL, Yashwant Sinha, former Finance Minister was one of the top people there before he moved out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warwithwheels (Post 3416196)

Am not sure if it is covered elsewhere on this thread. This is about the interesting naming convention followed by M&M.

All of Mahindra's model names whether it's the SUVs like Bolero, Scorpio, Xylo, or even the XUV 5OO, pronounced as five double oh, or the company's two-wheelers Duro, Rodeo, Stallio and Pantero have the same ending.

You missed the Quanto and the E2o

The next bike from Mahindra is going to be called the Mojo

The only Mahindra not confirming to the naming rule is the Thar

Quote:

Originally Posted by condor (Post 3416301)

Sumant Moolgaonkar was appointed as director in charge of TELCO back in 1949 and is widely credited as the person responsible for Telco's growth over half a century to become a dominant force in India. I didn't know he was associated with Maruti. Can you please recheck?

From what I've read, Sumo was the first Telco product to be launched after his death in 1989 and Telco (Tata Motors was Telco back then) appropriately named it in his honour.

Quote:

Sumant Moolgaokar is often referred to as the architect of TELCO. Leading the Company for nearly four decades, he was responsible for building the company into an organisation capable of competing with the world’s best – in terms of people, processes and technology.

From his bio hosted in Tata Central Archives: http://www.tatacentralarchives.com/h...moolgaokar.htm

EDIT: Here is one more article on SuMo which mentions that he was heading Telco till 1989 when he died:

Before Maruti introduced the concept of car carriers, all cars were driven down.

Fiats had an extra plate in the carburettor complete with seal to act as a governor to ensure no overspeeding on the long delivery drive

HM drivers prevented overspeeding by twing 2-3 cars in tandem to cream off the fuel expense. Cars never got run in but run down

How we have progressed -
1984 - HM Contessa - Big car with 1.5 L 50BHP petrol engine
2014 - Renault Fluence - Big Car with 1.5 L 108BHP Diesel Engine

Escorts nearly inked a deal to produce the Ciroen 2CV but Maruti scuppered it

Mahindra seriously looked at the Peugeot 504 pick up as a rival to the Tatamobile

Vital Mallya paid 12 Lakhs for a w123 Mercedes 300D in 1978 from the STC- a princely sum then

Dhirendra Brahmachaya imported a Mercedes 500SEL w126 as part of his medical equipment quota

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO (Post 3414938)

.

• Hyundai, Nissan & Maruti are the top vehicle exporters from India (in that order), regularly clocking in 6-digit numbers, year after year.

Attachment 1230864

While we are talking exports here, not many know that back in 2003 our own Tata Indica was exported to Rover of UK, to be sold as City Rover. Quite an achievement for 1st complete indian car, didn't set any sales charts on fire though.

Currently I am in London and have seen one such City Rover many times in parking of Tesco near my area.

Quote:

Originally Posted by saket77 (Post 3416067)

Kinetic City car too had a fibre body. But it did not see the light of the day actually. It was a 500 (or 550CC?) car developed by Kinetic for city. The car was developed and prototypes were test driven too. But finally the car never made to the public roads.

I believe it was based off an Aixam Design which was indianized

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajmat (Post 3416349)

How we have progressed -
1984 - HM Contessa - Big car with 1.5 L 50BHP petrol engine
2014 - Renault Fluence - Big Car with 1.5 L 108BHP Diesel Engine

And still the fluence is considered underpowered by many :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by directinjection (Post 3415425)

Allwyn was also a major bus body manufacturer and so its foray into CV manufacture wasn't strange at all.

I recall Allwyn also made pushpak scooters.

The first Diesel hatchback in india was not the zen or the Indica. It was Sipani Montana D1

The Familiar Christmas tree taillights in the indica were developed to hide the huge panel gaps and alignment issues of the rear hatch door.

Not clearly sure of which year but AFAIK the HM Ambassador early 1980's had:

1) Floor mounted low/high bean switch;

2) Indicator switch placed in the centre hub of the steering wheel.

The 3 companies who are in the manufacturing of 2- wheeler and 4-wheeler are:

1) Honda
2) BMW
3) Suzuki

Anurag.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ksmrsm (Post 3416241)

On the point of two wheelers, does anyone remember the Fury and the Explorer? I think they were both from the house of Enfield. The fury was probably the first faired sports bike with 175 cc and the Explorer a 75 cc one.

Do apologize in advance if my facts are wrong.

Yes, I actually owned a Fury. If and when it did work, it was the second fastest bike in India, after the RD350. Trouble is, it spent more time in the workshop rather than with me. A complete piece of crap bike.

The forks leaked oil like there is no tomorrow, the brake master cylinder also leaked similarly, the bike would most often never start, but when it did start, boy was it fast!

It was originally made by Z…undapp of Germany, and Enfield brought in the worst bikes from them into India.

Of course, there were a lot of riders who did not know how to use a disc brake (it was the only bike with a disc brake at that time), and went over the handle-bars and broke collar bones. Luckily, I was not among them.

Cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by kamboj (Post 3416361)

I remember an (in)famous Top Gear episode on the City Rover. Rover refused to let Top Gear test drive the car, so TG team used false customers and spy cams !

Quote:

Originally Posted by slicvic (Post 3416212)

There was some quirk with the door lock too. Don't remember what exactly it was.

Fiat Uno's front doors won't lock with open doors. You first have to shut the door n then only can you lock the doors :mad:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ksmrsm (Post 3416241)

When I was very young my father brought his first bike which was Enfield Explorer. Explorer is not a 75 cc bike it was a 50 cc bike with three gears. I still remember that the bike used give lots of trouble. Silver Plus which was also from Enfield and it was more popular than other 2. Silver Plus had the same 50 CC engine as Explorer's and 3 geared. All these 3 vehicles were flop in India market.