[motorworks]

Peugeot makes cars that are one of the best looking and can be a breath of fresh air in our market! The design language is very different and I love what I see, especially the 301 sedan.
Renault hasn't done justice it's brand lineage in India and I hope Peugeot brings its real line up here and not some made for Asia range.

[sgiitk]

Another (after)thought.

Maybe PSA know that the Peugeot brand have been damaged so severely (thanks to Premier, and the two wheeler concessionaires) that it must be put into the deep background. So they bought the Ambassador as the 'brandname'. I do not think it will have such bad vibes.

[kiku007]

80 Crores for the Ambassador trademark? This has to be 1st big con job of 2017.

After years of India being at the receiving end of getting the short end of big ticket deals, here is an Indian company make a fool out of a French company. Wow! Epic!

Wikileaks needs to get into the bottom of this and make public the damn analysis that valued the deal at 80C!

[shankar.balan]

Since the old Ambassador Dies are fully depreciated and probably double or triple depreciated now, and Peugeot owns the Brand, it would make sense for Peugeot to resurrect the brand as a 'Retro' chic brand and bung in some new technology, safety stuff and a new set of engines too - maybe a 'made to order' kind of thing.
This might well spark a revival of sorts.

[ringoism]

Originally Posted by kiku007

80 Crores for the Ambassador trademark? This has to be 1st big con job of 2017.

After years of India being at the receiving end of getting the short end of big ticket deals, here is an Indian company make a fool out of a French company. Wow! Epic!

. :-)

Originally Posted by drmohitg

Going by brand image, doesn't Contessa enjoy a better brand recall/image factor than the Ambassador? Or may be it is just me. I would love to own a car called Contessa again but the Ambassador just reminds me of a bulbous babus car with a red light on them.

Originally Posted by ashutoshb

Would I like to see a modern day Ambassador? Hell, yes!

Would I buy it? If they go the Beetle / Fiat 500 way, maybe.

Upon Googling, I came across this sketch by Manjunath Acharya, and fell in love with it. If Peugeot has something similar in mind, I am in.

More "roundish" retro has succeeded well in the EU/US markets (Beetle, Fiat 500, PT Cruiser, Dodge pickups, etc, and plenty of bikes)
. Contessas are great but the lines are more reminiscent of the squarish mid-70's / 80's which hasn't yet reawakened so much. I suppose the Challenger RT & Mustangs are a little more in that direction, so we may yet see it. If some bike manufacturers would follow the lead of the Continental GT and UM Commando and find sales volumes, I could get hopeful, but as it stands doubt the Indian market will be ready for it very soon. I'm guessing Peugeot has Euro or longer-term Indian markets in view.

[Ashley Nair]

Post deleted by the Team-BHP Support : Please do NOT post messages that add little or no informational value to the thread. We need your co-operation to maintain the quality of this forum.

Please read our rules before proceeding any further. We request you to post ONLY when you have something substantial to add to a discussion.

[Sawyer]

What I can't understand is how using the brand will make any difference either way to the fortunes of the company when it comes back to India.

I also don't know what is meant by the brand - is it just the word "Ambassador"?

I really don't see a retro Ambassador in the pipeline either.

Time will tell I suppose but it looks like HM picked up some useful loose change.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by Ashley Nair

Whether Peugeot or HM, it is good to see the Ambassador, once the national car of India, back on roads

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

... it would make sense for Peugeot to resurrect the brand as a 'Retro' chic brand and bung in some new technology, safety stuff and a new set of engines too - maybe a 'made to order' kind of thing. This might well spark a revival of sorts.

A modern Ambassador could become the car of choice for the Government sector. It was a very comfortable car to be driven in - ease of ingress/egress with the cabin height, comfortable seats etc. I for one would be looking forward to a modern Ambassador.

Originally Posted by kiku007

80 Crores for the Ambassador trademark? This has to be 1st big con job of 2017.

Wikileaks needs to get into the bottom of this and make public the damn analysis that valued the deal at 80C!

From the point of view of PSA this is just a nick above Euro 11 million. Not a large amount by a global yardstick. It will be interesting to know whether payment is in cash or shares (of the new PSA India). I assume for now there is no tax structuring benefit of which this Rs 80 crore deal is a sub set of.

[SmartCat]

HM is still an amateur when compared to Mallya who managed to pledge the 'Kingfisher' brand to get a loan of Rs. 3,000 crores. In my opinion, Ambassador brand is worth Rs. 1. A brand has a value only if the underlying product is doing well.

There is more than what meets the eye. Maybe this is just an upfront fee paid by Peugeot to HM as a part of their future India assembly plans.

[shankar.balan]

We can all sit here and pontificate in this 'mass market' kind of reactionary way as much as we want.

But there is a singular lack of awareness and respect hereabouts for the quality and value of the Citroen and Peugeot brands - they were far advanced and futuristic in their suspension technology offerings - remember the superb hydraulic suspension of the Citroen DS?
Even in the 1960's it was acknowledged that their suspension was a class apart!

And Peugeot has had a long and illustrious track record for comfort, toughness and reliability in other places like Egypt, North Africa, West Aftica and so on, which are similar in terms of road quality, to India.

Lets not lightly dismiss what the majority of us here know very little about, given that most people here have cut their eyeteeth on Maruti, Hyundai and Toyota and similar South East Asia derived mass market offerings.

Peugeot-Citroen certainly has an illustrious heritage and rightly or wrongly so does Ambassador.

So why not look at it positively for a change?

[Sawyer]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

And Peugeot has had a long and illustrious track record for comfort, toughness and reliability in other places like Egypt, North Africa, West Aftica and so on, which are similar in terms of road quality, to India.

I agree; I remember thinking then how right their car was for India in every respect including the fantastic diesel for the day, and the brilliant bad road package. PAL was just the worst way to go at the time and made a complete mess of things.
What I don't understand is the value of the name " Ambassador" on any car, in terms of sales. Will there be enough people that care about that if the car isn't right for the market? And if it is right, why will it need that name?

[shankar.balan]

Like I said. Dont underestimate the 'Retro Chic' market.
Just take a look at Royal Enfield, Triumph and the like!

[sub.g84]

Selling off the Amby for 80 crores is a striking thing that HM has done in a long time. It really took me a digestive pill to settle down with the news. But, I always loved the Amby. I just wonder if she is in the right hands now after years of neglect. Europeans(except for the Germans) are not really known to make a dent in our market here. Maybe a Korean entrant(read Kia) or an existing American(Ford maybe?) would be a better bet than Peugeot?

[alpha1]

Are there any currently made cars that have same look and feel like Amby?
Are there any living manufacturers that used to make cars like Amby in the past?

[Alfresco]

First Mahindra bought Jawa and other brands and now, Peugeot has bought Ambassador. Is the Indian car market so lucrative that people are trying hard for niches to exploit? Does it have something to do with the long-term demographics of our country?

French are severely under-rated in technology. This is one country that boasts the best in terms of Nuclear, Space and Defence technologies. In competitions, see the record of Peugeot and Renault in Paris-Dakar and F1 respectively.

I do hope that they are able to get their best products here and succeed. Italian flair bombed; hope French doesn't!