[anjan_c2007]

The Ambassador Encore brochure with a comparison vis a vis the BS III version:



A misprint in the Suspension, Rear : the phrase "Semi elliptical leaf springs--------" for the BS III is OK.

But for the BS IV it reads "Semi electrical leaf springs-----------".Needs to be read as "Semi elliptical leaf springs----".

The value addition is for the BS IV for the BMC 1489 cc OHV engine, that is turbocharged.Should mean more power and a greater fuel efficiency. The torque is up by about
50 %.

With the addition of the new turbocharger, the Kerb weight still remains at 1200 Kg. The BS III version, according to the brochure weighs 1200 Kg, too.

[WindRide]

Mention of the Encore in this very noble PR attempt by HM:
http://www.rushlane.com/hindustan-mo...2-1290395.html

Are Encores plying on Kolkatta streets already? Any sightings?

[sgiitk]

The Ambosaurus (or for the matter xxx..saurus) comes alive again. Age of the dinosaurs seems to go on forever. Where are the mammals? What about the Baby Hindustan?

Of course Mamta and co will love it and it will keep mechanics busy.

[SandyX]

Yet another report on the Encore, with some news of the small car launch.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...w/23000175.cms

[anjan_c2007]

The Ambassador Encore was formally launched by Mr Madan Mitra, Minister for Sports and Transport, Govt of West Bengal, this week.

A Encore was also gifted by HM to Ms Asha Roy the sprinter who brought laurels in the 200 metres, at the Asian Athletic Meet in Pune recently.She has brought laurels for the country, despite the adverse and poor conditions in which she was brought up.

HM has confirmed 450 bookings of the new Encore.The West Bengal government has given permits for 2000 No Refusal taxis in Kolkata and 2000 more are expected by November 2013.

The old 1489 cc, OHV, BMC engine has been fitted with a turbocharger (no common rail yet ). The engine is capable of 50 bhp and 112.5 Nm torque now a much desired improvement over the old figures.

Also at the launch ceremony, Mr Uttam Bose, MD, HM, revealed that the company will be launching a much awaited, sub 4 metre, Ambassador this fiscal."It will be sold as a sedan only and its name is yet to be finalised," he revealed.

Attachment 1144163

(The Statesman photo)

Attachment 1144164

(rushlane.com picture)

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

The Ambosaurus (or for the matter xxx..saurus) comes alive again. Age of the dinosaurs seems to go on forever. Where are the mammals? What about the Baby Hindustan?

Of course Mamta and co will love it and it will keep mechanics busy.

Maybe not as per this news report.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...w/23129399.cms

"We have certain plans to make the net worth positive," said Uttam Bose, MD, Hindustan Motors. Among others, it is in the process of spinning off its lucrative Chennai plant into aseparate entity and has plans to unlock value of its land assets.

Which is the key thing. The Birla group has been desperately trying to use the land meant for manufacturing the Ambassador for an unauthorized SEZ. There are court cases to that extent in the Kolkata high court.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...cle5164353.ece

Hind Motors had sold 314 acres for Rs 295 crore, of which, a major portion was to be used for revival of the Uttarpara unit. The company had projected to make a profit of Rs 18 crore and a turnover of Rs 644 crore in the sixth year from 2006.

The Birlas were never interested in reviving the Ambassador or improving it in any way. They are only interested in profiting from the land sale which I am sure they had gotten for free. I guess the intention of declaring it sick now is to look at employee retrenchment options too and escape from other liabilities.

[JayPrashanth]

Originally Posted by samarjitdhar

Maybe not as per this news report.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...w/23129399.cms



Which is the key thing. The Birla group has been desperately trying to use the land meant for manufacturing the Ambassador for an unauthorized SEZ. There are court cases to that extent in the Kolkata high court.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/...cle5164353.ece



The Birlas were never interested in reviving the Ambassador or improving it in any way. They are only interested in profiting from the land sale which I am sure they had gotten for free. I guess the intention of declaring it sick now is to look at employee retrenchment options too and escape from other liabilities.

If they're so not interested in reviving HM, why bother with models such as the BS4 Diesel Ambassador and the upcoming compact sedan?

IMHO, they can actually develop their land bank at Uttarpara and shift to a location say, Kharagpur, where they have their component factory (AVTEC). This way, the Birlas will make money by selling off their land while keeping HM afloat.

Cheers,

Jay

[HillMan]

Age has finally caught up with the grand dad of Indian cars.

Guess it is finally time to say R.I.P.

What ever revival on card is only a distraction for other schemes. I won't blame the Birlas for trying to make good of a currently dead investment.

People might say the land was given free. But I am sure it was not an agricultural land those days and neither was land value like today. Please feel free to correct me. The risk if setting up a plant and marketing the product was the responsibility of HM. Govt had made enough tax money out of it at various stages.

[samarjitdhar]

Originally Posted by JayPrashanth

If they're so not interested in reviving HM, why bother with models such as the BS4 Diesel Ambassador and the upcoming compact sedan?

That is because if they would not have done this, they would have been shut down immediately. They were selling BSIII Ambys in the Kolkata Metropolitan Area through the back door to the taxi segment. This back door had been closed when the WB government allowed other manufacturers to sell cars to the taxi segment when Maruti, Tata and even Ford jumped in. That got them totally scared and they finally got the BSIV engine out after missing the deadline for 3 years. Given that track record, the compact sedan should be a pipe dream.

Originally Posted by JayPrashanth

IMHO, they can actually develop their land bank at Uttarpara and shift to a location say, Kharagpur, where they have their component factory (AVTEC). This way, the Birlas will make money by selling off their land while keeping HM afloat.

Which they should have. In fact the Birlas had zilch business plans around this product. If they had the right collaboration and partnerships, they should have been used to exploit the goodwill to bring in great cars to India. It would have developed the automobile industry in this region. However the erstwhile Left regime with the totally unimaginative Birlas killed it completely .

[WindRide]

Amby CS to come with Fiat 1.3L MJet engine.

http://www.business-standard.com/art...0300316_1.html

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by WindRide

Amby CS to come with Fiat 1.3L MJet engine.

http://www.business-standard.com/art...0300316_1.html

Its official now:

Another link to the official talks between HM and Fiat to source the 1.3 MJD engines for the Ambassador CS.

Report – HM in talks with Fiat to source Multijet engine for Amby

Those who worry about the consequences of this powerful engine being fitted in the Grand Ol' Amby's engine bay, may also think about the 20 year old ISZ 1800 engine that generates some 78 bhp. The original ISZ 1800 engine when introduced in 1987 for the Contessa generated 88 bhp, but was detuned to generate 78 bhp for the Amby.

[anjan_c2007]

We express our solidarity and wholehearted support here to Shri Chandrakant Birla, Chairman, Hindustan Motors (also tributes to the Late Shri Ghanshyamdas and his son the Late Shri Brij Mohan Birla, founders of HM) and the entire management and team of workers, for keeping the Ambassador alive since 56 years. This is despite the numerous odds that include huge losses incurred by HM since the past more than five years,unfavourable market conditions, falling demand, multiplying critics who are writing its obituary everyday and countless other factors that are against the Ambassador's survival in the market.The taxi trade and the government purchases too have dwindled.The sales figures that were last revealed were sometime in early 2013, showed sales of around 500 cars for the month.

Premier Automobiles Ltd (PAL) had to stop production of the Premier Padmini and 118 NE as the losses mounted and Fiat invested a major stake to modernise, prior to the Palio/ Sienna getting introduced. PAL was unable to fund the venture compatibly as per their equity holding, because Fiat was infusing huge funds from Italy and ultimately PAL pulled out.

Maruti Udyog Ltd (now MSIL) has killed its fading models progressively. We saw the Esteem, Zen and now the 800 being culled as they were and are purely into economics and had no sentiments attached or expressed, to even upgrade the car that put India on wheels- Maruti 800.It was their bread and butter earner once.The only changes it saw was the 1997 rear suspension upgrade and later during the new millennium, MPFI and catalytic convertor introduction and also the headlight levelling device (compulsory features for all new four wheelers by govt orders) and nothing else. They made money and more and more money on this car since 1984 and killed it when it was not a sought after car. Even then, the 800 sold more units than their 2009 offering - the A Star. But they export the A Star and so keeping it alive makes money sense for MSIL.And MSIL understands only money.

The Ambassador makers have the grit , determination, guts of steel to face and endure so many odds that have come and gone and the so many that are germinating everywhere, to take shape sooner or later and thereafter attack HM and the historical car that it still makes.

We all wish that the Ambassador gets upgrades with infusion of R&D funds (HM is cash starved) and again becomes a much sought after C Class sedan. With more quality checks and added hi-tech features, it can rattle all the competitors in the C segment.

WISHING THE MIGHTY AMBASSADOR OUR NATIONAL CAR A VERY ,VERY LONG LIFE !

[mints21]

This has to be looked in terms of innovation. One has to move on with time. There is no doubt that ambassador is trying hard to retain whatever little ground it's left with but at the same time the engineers and management at HM never thought of innovating and coming up with new ideas and designs. Maruti realised the changing market needs and equipped itself with the same and produced a car for every segment.

To be a market leader you have to be innovative. Business is run for profits and not for continuing with emotions.

The head of the business has to be a visionary who can think out of the box. In the case of Ambassador this was not the case. Today even the central government which was a prime customer to ambassador car has turned to SX4.

MSIL understands only money.

Business is all about earning money and profit with legitimate means. MSIL is absolutely right in doing so. Running a car which is not generating enough numbers or revenues cannot be equated even with the Corporate Social Responsibilty.

[JayPrashanth]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

We express our solidarity and wholehearted support here to Shri Chandrakant Birla, Chairman, Hindustan Motors (also tributes to the Late Shri Ghanshyamdas and his son the Late Shri Brij Mohan Birla, founders of HM) and the entire management and team of workers, for keeping the Ambassador alive since 56 years. This is despite the numerous odds that include huge losses incurred by HM since the past more than five years,unfavourable market conditions, falling demand, multiplying critics who are writing its obituary everyday and countless other factors that are against the Ambassador's survival in the market.The taxi trade and the government purchases too have dwindled.The sales figures that were last revealed were sometime in early 2013, showed sales of around 500 cars for the month.

The Ambassador makers have the grit , determination, guts of steel to face and endure so many odds that have come and gone and the so many that are germinating everywhere, to take shape sooner or later and thereafter attack HM and the historical car that it still makes.

We all wish that the Ambassador gets upgrades with infusion of R&D funds (HM is cash starved) and again becomes a much sought after C Class sedan. With more quality checks and added hi-tech features, it can rattle all the competitors in the C segment.

WISHING THE MIGHTY AMBASSADOR OUR NATIONAL CAR A VERY ,VERY LONG LIFE !

Dear sir,

The unions and the courts are the ones keeping the Ambassador alive. If Mr CK Birla had had his way, HM would have been closed down by now. Uttarpara is a big land bank with a lot of wealth attached to its re-development, read apartments and malls.

http://www.team-bhp.com/news/rumour-...h-erosion-bifr

HM has gone to the BIFR to prove that it's sick and to shut down, not to keep the Amby going on, and on, and on.

As much as I would like to see the icon motor on, like say a Mini or for that matter a Camaro, the parent company's slothfulness to succeed seems designed to hasten the legend's march into oblivion.

I would love to be proven wrong.

Cheers,

Jay

[vishwas]

Fiat Multijet in a Rear Wheel Drive Ambassador. This Ambadzire will be an awesome drift champion