[DicKy]

The rear of the volga v12 coupe,anyone in HM or the 'overseas experts' listening?

[avishar]

Ahh the volga,a certain Mr Ayan's favourite car!

But the volga is based on mordern chassis and engines,the amby has neither.The only thing they can do is a cosmetic job,and HM designers are not really the most innovative in the world.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by v12

With better design, interiors, engine and quality - I'm sure that the Amby can make a good comeback. I remember Dilip Chhabria had designed the "Future Ambassador" in the late 90's or early 2000's. It was featured in one of the Auto India magazines.

Was in Maroon color IIRC and for sure was featured in BSM

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by avishar

Ahh the volga,a certain Mr Ayan's favourite car!

But the volga is based on mordern chassis and engines,the amby has neither.The only thing they can do is a cosmetic job,and HM designers are not really the most innovative in the world.

Yeah .it's ayan's profile pic if am right. The volga has the BMW 8 series chassis and engine.
No,no . We can't hope for a new platform,HM they themselves said it's in the same platform.Even if they do it,it would be some FWD chinese platform.
Coming back to the topic,i meant a little bit inspiration from the design.
For example ,#The low stance. The amby has a very high stance,which looks a bit awkward, so a little bit lowering will help. Will lower the ingress/egress comfort,but still that's why they are continuing the old amby ,ain't it. :-)
# The rear,especially the rear tail lamps. could benefit from some little 'cadillac' inspiration
All these are my wild dreams,but in reality let's hope for a bit cardboard-ish dashboard,a little more chrome and some new name
but a little deep in my heart, i feel they will do something like in my 'wild dream'.

[AyAn!]

Originally Posted by avishar

Ahh the volga,a certain Mr Ayan's favourite car!

Originally Posted by DicKy

Yeah .it's ayan's profile pic if am right. The volga has the BMW 8 series chassis and engine.

Yeah guys this is indeed my favorite car.Its got bucket loads of character.But this is just a one-off made by Russian tuners A:Level and based on BMW 8 Series underpinnings.It'll be great if the new Amby comes even close.

[Grafin]

The Volga is a good looking car indeed.

I happened to come across a Volvo P1800 totally redesigned by VizualTech Design.

Im enclosing a few pictures of the car and i think HM should take cue from it.

[shortbread]

I dont think design alone is the biggest problem for HM, heck many of us love the Amby for the way it looks. The biggest issue is the technical shortcomings of the car. Firstly there is safety, and for long we have had a misunderstanding that a heavy gauge car is a safe car, but now we know better. The Ambassador needs a contemporary chassis so that when the Govt. decides to bring modern safety and crash test regulations to India, HM should not pee in its pants and lobby against it.

It needs to be lighter and handle better. It needs more passenger space especially taking the size of the car into context. A revamp of the existing engine range.

Trust me HM knows what it needs to do, but like what birla's have historically done with this company and the stalwart, they will chicken out of any serious investments and come out with a half baked effort and call it the 'all new classic neo luxury Ambassador deluxe mark 2, and oh again I made a fool out of u.'

[nickatnite]

When are they going to 'kill' this car?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by AbhiJ

Oh No... Not again.. Why cant HM start with a fresh sheet of paper??

The Indica was considered cheap to develop, by global standards, and the bill still came up to about Rs. 1,800 crore. HM's net worth is 164 crores, and has incurred losses of 132 crore in recent years. In fact, they are now selling their property to stay afloat. Link to related thread.

HM's only delaying the inevitable by continuing to flog the Amby. Sure, its got a great back seat, but its 60 years old now! You can buy a thoroughly modern car for the same or less $$$. Honestly, who cares about an Ambassador today? Except for a bit of nostalgia, the ol' lady can't deliver on anything else. I'll rent a cab when I need nostalgia.

On a related note, what a world of difference between an HM, and a Tata / Mahindra? HM controlled nearly 50% of the Indian car market for 30 years. An opportunity completely lost! On the other hand, Tata & Mahindra really got serious about passenger vehicles (not UVs) in the nineties. We've seen Nanos, Indicas, Manzas, Xylos and more fighting it out - competitively I might add - with the best from Japan, Korea and Europe.

Come to think of it, this VERY attitude killed HM. In 2010, their mega product plan only includes the refurbishment of a 60 year old vintage car. In other news, Tata is getting ready to launch the Aria. Sigh......

[W.A.G.7]

What's the use of flogging an already dead horse for more than half a decade? Instead the money can be invested in designing a new car. "It happens only in India!!", after some days we might hear that Premier automobiles is planning to launch a facelifted version of the Premier Padmini !!!

[DicKy]

More concrete news coming in.
Todays 'The Hindu', can't scan it, but this is what told by the HM MD Manoj Jha,
"the company is planning to launch four variants of the Ambassador, while also looking at launching a new 'parallel' brand.
Talking about the new brand that maybe launched, the new car would be ready to roll out by january 2012 and the interior,exterior would be different from the Amby, and also indicating that it will be a niche market product and the company was looking at increasing the personal car market share.

[raveen_2023]

I am skeptical about their revamp plans, but i wish HM all the best.

[AyAn!]

Yes,the Amby is indeed making a comeback with different variants amongst which includes a hatchback.

[pacman2881]

Originally Posted by DicKy

More concrete news coming in.
Todays 'The Hindu', can't scan it, but this is what told by the HM MD Manoj Jha,
"the company is planning to launch four variants of the Ambassador, while also looking at launching a new 'parallel' brand.
Talking about the new brand that maybe launched, the new car would be ready to roll out by january 2012 and the interior,exterior would be different from the Amby, and also indicating that it will be a niche market product and the company was looking at increasing the personal car market share.

It is avaliable here-
The Hindu : Business / Companies : Hind Motors to launch Ambassador variants

There are is also a mention about variants of Pajero and Outlander.

[Shan2nu]

If HM plans to get a new car, why give it the same name? Amby just wont sound right if their design turns out to be futuristic.

The Volvo P1800 looks awesome. Looks like a mix of Porsche, Aston and Ferrari.

Shan2nu