Quote:
Originally Posted by samish_g WNC means circa 1987 (may be June-July).
But why was it difficult to buy a diesel Ambassador for private use? Rule by Government of Bengal or Tax issues?
Regards
Samish |
Diesel car and jeep (rather any automobile ) ownership for private use was totally disallowed by the Union government till the 1990's.
Diesel Ambassadors were introduced sometime in 1980 but only for taxi and government use. Diesel jeeps were introduced in 1977 by M&M and the ownership was again for commercial use (taxi or even government deptts).
Even conversion of a petrol engined car /MUV (Willys/ Jeep/ Mahindra/ older Land Rovers) into diesel was banned by state governments like Maharashtra, West Bengal and some more. At the same time A.P., Kerala, M.P., probably Tamil Nadu and many more state governments allowed petrol- diesel conversions. Thus Bajaj Tempo (the Matador diesel) and Kirloskar (RET 4) after market diesel engines were the commonly sought after engines, by private car owners. Once the Govt of Maharashtra in the 1980's ordered its departments to go in for petrol- diesel engine conversions to save on fuel bills.
There were certain flaws however as it always happens. Imported diesels from car makers like Mercedes Benz, Peugeot and other makes were registered by the RTO's. Imported petrol and diesel cars were sold through the State Trading Corporation (STC), New Delhi and these were once used cars by foreign missions here.There used to be dog-fights to get an imported car sometimes and buyers (bidders at the STC auctions) would go and get high level influences to get hold of a car of their choice.
Another flaw was that if a car was owned by a person in Maharashtra he could go to M.P. or A.P. across the border, fit a diesel and get his car re-registered in M.P. or A.P. and come back to use it in Maharashtra. Ambassadors and Landmasters got converted by the hundreds into diesels.
It was however a surprise that neither HM nor M&M sold their new diesel engines in the market freely, to aid conversions. So the 1500 DSL (HM) and the MD 2350 International engines and later their 2112cc Peugeot 540 DP (M&M) were never freely available in the market for diesel conversions, whereas the Matador and Kirloskar engines were available.
I know a person whose children learnt driving on the family car viz. a Landmaster and the 1476 cc side valve engine lost its compression moving nearer to getting seized. The owner found many used Ambassador OHV engines in a garage, as left overs from diesel conversions. He bought the best one for Rs 2500/- and this engine still runs his car till today.
Apart from Ambassadors and Jeeps, dieselisation was also rampantly done in older American gas guzzlers (cars and station wagons) for both private and taxi use. I had been to a small town called Vinukonda in Guntur dist. (A.P.), about three decades ago and could spot tens of dieselised taxis (yellow and black) made out from beautiful American cars, imported in the 1940's and 1950's.What a pity ? In the Nasik - Trimbakeshwar route (Mah) Chevrolet Fleetmaster diesel taxis were common till the 1990's and so also Ford Deluxe taxis were common in Girnar, Gujarat.
Premier and Fiat car dieselisation had not caught on till the early 1990's, as no smaller engine was available. The 137 D came as a boon. Also, hundreds of battered, highly polluting, doddering and boat powering Japanese diesel engines (1000- 1300 cc mostly) came through the Bombay shores in the mid 1990's. These were bought at scrap prices and were once fitted to thousands of Premier taxis of Mumbai.
The "ban diesel car policy" paid dividends for the exchequer, as fuel subsidy bills at the national level were manageable. But the flaws saw to it that those who could circumvent rules went Scot free and got their choice.