Why Ambassador?
My addiction with cars is fascinating. I have had a lot of cars in my life, especially in the last decade. The variety of cars included Maruti 800, 118NE’s, Padmini’s, Padmini S1’s, Palio, Palio Adventure, Safari, Linea, and a Cruze. Around a year ago, I somehow developed an acquired fascination towards the yester decade Ambassador. From my thought perspective, this car was always an underdog. I never let my mind pay attention towards it, as mind was preoccupied with the Fiat 1100 and anything that relates to it. I have completed an easy 18-22k kms on my 1997 Premier Padmini I got just couple of years ago from Nashik [
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...angalore.html].
Once I really got interested with the ambassador, I prepared myself for a stint with the Ambassador. Casually, I started searching on various used car portals including Team-Bhp classifieds. It had to be a petrol and with a 1800 Isuzu engine. For me, even if its a classic car, I should be able to use as daily drive reliably. I prefer to use it and enjoy it, rather than just own it for pride. Performance and reliability was the main thing on mind. So my search was for an MPFI Ambassador. If it has AC and Power Steering, will take it is a bonus, though not a big fan of either. The initial search was slow and lacked conviction. After Arun1100 got an Ambassador for himself recently (
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/post-w...r-mark-ii.html), some chemical process happened within me and I started to fast track it.
I had shortlisted many Ambassadors that fit the bill for me.
1) A 2000 MPFI in Jayanagar, Bangalore. White colored
2) A 2001 MPFI in Jayanagar, Bangalore. Cream colored
3) A 1995 CARB in Tiruppur, PY registered. White colored
4) A 2010 MPFI in Guntur. White colored
5) A 2010 MPFI in Chennai. White colored
6) A 2005 MPFI in Jalandhar. Blck colored, taken from Army auction I suppose
7) A 2005 MPFI in Patiala. White colored
8) A 2007 MPFI in Pondicherry. White colored
9) A 2004 MPFI in Shivajinagar, Bangalore. White colored
10) A 200x MPFI in Harayana. White colored
11) A 2005 MPFI, Pune. White colored.
Only 1,2,9 cars of above, I could personally see. All 3 did not have a battery to try it. They were from government auction from different departments in Bangalore. They seemed in reasonable condition. The quoted price sounded pricey as the road tax was to be paid by us, new Insurance made and buy a new battery. Apart from this, a full servicing and a lot of cleaning and detailing activity with a service was needed. It was really a big gamble. They wouldn’t let us test drive even with our battery until some sort of advance was paid. We kept it on hold.
By the time I had enough pictures, 3) got sold. I was not too keen anyways as it was a carburetted engine and math of paying tax and getting the car re-registered was not justifiable.
Similarly, by the time I could have seller send me enough pictures, the Guntur (4) car got sold. I was too disappointed. From the initial pics, it really looked top notch and in awesome condition. The Chennai one was too expensive and owner was in no mood to negotiate. He wouldn’t agree to send pics either. Had to forcefully drop this choice.
6) and 7) was again not too co operative to send pics on Whatsapp. The one in Patiala wasn’t responding to Whatsapp. I was in process of getting someone check the car, and the owner was out of town for a while.
Here are some pics of the cars I saw. Images sourced from OLX and few clicked by me.