[madbullram]

FOlks,
Was in Trivandrum getting my Jeep built and saw this in my mech garage..was wondering what car this is...

[V-16]

Thats a standard Vanguard Phase II. Guess its an early-mid 50's model. And looking at the rear doors its a five door estate. Heres a pic of what it looks like

[directinjection]

At the height of the license-permit raj in late 1960s, Standard Motors was forced by the Govt. of India to stop production of the Vanguard because the car competed directly with the Ambassador produced by Birla's Hindustan Motors. Standard was asked by the Govt. to concentrate its resources on producing small cars only and so the Herald production continued. Birlas enjoyed great clout in Govt.

[madbullram]

Thanks folks...so sad

[directinjection]

Here are a couple of links about Standard Motors:

Standard Motor Company - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The UNOFFICIAL Austin-Rover Web Resource
History of Standards in India

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by directinjection

At the height of the license-permit raj in late 1960s, Standard Motors was forced by the Govt. of India to stop production of the Vanguard because the car competed directly with the Ambassador produced by Birla's Hindustan Motors. Standard was asked by the Govt. to concentrate its resources on producing small cars only and so the Herald production continued. Birlas enjoyed great clout in Govt.

I think a similar thing happened when standard produced the Std 2000 which swept the sales of contessa & 118NE.

[sabret00the]

Originally Posted by directinjection

At the height of the license-permit raj in late 1960s, Standard Motors was forced by the Govt. of India to stop production of the Vanguard because the car competed directly with the Ambassador produced by Birla's Hindustan Motors. Standard was asked by the Govt. to concentrate its resources on producing small cars only and so the Herald production continued. Birlas enjoyed great clout in Govt.

That's exactly how corrupt Govt. machinery helped in wiping out several industries from the place where I come from,ie. Asansol in WB which used to be a reknowned industrial belt once upon a time....
It's distinctly evident that the ck birla company used to cheat the Indian customers for nearly half a decade with absolutly no R&D ennjoying complete monopoly over the market until Maruti came into the picture two decades ago....I reckon since liberalisation of Indian Markets in late 90s Hindustan Motors started going down.......

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by V-16

Thats a standard Vanguard Phase II. Guess its an early-mid 50's model. And looking at the rear doors its a five door estate. Heres a pic of what it looks like

And its the engine of THIS car that was used in the Standard 2000 many many years later when Stampro decided to buy the car from Rover minus the engine.

[directinjection]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

I think a similar thing happened when standard produced the Std 2000 which swept the sales of contessa & 118NE.

Std. 2000's case was entirely different. It died a natural death since the car was too underpowered. As rightly pointed out by Steeroid, it borrowed its engine from the Vanguard. It was a 2000 CC petrol no doubt, but massively underpowered.

Mind you, Std. 2000 had to compete with the 88 BHP Isuzu engined Contessa!

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by directinjection

Mind you, Std. 2000 had to compete with the 88 BHP Isuzu engined Contessa!

I am sure there was no isuzu engine inside the conty during 198X's.

[speedy]

i feel sad for the standard vanguard. is there any way of saveing it or is beyond anything?

[dr.abhijeet]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

I am sure there was no isuzu engine inside the conty during 198X's.

contessa became classic in 1986-87 i think.and aquired the isuzu engine.
AFAIK.

[karlosdeville]

Yup, thats a Vanguard Phase 2. First estate that im seeing in the country. Looks like it was in the midst of a restoration, and all the fittings might still be kept somewhere. See how solid it still is!

Check out this interesting project.
CustomVanguard1

While you're there, see this too.
1934 Standard 10 in India

[JayD]

Hey, can nyone provide some details about the standard 2000? I absolutely loved this car(its looks!), but havent been able to get details on it though, did it come with ac/ps?? and can somone provide some interior pics of it??

[-GS-]

Originally Posted by JayD

Hey, can nyone provide some details about the standard 2000? I absolutely loved this car(its looks!), but havent been able to get details on it though, did it come with ac/ps?? and can somone provide some interior pics of it??

You can find more about Standard 2000 here-

The UNOFFICIAL Austin-Rover Web Resource