[karlosdeville]

A dealer plate of Narbheram's, Jamshedpur, spotted by Souryadeep on a Premier President.

[travancore]

Dadajee Dhackjee Peugeot advertisements from 1927 and 1928. Also a rather rare Hotchkiss
Oops, just noticed I had posted these on another tread :(

[karlosdeville]

A 1952 advertisement for Vauxhall cars showing the dealers as Sundaram Motors Madras and TVS as Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Tirunelveli, Pudukottai and Salem.

[travancore]

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93703

A nice video of Ford India operations in 1948. Hope it is viewable outside the U.S.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=366p7G7rNOQ

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by travancore

A nice video of Ford India operations in 1948. Hope it is viewable outside the U.S.

That is a great find. Looks like CKD operations to me. Don't know the advantages of this over getting a build-up units at that time, maybe Customs/ Taxes in favor of local assembly like present-day or limited production for RHD markets overseas.

It also shows that Ford is not new to investing and then leaving the Indian market, so we can probably hope to see them back in action

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by travancore

A nice video of Ford India operations in 1948. Hope it is viewable outside the U.S.

Thanks for the video, a superb depiction of our automobile history!

Originally Posted by Turbanator

That is a great find. Looks like CKD operations to me. Don't know the advantages of this over getting a build-up units at that time, maybe Customs/ Taxes in favor of local assembly like present-day or limited production for RHD markets overseas.

It also shows that Ford is not new to investing and then leaving the Indian market, so we can probably hope to see them back in action

Yes, these were assembled from CKD kits, as post our independence CBU imports attracted more of custom duties. Many automakers had established such assembly lines to assemble the CKD kits. In the early 1950's the Tariff Commission was set up by the new government. The Tariff Commission report was submitted in the next few years that called for automakers to build plants, start with the CKD kits and then graduate and switch over to the phased manufacturing programme to start manufacturing automobile components in India, to replace imports. By that time three carmakers plus the jeep manufacturer showed interest in the new scheme of things to adhere to. And even before the Tariff Commission report was to be submitted, it got leaked and most of the MNC's wound up their CKD manufacturing bases including Austin ( tie up with Ashok Leyland), Morris, Ford (it was selling the British Ford Consul and the American Ford Custom plus their truck), Hillman (Rootes Group), Studebaker (with HM Uttarpara), Chrysler ( with PAL, Mumbai assembling the Dodge Kingsway, DeSoto Diplomat and Plymouth Savoy), Landrover all fled India shutting up their bases here. Most of them had the view that the low sales volumes would not justify huge investments here for posterity. Moreover, the government had predecided about the three plus one (jeepmaker) who would get such licences and stay put here.

By 1957, the stringent duties on imported CBU's and also those assembled from CKD kits without adherence to the phased manufacturing programme became effective based on the Tariff Commission report. 1957 is a watershed year for our automobile industry when the earlier choice of more than a dozen and a half brands narrowed down to three for cars and one for the MUV's.