India's oldest passenger car, the legendary Ambassador is all set to be launched with BS4 diesel-powered heart in a few weeks and will be sold with a new name. Company officials recently invited taxi association officials from around Kolkata to drive the new Ambassador at Hindustan Motors' Uttarpara plant.
HM dealers as also taxi drivers had a feel of the vehicle on HM's purpose-built track. An official from a taxi association was quoted as saying that "the new vehicle offers higher power and torque, better vehicle control with power steering, improved gradient negotiating capacity, better cooling and overall better driveability with no compromise on fuel consumption."
So far, HM had been selling the BS3 diesel and BS4 petrol variants in Tier-II cities, with sales in Tier-1 cities banned for the BS3 variants, which severely crippled HM's diesel car sales. Now with the advent of the BS4 diesel Ambassador, HM will be able to start sales in 17 major Indian cities.
It is expected that the BS4 variant of the diesel Ambassador will be more powerful and torquier than the BS3 variant. Improved fuel economy will also be on the cards. However, it remains to be seen if HM will be offering any interior changes or will stick to its bare basic cabin formula. The new BS4 variant will bring along with it minor changes to the looks of the car.
Urban buyers usually don't even consider the Ambassador seeing that they have many other better options in the market from Indian and foreign manufacturers. Currently only taxi operators and the Indian government are the prime target customers for Hindustan Motors. HM is said to be considering a sub-4 metre Ambassador, which will be more upmarket and compete with the likes of the Tata Indigo eCS, Maruti Dzire and Honda Amaze.
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