An Icon of Indian Roads Is Set Out to Pasture

Credit Manjunath Kiran/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

“When the Ambassador car was born in 1957 to a newly independent India, it was the height of style and status,” Nida Najar wrote in The New York Times. “It was standard issue to senior civil servants and government officials; its possession implied status, and its ubiquity was a sign of an earlier, seemingly simpler India.”

“But that icon of the Indian road may have reached the end of the line, pushed from its dominance by changing consumer tastes, an opening marketplace for automobiles and fierce competition,” she wrote.

“In May, the car’s manufacturer,Hindustan Motors announced that it would suspend production of its Ambassador, the final stage in a long decline,” she wrote. Read more >>