Yeah! We all love cars. Cars are playing a very important role in day today’s life. Some people are much more craze about old cars. In India, we are not good at keeping our history alive in terms of the automobile industry.
In the ’80s and ’90s, the old Indian cars were much better than regular cars – they even had a background. If you ask, a lot of children from this time would remember a story or two about their cars at that time. People at that time had a deep connection to the old cars and used to treat them as another member of the family.
Read more: Easy Ways to Keep Your Old Car Running Forever
In this section, we want to list the old cars that ruled Indian highways in the 1980s and 1990s and which also played a major role in the Indian car industry:
Maruti 800
The Maruti 800 is a small-town coach which was manufactured from 1983 to 18 January 2014 by Maruti Suzuki in India. The First-generation (SS80), Suzuki Fronte from 1979, has an 800cc F8B engine, which is why it was the moniker. Approximately 2.87 million 800 million have been made, and 2.66 million have been sold in India itself, which is widely regarded as one of the most important automobiles in India. With over 30 years of production, the Maruti 800 remains India’s second longest production vehicle, next to Hindustan engines only.
Read more: Steps to Care for an Older Car
H.M Contessa
The Hindustan Contessa was a Hindustan Motors (HM) model from India. It was based on the GM Vauxhall Victor FE produced in the last years of production up to 1979 (the so-called VX Series). It was one of the few Indians that produced luxury cars on the market when it was launched in 1983. The short model 2000 based on the Rover SD1 and the Premier 118 NE was one of the few indigenous competitors. Among government officials, Contessa was a popular choice. Production of Contessa successfully completed in 2002.
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Hindustan Ambassador
The Ambassador of Hindustan is a car manufactured in India by Hindustan Motors. The car from 1958 to 2014, where its manufacturing lives were little improved and modified and it is based on the Morris Oxford III model, was the first car manufactured in India and used to be an official standard. In the mid-1980’s, the Ambassador lost his dominance when Maruti Suzuki launched a low-priced 800 hatchback.
Premier Padmini
Premier Padmini is a car manufactured by Premier Automobiles Limited, a subsidiary of the Walchand Group, which was licensed by Fiat in India from 1964 to 2000 and was initially commercialized as Fiat1100 Delight, and started to become Premier Padmini in 1973. The Padmini’s main competitor on the Indian market was the Ambassador and the standard herald in Hindustan. The Padmini was named after the princess from the 14th century and is known colloquially as a pad or Fiat (because the Padmini was originally the Fiat). Padmini means “the Lotus Sitter” and refers to the Lakshmi Goddess. It is also widely known in India for children.
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Tata Sierra
It was a three-door sports utility vehicle produced by Tata Motors from India, and the Tata Sierra, and later Tata Sierra Turbo. The Sierra is powered by 1.9-liter turbo diesel. It was based on the Tata TL, the very first car to be designed and manufactured in India. It initially had a naturally sucked engine but Turbocharged models later.
Maruti Zen
The trendy ‘Zen’ was carried by Maruti in 1993. The five-door hatchback quickly became popular and later its engines were claimed to have been stolen to run small boats.
Maruti Zen had a 60 hp all-aluminium four-cylinder engine. In June 2003, Rs 3.9 Lakh introduced its three-door variant of the VXi category Zen.
Daewoo Matiz
Daewoo Matiz’s production began in 1998 and was marketed to several European market places in South Korea with the name M100. The design of the exterior is based on the Italdesign Giugiaro Fiat Cinquecento model, which was rejected by Fiat. The 0.8-liter petrol engine and the transmission were moved from the Daewoo Tico, but now it has an injection fuel system with multiple stages. Engineering was conducted at the Technical Center in Daewoo in England. For the next four years, Daewoo was the best-selling model for Europe and India.
Maruti Esteem
This is Maruti Esteem. In 1999 the first model had a carburized 65 hp (48 kW) motor but was replaced by a 16-valve unit injecting 85 hp (63 kW) power. This showed that it has one of the highest ratios in the two-liter class, and led to a significant performance of the Confidence in Indian car races.
The above mentioned are the cars from the 1980’s and 1990s which ruled the Indian roads and the kids from the ’80s and 90’s are well known about these cars. Even though the cars at those days were not very advanced and refined, their owners used to keep them for a long time growing a personal bond with a car.