Founded by William Morris in 1910 and headquartered in Oxford, the first Morris car was a two-seater buggy from 1913. Later, Morris made cars with American engines and gearboxes and, at the end of the First World War, sourced its mechanicals from French car-maker Hotchkiss. Producing reliable cars at bargain prices, Morris became Britain’s number one carmaker by 1925. In 1928, Morris launched the Minor, a very worthy rival to the Austin 7. The Minor sold very well in India too.
Morris acquired the MG sports car brand, the Wolseley and Riley in the 1930s. After WWII, Morris re-introduced the Ten, a small car that it had first launched in 1939. Hindustan Motors began its Morris assembly operations with the Ten, launched in India as the Hindustan 10 in 1949.
Shortly thereafter, in 1950, Hindustan replaced the 10 with the “Baby” Hindustan, which was then recently unveiled as Morris Minor, and complemented that with the slightly bigger Hindustan Fourteen (the Morris Oxford). The Morris Minor retailed for Rs 8,025, then. The Hindustan Fourteen sold for Rs 10,085.
Hindustan Motors also imported and sold the Morris Six — an Oxford with a longer bonnet incorporating a bigger six-cylinder engine — at a pricier Rs 13,325. In comparison, the Studebaker Champions, the Deluxe Sedan and the Regal Deluxe Sedan, both also assembled by HM, retailed for a relatively reasonable Rs 11,910 and Rs 12,210.
In 1954, the Hindustan Fourteen was replaced by the Hindustan Landmaster, which was the Morris Oxford Series II. The Landmaster remained in production till 1957, when it was replaced by the Ambassador. The Ambassador was the Morris Oxford Series III, launched in 1956 in the UK, but it was not introduced in India until 1957. In 1959, when the Oxford Series III was replaced by the all-new Farina-designed Series V, the tooling of the Series III was shipped to India… becoming the Ambassador, which has, since then, been made… and made… until 2014.
Though Premier Automobiles had started off before Hindustan Motors, its product planning was not as good. Until 1951, the cars that PAL was assembling were the Chrysler Corporation cars, the DeSoto Diplomat, the Dodge Kingsway and the Plymouth DeLuxe, all retailing for very similar prices: Rs 15,275, Rs 15,175 and Rs 15,075, respectively — thus cutting into each other’s sales in their rather narrow market segment.
True, Premier had a lucrative truck-assembling activity, making Dodge, Fargo and DeSotos, but more important was the business of selling Fiat cars in India. Though Walchand Hirachand’s first meeting with Chrysler Corporation is well documented, how the Indian car assembler got to tie up with Fiat of Italy is not that well known. What is known is that Premier had also approached Volkswagen among others. And, of course, if inexpensive smaller cars had to be made, then the obvious collaborators had to be the European carmakers. Amongst them, Fiat already had the reputation of making some of the most popular of the smaller people’s cars, specifically the legendary 500 Topolino, which, since 1936, had been one of the smallest and cheapest cars made out of Europe.
Initially, completely built-up Fiat 500C Topolinos and 1100s were imported and sold for Rs 5,400 and Rs 9,725, respectively, with the former having the enviable reputation of being India’s cheapest car then, the closest possible to a people’s car. But it had two serious shortcomings — the Fiat 500C had just two doors and the four seats were enough to fit only two adults and two children, no more — features that was just not acceptable to chauffeur-driven, joint family Indians.
Assembling and selling a bigger four-door car, like the HM models, was a more sensible alternative, so Premier inked a fresh deal with Fiat. At the outset, PAL assembled the two-door 500C starting 1951, but soon followed that up by introducing the all-new 1100 in 1954, a year after it had been launched in Italy. Till 1965, as Fiat in Italy kept updating the 1100 with cosmetic upgrades, the Premier-assembled Fiats in India too kept getting facelifts. In 1965, Premier introduced the Fiat 1100 D, or Delight. This was the Italian Fiat 1100D from 1962, which was made in Italy till 1966. The tooling was shipped out to India soon thereafter, and, like the Ambassador, the Fiat 1100D remained in production from 1966… to 2000!
In the South of India, Standard Motor Products of India Ltd. (STAMPRO) that was founded in 1948 started first making the Standard Vanguard. In the next few cars, this Madras (now called Chennai) firm started making the Standard Eight, Standard Ten models. By 1959 they started producing the Standard Pennant. And soon to join them were the Triumph Herald (called Standard Herald) followed by the Standard Gazel that was heavily inspired by Triumph’s 13/60.
The Tata Group, who were already representing Mercedes-Benz’s interest in India, also for some time was in discussion to bring the DKW Junior, a small front-wheel drive car to India. This was at the time when Mercedes had controlling shares in Auto Union (1958) which had four brands – DKW, Wanderer, Horch and Audi. The idea was to spend about Rs. 14 crores to produce about 12,000 cars and sell them at a price of Rs. 6,950 (US$ 1460) each. But Mercedes soon sold their stake in Auto Union to Volkswagen and their entire project had to be called off.
It would be almost another four decades before the Tatas would be back to thinking about making cars for the Indian marketplace. But then that’s another story.
Gautam Sen* – Author^ | Journalist | Design Expert
* his books can be purchased @ Dalton Watson
^ his latest book “The Automobile – An Indian Love Affair” can be purchased @ www.amazon.in