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The HM Ambassador recently got axed and the iconic car will no more be
produced or sold. Hindustan Motors started selling the Amby in India in 1958
and the vehicle continued to be sold till 2014. The Amby never got any major
overhaul and HM kept on selling the half-century old model even when the
market was flooded with modern competition. The company blamed low sales
of the car along with high losses for shutting down the factory in Uttarpara,
West Bengal. Somewhere it was the manufacturer’s fault too, when they kept
selling something without any updates, zero marketing, poor technology and
still expected things to run fine.
So, let’s have a look at the five reasons that killed the HM Ambassador –
1) Poor marketing strategy – While other vehicle manufacturers have their
marketing departments who promote their products on social networking sites,
radio, TV, magazines, etc. with witty taglines and interesting information, HM
officials were busy sleeping. The company never even tried to take any efforts
to market the Ambassador. They expected the product to sell on its own and
poor marketing is a sure shot recipe for any product’s failure in today’s times.
2) No major updates – The HM Ambassador never got any major updates in
the past 50-odd years. While the overall design remained the same with small
redesigned parts added every now and then, the product was still considered
old and very rightly so. The Amby came with no technology at all and the
management from Hindustan Motors never took competition into
consideration. They still felt that the Ambassador has no true rivals.
3) No good engine options – Hindustan Motors had a partnership with
Mitsubishi in India. Mitsubishi is known for its amazing driver-oriented vehicles
and it would have been very wise had HM borrowed some knowledge from its
Japanese business partner. Mitsubishi has some great engines on offer and
the Amby really deserved a new and modern engine that would provide good
performance as well as fuel efficiency.
4) High pricing – The Ambassador was priced between Rs. 5-8 lakhs
depending on the variant. Come on HM, the Amby is on sale since 50 years so
we are sure that the company must have recovered all the development and
infrastructure costs for the factory long back. Not a lot of money was being
invested in the product’s R&D and yet the company showed us how profit-
hungry it is by not reducing the prices of the retro car at all. There was really
no justification for the price that the sedan commanded since no money was
being spent on marketing as well.
5) Not creating a new customer base – The HM Ambassador was mostly
bought by politicians and ministers who loved the comfort of the car. Ambys
with ‘laal-battis’ are still a common sight in many parts of the country. Another
segment that loved the vehicle was the taxi segment. While Mumbai doesn’t
have any Ambassador taxis any more, cities like Kolkata still make use of the
iconic car as cabs. Hindustan Motors never felt the need to modernise the car
and cater to a completely new and different segment of customers. It seems
they were really happy with the limited sales of the vehicle. The end result is
here now for all of us to see!
Just because a vehicle is termed as iconic doesn’t really mean that you sell it
without taking any efforts. Even the Volkswagen Beetle and MINI are iconic
cars, but look how they have been modernised to keep up with the present day
customers’ requirement. The new Beetle and MINI do carry some of their retro
styling elements, but overall they are completely new cars coming with modern
engines, latest technology and all the safety features too. Now this is how true
iconic cars are revived and HM should have learnt something from them.