FIAT - Made in Bombay.
A few images of the city's iconic black and yellow Premier Padmini cabs
The word "fiat" means "let there be" in Latin. However, the yellow and black Mumbai Fiat taxis will no longer be around on the city streets.
It was launched as the Fiat 110 Delight in 1964 and made in Kurla, Mumbai. It was later branded as Premier Padmini and manufactured until 2001, and that’s a rather long production span for a car. It was one of the two major cars produced in India before we opened up to the world after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ‘Liberalisation’ of the economy that followed. The other car was the Ambassador. Though we had several different brands, including the Maruti Suzuki in the early 80s, these two car models ruled our roads, tanks to the license/permit regime of those days that controlled the economy.
The car model is now largely forgotten except that the yellow and black cabs of Mumbai were mostly this model of Fiat until the start of this century and a few years in.
Today is the last day a yellow and black Fiat taxi will ply on Mumbai roads. According to the Mint, Prabhadevi resident Abdul Kareem Karsekar, who owns the last registered Premier Padmini taxi in Mumbai, said, “Yeh Mumbai ki shaan hai aur hamari jaan hai (it is the pride of Mumbai and life of mine)."
Here are a few images from across Mumbai of this car.
The Padmini does a Mandakini outside RK Studio.
Private owners and collectors of cars will ensure that a few Fiat Premier Padminis will still be seen on Mumbai roads. This image is from a garage on SV Road, Jogeshwari, that restores and repairs these cars.
The other car that shared the roads of pre-liberalisation India along with Padmini - The Ambassador (Oxford). It was the favourite of government departments and larger than the Fiat.
