THE clever, humorous and award-winning 2002 advertisement for Peugeot’s 206 showing it being crudely sculptured from an Indian-made Ambassador sedan has been figuratively recreated with news that Peugeot is buying the Ambassador from the former Indian car-maker.

The Ambassador, based on the 1954 Morris Oxford II and produced continuously and almost unchanged from 1958 until 2014, was made by Hindustan Motors, owned by the CK Birla Group.

In its 56-year production, the Ambassador became the symbol of a newly-independent nation and its steps towards mobility.

At its peak production in the 1980s it was making 24,000 units a year, but in the 2013-2014 financial year that dropped to only 2439 cars as rival vehicle manufacturers such as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Ford increased sales.

CK Birla Group said in a statement that the Ambassador car brand was sold to PSA Group for the equivalent of $A15.6 million.

Peugeot has not announced what it intends to do with the brand name though has indicated it wanted to return to the Indian market.

The French car-maker had a brief presence for three years from 1994 to 1997 when it assembled the 309 model in the country. It tried again in 2011 with plans to build a factory but it never materialised.

Peugeot said in a statement last year that it planned to again sell its cars in India and indicated it would activate a recent joint-venture agreement with CK Birla Group to use Birla’s car plant in Chennai.

The Chennai factory currently makes the Mitsubishi Pajero and is capable of producing 12,000 units a year.

The Ambassador was made at Hindustan’s Uttarpara factory in Calcutta that was built in 1942, making it the second oldest car plant in Asia after Toyota’s first plant.

The sedan became a symbol of India’s race into industrialisation and one of wealth for its buyers.

It was also an integral part of the nation’s urban landscape, popularised especially for its role as the ubiquitous taxi, much as Holden became Australia’s mobility icon.

By Neil Dowling