10 Rare Indian Cars You Didn't Know About (2024)

Times Drive Desk, Times Now Digital

Dec 11, 2023

Chevrolet Forester

The Chevrolet Forester was a rebadged version of the Subaru Forester which was sold in India for a very short period of time and came with a 2.0L boxer engine. It was quite expensive at the time and India was not ready for an expensive mid-size SUV at the time.

Daewoo Cielo

The Daewoo Cielo was at the time considered luxury for the Indian Market. While Daewoo gained traction in India initially, just a few products, exorbitant pricing and reliability issues meant that Daewoo had to pack their bags and leave India.

Fiat Avventura Urban Cross

Many people remember the Punto. The Avventura was the SUV version of the Punto with raised ground clearance and a rear mounted spare wheel. The Urban Cross was based on the Avventura and did away with the rear mounted spare wheel.

Ford Mondeo

The Ford Mondeo was a luxury offering from the American brand and was offered with both petrol and diesel engine. The Ford Mondeo had a lot of cool features like a 6-CD changer and bi-xenon headlamps. It never got popular in India due to high maintenance costs and parts availability.

Maruti Suzuki Kizashi

The Maruti Suzuki Kizashi was a luxury sedan from the Japanese manufacturer which was pretty underrated. It had all the features and a pretty powerful 2.4L NA petrol engine. It came at a time when no one was ready to pay a premium price for car with a Maruti badge.

Maruti Suzuki Zen Steel/Carbon

The Maruti Suzuki Zen Steel and Carbon were the two-door versions of the regular Zen. There were only 600 units of the Steel and Carbon and has a cult like following with the enthusiasts. Many people like to swap bigger engines and modify their Zen's and it was an important part of the Indian automotive history.

Peugeot 309

The Peugeot 309 was short lived in India. The car was totally fine but it PAL ruined its relationship with Peugeot by producing cars for FIAT. That was the end of the French manufacturers India operations and it hasn't returned since.

Skoda Octavia VRS Combi

The Skoda Octavia VRS was a rare car in itself and the Combi which was the station wagon version was even rarer. The concept of station wagons never caught up in India as they were more expensive than their sedan counterparts. There are only a handful of VRS Combi's in the country.

Tata Sierra

The Tata Sierra was a 3 door SUV which was very rare and was only sold for a few years. The Sierra was one of the initial passenger cars from Tata and was powered by a diesel engine. The Sierra will be revived by Tata soon as an all electric version in the next few years.

Tata Tiago JTP

The Tata Tiago JTP was one of the hottest cars that Tata ever made. The car was shoved with a 1.2L turbo-petrol engine from the Nexon which made it pretty quick. It had a different suspension setup and many cooling upgrades with a different body kit as well. Tata only managed to sell a couple of hundred JTP's and it was killed before the facelift arrived.