Standard Motors (India) Standard Vanguard History

The first locally built Standard Vanguards rolled off the Vandalur assembly line in 1951, inaugurating Standard Motor Products of India as a car manufacturer. The Vanguard was a British Standard Motor Company design — a full-width, three-box saloon — assembled in Madras from largely imported components in its earliest years.

The Vanguard's 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine would have a remarkably long afterlife in India: the same basic unit reappeared decades later in the Standard 2000 (1985–1988), by which point it was producing a modest 83 hp. The Vanguard itself was superseded by the smaller Standard Eight and Standard Ten, which entered Indian production from 1955 (the exact year Vanguard assembly ceased is not well documented) as the company shifted toward more economical compact models.