Hindustan Motors Uttarpara Plant Shut Down, May Be the End of the Iconic Ambassador

At 60 years, the Morris Oxford/HM Ambassador has the longest continuous run of any current production car
 Hindustan Motors 
The Ambassador is essentially a not-so-updated 1954 Morris Oxford, and its lone production plant has shut down.

When Mexican production of the Volkswagen Type 1 Beetle ceased in 2003, the car with the longest ongoing continuous production run (for the platform, not the model name) became the Morris Oxford II, which debuted in the UK for the 1954 model year and began production in India as the Hindustan Ambassador in 1958. In fact, if you consider the Oxford II to be a not-so-significant facelift of the 1948 Morris Oxford MO— as many do— then the Oxford/Ambassador surpassed the Beetle's all-time-record 65-year production run last year. Whether it's 66 years or just 60, the news today that Hindustan Motors has shut down the lone Ambassador plant comes as a shock to us.

 Hindustan Motors
The company's pitch for the car was "Toughness, Roominess, Serves the Country."

According to Indian Autos Blog, the reasons for the shutdown include "mounting losses, paucity of funds, growing indiscipline, low productivity, etc." If this is the end of the line for the Ambassador, what car will take over as king of the current longest continuous production run? The Morgan 4/4, which has been built in arguably the same form since 1955 (and starting in 1936, with interruptions for European political problems and a break that stretched from 1952 through 1955) then dons the crown. If you don't accept the Morgan as the production-run leader, then perhaps the Lotus/Caterham Seven?