Ghamicar
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| Ghamicar | |
|---|---|
 An original model Ghamicar | |
| Overview | |
| Manufacturer | Tughanday Motor Company |
| Production | 1985–2006 More than 0.5 million units built and sold |
| Assembly | Ghamistan |
| Body and chassis | |
| Class | City car |
| Body style | Four-door hatchback |
| Layout | Front-engine, front-wheel-drive |
| Powertrain | |
| Engine | 796 cc 100 series Palawan OHC I3 |
| Transmission | 4-speed manual 5-speed manual 3-speed automatic |
| Dimensions | |
| Wheelbase | 2,175 mm (85.6 in) |
| Length | 3,335 mm (131.3 in) |
| Width | 1,440 mm (56.7 in) |
| Curb weight | 620–655 kg (1,367–1,444 lb) |
The Tughanday Ghamicar (stylized as GhamiCar) is a city car manufactured by Tughanday Motor Company in Ghamistan from 1985 to 2006. The first generation was based on the 1980 model of X Senrian City Car, and received significant investment by the government of Bahrawar Kochi, who had promised to make automobiles affordable for the majority of Ghamistani families by 1990 as part of a wider quality of life campaign.
Subsidies were initially high enough to make the Ghamicar the cheapest vehicle in the Ghamistani market, but these would gradually recede over the 1990s, with the car's popularity sharply declining in response. Controversially, the Ghamicar, intended to serve as a patriotic product of the new Federal Republic of Ghamistan, launched with an exclusively E100 ethanol-fueled engine. Ghamistan is a major producer of ethanol, and ethanol fuels had been proposed as an alternative to reliance on petroleum, but E100 hydrous ethanol fuel was not readily available in parts of southern and eastern Ghamistan at the time of the car's launch.
The growing popularity of "flexible" engine cars which could run on any blend of gasoline and ethanol, introduced to Ghamistan in the early 2000s, along with the total severance of public support for manufacture of the Ghamicar in 2004, led to the end of production two years later, though Tughanday Motor Company continues to manufacture some replacement parts today for Ghamicars which are still on the road.
The Ghamicar is widely regarded as the most iconic automobile in Ghamistan, with a 21 year production run and more than half a million vehicles produced. The percentage of households with a passenger car, which was 6% in 1983, had more than tripled to 19% in 2006, a marked improvement though well-short of the goal of 50% by 1990. It is commonly seen as an example of the idealistic economic expectations in Ghamistan following the return of democracy in 1983 and before the Ghamistani Debt Crash in 2005, as well as a focus of nostalgia for that time period.