Drive down memory lane...
Pictures & news extracts from the Motoring Magazine

The earliest of the modern cars was produced in 1895, and the first appearance of the car in India followed shortly. The turn of the century saw three Oldsmobiles imported into the country (all of them in Mumbai), and within a decade there were 1025 cars in the city. Even at that time there were concerns of better motoring conditions for car owners, and it was out of the need to address these issues, was born the Western Indian Automobile Association. WIAA was thus started on October 15, 1919 by a group of Englishmen, as a body which apart from voicing the concerns of the motorists, would also provide services like information for mapping routes, create awareness of elementary road rules, provide facilities for hotels etc. The first Indian to become a member was Sir Purshottamdas Thakoredas (1919). The office of the Association when it was first started was on Esplanade Road. In 1923 the Association shifted its premises to the offices of their "Secretary & Treasurer", M/s. Ford, Rhodes and Parks at Meadows Street, in Examiner Press Building. Five years later, in 1928, the Association once more shifted premises, due to rapid growth of its members and services, to Ballard Estate and two years later to Queens Road (in 1931). In 1936, the lease to the premises expired, and the Association shifted its premises to 12 Wodehouse Road. Since the last 60 years, the WIAA has found a home at the Indian Merchant Chambers Building at Churchgate, and is headquartered on the first floor of the building ever since it was constructed in the late 1930s. In the meanwhile the Association started spreading its operations outside Mumbai and established offices in other leading centres of Western India. The WIAA chapters in Pune and Ahmedabad began in 1936, and today these are fully independent and functional offices.