[zenren]

Originally Posted by vb-san

If popular demand is considered as a parameter, none of our cars should have seats belts for the rear passengers. I am sure that majority of our commuters are not bothered to belt up when seated in the rear bench.

Lot of seat covers don't have provision for the seat belt buckle and hence it is impossible to use the rear seat belts in a lot of cars even if you wanted to. I've noticed the same in some of the small cars as well as the 'premium' cabs.

[BoneCollector]

When I was in market for a car in early 2012, I had zeroed down to Wagon R and Eon. ( http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/hatchb...s-airbags.html )

Thankfully I ended up buying Wagon R in Feb 2012 which has driver+passenger airbags in addition to ABS. The newer Wagon Rs have only driver side airbag. At that time, I was offered very less discount by the company as this variant was ordered, they even tried to push for the regular Vxi which I refused. I'm not sure how good/bad Wagon R will fare in crash test.

Its high time that our government comes down with some stringent rules for safety issues.

[mchanna]

Its very important to have the cage to be strong before we even look at the airbags , with a weak cage even airbags will not offer much in case of substantial impacts.

The test was one way impact in real time the impact will be double the amount.

Its very unfortunate the govt is blind in this regard. And good that they are at least thinking towards it. Hope coming days will be more safer and fatal free.

[terra85]

I think car makers should start offering airbags and abs as standard if they have a consience. I wouldn't mind paying for power windows or music system they can be fit later not the safety features . An ad campaign should be started by media informing importance of safety then only will things change even.

[coolabhi]

I wonder why only limited models were selected? Why are Honda,Toyota,M & M models missing in this research?

[gomzi]

Originally Posted by terra85

I think car makers should start offering airbags and abs as standard if they have a consience. I wouldn't mind paying for power windows or music system they can be fit later not the safety features . An ad campaign should be started by media informing importance of safety then only will things change even.

Car makers are here to do business and make profits. As such all over the world, they will start their model ranges with the minimum safety features required by law. Our laws and enforcement is too lax for them to add more cost to their cars voluntarily - with a few exceptions.
We need better regulations, only then will our car makers be forced to give better minimum safety features without leaving any option for buyers to skip them.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by coolabhi

I wonder why only limited models were selected? Why are Honda,Toyota,M & M models missing in this research?

I agree that manufacturers should be mandated by Government to offer at least ABS and front airbags to consumers across all variants.
Safety has to be taken seriously in these times of rising speeds and better roads.

Saying this, with the current sluggish marketplace, I am sure the all the Auto Manufacturers will hotly oppose this, because this will mean an inevitable price increase and consequent further dip in off take.


In terms of this Global Safety Test, I would be keenly interested to know how cars like the following fared;

Etios
Etios Liva
I20
Verito
Pulse
Micra
Alto
Ritz
WagonR
Indica Vista
Manza
Quanto
Scorpio
XUV
Fabia

[H_Dogg72]

Originally Posted by zenren

Lot of seat covers don't have provision for the seat belt buckle and hence it is impossible to use the rear seat belts in a lot of cars even if you wanted to. I've noticed the same in some of the small cars as well as the 'premium' cabs.

You just need to put your hand inside the seam and then find and pull the buckle out,that's what I do.
I''ve done in my friends cars ,and refused to move unless I (and them ) were buckled up.
It's fairly easy to get the buckle out ,you just need to have persistence.

[isiv]

Originally Posted by saket77

for most of the Indians, getting promoted from a bike to even a Nano or basic Alto is exponentially safer.

- making safety features mandatory will result in mass production of these items and hence will bring the prices down.

Couldn't agree with you more man. The unfortunate fact is that safety for whatever reason is linked to the 'level' of the variant for most cars in India. The most disappointing example of this has been the honda city which earlier offered dual airbags standard across variants, (including the short-lived CE variant) has removed the passenger side airbag in the new gen city low end variants. Why cant I buy a swift LXI with abs and airbags even as an option? Cost!

Like someone had commented in a different thread, most cars today look like they've been designed by accountants and excel-sheet managers, more than by engineers. Greed and consequent pressure on individual performance drives the poor designers to go to any extent to cut costs. Even if it's just a few paise. There was a thread where the current and prev gen altos were compared - and one of the changes was to reduce the length of the seat adjustment lever from full seat width to few inches. IMO a pointless, useless modification that does more harm in terms of perceived feel-good factor but looks like an significant cost/weight saving in the accountant's book (Continous improvement? Six sigma? CMM5?). This is just one example; there are several other such hair-brained 'improvements' that serve no purpose other than save money - mostly at the expense of safety.

I still hold on to the view that the first one to wake up has to be the consumer. Manufacturers will follow suit. The govt. can only play a catalyst role in this process, if anything.

when they can make it mandatory to air 'smoking is harmful' messages to such irritating levels, I wish info & broadcasting could cut some time to airing ads on traffic rules awareness (The fact that I'm a smoker myself has nothing to do with this opinion )

[vb-saan]

The complete test video from NDTV:
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/the...h-tests/307747

In my opinion, this was a great initiative, and probably could change the way safety is viewed in our market. Some key points I noted:
1) The 64kmph test was aligned with Latin NCAP
2) The Figo and Polo managed to retain the structural integrity, but lack of airbags left them with zero stars.
3) VW sent another base Polo with airbags, and performed reasonably in the re-test.
4) They also showed crash tests of Indian made A-Star (sold in Latin American market), and also a Chinese branded car as reference points.

[siddhu_75]

I think title is a bit misleading and clubs all the cars together. Unlike Nano, Alto and i10, both Figo and Polo didn't have poor structural stability and models were safe in the car. Even in the result of impact on driver (from the test) that NDTV showed, Figo and Polo had the model mostly green. They didn't 'pass' due to lack of airbag which isn't a basic structure issue. For other three cars, structure couldn't beat the impact.

[thehighwayman]

How does the newly launched Grand i10 compare with the i10 in terms of build quality? My concern is that if the quality is the same then the Grand i10 ,in-spite of having of airbags in the top-end model, would fare poorly as well. In such case, what's the point of having a premium hatchback that costs a lac more than the i10 but is still abysmal in terms of safety?

[terra85]

How come swift was not tested, it definitely sells more than the Polo. I have another question in what position is the seat placed for these tests. Seats being reclined may be of benefit theoretically . anyone has any idea.

[vivekz]

Originally Posted by siddhu_75

I think title is a bit misleading and clubs all the cars together. Unlike Nano, Alto and i10, both Figo and Polo didn't have poor structural stability and models were safe in the car. Even in the result of impact on driver (from the test) that NDTV showed, Figo and Polo had the model mostly green. They didn't 'pass' due to lack of airbag which isn't a basic structure issue. For other three cars, structure couldn't beat the impact.

I agree. I saw the entire coverage on Car and Bike on NDTV today. It showed the impact and severity on both driver and passenger by colouring the body areas with red showing maximum impact followed by amber, yellow up to green.

Even in the base models (w/o airbags) the severity on head and chest for Figo and Polo were relatively better (yellow or even green), while the passenger cell was completely intact (doors could be opened easily) while meant extraction of occupants was not hindered. This was not the case in other 3 cars.

They did mention that VW conducted and independent test on their own for the airbag equipped model. But that apart, the rating of cars were 0 star only because of their lack of safety equipment (airbag, etc).

They also showed us a test of a Chinese sedan with airbag to prove that airbags themselves are not suffice. The Chinese sedan in question crumpled like potato wafer and presence of airbags would not help in any way to decrease the risk of injury/ fatality for the occupants.

That simply means that having an airbag is of no/ little use when the entire structure of the car itself is not stable. That for me is the single most worrying takeout from this test when I go through the details of the entire exercise. Hope to see other popular models also evaluated similarly.

[harishpr]

Originally Posted by H_Dogg72

The point is ,if all the manufacturers include all the aforementioned safety features on all their cars (all models),Then there will be no choice to the customer about getting a less safer "cheaper" variant.

That's the mass market thing i'm talking about .

Well said.
Let manufacturers provide basic safety across all models, and drive the consumers to choose from them.
If cost is major concern, it's ok to sacrifice power windows, alloys, fm unit, chrome, in place of airbags and abs.
Perhaps, after swapping the above, the overall cost difference would be very few thousands.