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Originally Posted by ALTIMAed On the same lines, Toyota stopped selling the Echo in MENA (Middle East and North Africa Region) and replaced it with the Yaris. The Echo was one of the worst cars as far as passenger safety was concerned. |
Talking of the Yaris and ANCAP safety ratings on the same page, reminds me that I need to pen down my thoughts and research while buying a car for our daughter in Melbourne last month.
I wanted a car with ANCAP 3.5 stars or 4 stars, but nothing seemed to fit into our budget. A 30% increase in the budget was required. ANCAP 5 stars was not affordable - these are cars sold from model year 2011 onwards, with at least 6 airbags, ESC, traction control and rollover mitigation (compulsory in Australia from 2011).
So we shortlisted a few makes and models, with ANCAP 3.5/4 stars, and these included:
- Toyota Yaris
- Honda Jazz
- Hyundai Getz
- Swift (1.5L)
- the Alto, which is the A-Star in India
The Alto, from model year 2011 (now discontinued), was ANCAP 4 star, but Suzuki recommends 93RON (or above) petrol for it. One gets 91RON and 95 RON, but not 93RON - and Suzukis don't take E10 petrol (the others in the list do). 95 RON being a fair bit more expensive, we decided against the Alto finally. But then, these Manesar-built Altos come with 6 airbags, ABS, EBD, traction control, ESC, cruise control and rollover mitigation (to go up to ANCAP 4 stars). That list of safety features is unheard of in MSIL cars sold in India!
The Yaris, especially the 3 door version, on the other hand, is built strong. With 2 airbags, seatbelt pretensioners, ABS and EBD, it scores a respectable ANCAP 4 stars - take a look at this page:
https://www.ancap.com.au/safety-rati...a/yaris/c5db36, and the video (with 6 airbags):
The bodyshell integrity is impressive, and we put a 2006 model with almost 250,000 km on the top of our list because of the price; went & saw it the first day we landed there, and were so pleased that we bought it right then!
Now, as ALTIMAed mentioned to me in off-forum discussions, it's a 11-year-old car with lots of mileage, and he hoped I'd gone over it with an electron microscope before buying! Well, I checked it out reasonably closely, and the engine and mechanicals were fine - but the government checked out a lot of other stuff for me, because the car had to clear its Certificate of Roadworthiness (RWC) before I could register it in my daughter's name. Read more about it here:
https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/regi...roadworthiness.
Now, with the RWC, the car gets a complete check of multiple systems, including safety systems, and the check report is valid for 1 month. In this month, I, as the buyer, can point out to the dealer (and VicRoads) if there are any deficiencies related to the RWC, which were not corrected before he sold the car to me, and the RWC tester can be heavily penalised for missing out on these - so the RWC tester makes triple sure that everything is in order before issuing the certificate.
So what do they check?
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- Wheels and Tyres
- steering and Suspension
- Brakes
- Seats and Seat Belts
- Lamps, Signals, Reflectors etc.
- Exhaust and Emission Controls
- Windscreen and Windows
- Windscreen Wpers, Washers etc.
- Body and Chassis
- Engine and Driveline
- Other Items
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Details are available in this document:
RWC.pdf
I could therefore buy the car in peace, and over the next week or so, check out at leisure if everything was all right - and if not, I could go back to the dealer and point out problems. Such as, the parking light switch had gone kaput (he had it replaced free of charge).
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Originally Posted by GTO That day isn't too far away - Indian cars will soon be crash tested and have airbags as standard. |
Allow me to be very sceptical here. The testing standards would be nowhere close to global standards. Car makers will lobby to lower the crash test parameters, and airbags will continue to be nominally fitted and designed not to work at critical times, even as multiple reports pour in even now about shortcuts being adopted for airbags, and how they refuse to activate or protect occupants. And something like the RWC would not happen in any stringent fashion, in my lifetime.