[blackwasp]

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has tested the 2021 model year Kia Seltos for the American market. The car scored high marks for crash worthiness and prevention but poor headlights prevented it from securing a safety award.

The Kia Seltos got good ratings in all six of the Institute's crash worthiness tests which include the driver and passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests. In the US, the Seltos is offered with 2 crash avoidance systems - a camera system on the lower trims and a radar + camera combo on the SX Turbo trim. Both systems were able to avoid collisions at target speeds in vehicle-to-vehicle tests. The car slowed down substantially (to reduce severity of impact) or avoided the target in 3 different pedestrian scenarios.

One area in which the car got a "poor" rating were its headlamps. The Seltos is available with three headlight packages: base-level halogens, halogens with high-beam assist, and LEDs. All three were rated poor due to inadequate illumination on curves.

The India-spec Kia Seltos doesn't get crash prevention systems like the car sold in the US market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0bD...ature=youtu.be

Read the detailed report here.

Link to the Team-BHP News

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

US Seltos is a beast in comparison to the Indian one. Along with the 1.6 Turbo option producing 175hp, AWD and now this - IIHS is a feather in the cap for US Seltos.

That said - Seltos is also a rare case where a car is way less expensive in India compared to the US. So I guess all is forgiven as long as the Indian version doesn't compromise on safety!

[CEF_Beasts]

Here is a crash of the Indian spec Seltos, both people inside the car were safe. From the look of it, it feels as if the hand brake was pulled by someone, which caused the car to go into the divider and overturn. Build quality of the Indian spec looks decent to say the least.

https://youtu.be/YG_V61KZwZM

[ynike99]

One thing to note in the crash test report is the poor illumination. In Pan India facebook and whatsapp groups, almost everyone is reporting about the poor illumination, Especially in rains.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

That said - Seltos is also a rare case where a car is way less expensive in India compared to the US. So I guess all is forgiven as long as the Indian version doesn't compromise on safety!

Has to be.
The Seltos in USA is a slightly larger model sharing platform with the Hyundai Kona, while our Seltos is on a low cost platform shared with Creta.

[k_kumar]

Originally Posted by CEF_Beasts

Build quality of the Indian spec looks decent to say the least.

Honestly, nothing should be concluded from such instances without knowing anything about the intensity of the crash. Moreover, this video is deceptive. Post-crash images are that of a black Seltos even though around 00:40s mark, it can be seen that the car being driven was orange. Finally, the emergency response scene is from a developed country.

[Brishti]

Originally Posted by DicKy

Has to be.
The Seltos in USA is a slightly larger model sharing platform with the Hyundai Kona, while our Seltos is on a low cost platform shared with Creta.

The K2 under the Verna/Seltos/Creta is based on the old Elantra which has since moved on to the K3. The Venue I used in US was based on the Kona/Accent Hyundai-Kia GB platform which is better than the K1 platform which is used for Indian Venue.

[wheelguy]

This news is irrelevant for us here in India as the Indian Seltos is based on different platform compared to the one that underwent testing in USA, it only confuses the prospective Indian Seltos buyers.

[GTO]

Mod Note: Thread title updated to reflect that it's a different platform!

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Seltos is also a rare case where a car is way less expensive in India compared to the US.

EcoSport too - USA *starting* price is $20,000 and some change (Rs 15 lakhs). Can't beat the costs of India when manufacturing cheap cars.

Originally Posted by CEF_Beasts

From the look of it, it feels as if the hand brake was pulled by someone

I expect to see lots more of these kind of accidents once the stupid e-brake becomes common (Creta already got it).

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by GTO

Mod Note: Thread title updated to reflect that it's a different platform!



EcoSport too - USA *starting* price is $20,000 and some change (Rs 15 lakhs). Can't beat the costs of India when manufacturing cheap cars.



I expect to see lots more of these kind of accidents once the stupid e-brake becomes common (Creta already got it).

The cheaper Indian cars are expensive in any developed country but its the other way around when it comes to midsizers like Corolla, Mazda 3, Camry etc. They are available for not much more than the price of a Seltos. I guess you win some and loose some.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by extreme_torque

The cheaper Indian cars are expensive in any developed country but its the other way around when it comes to midsizers like Corolla, Mazda 3, Camry etc. They are available for not much more than the price of a Seltos. I guess you win some and loose some.

Heavily decontented or even structurally inferior but in the sub 15 lakhs segment, we get it way cheaper, in some cases even at half the price of Western market.

But for 15+ lakhs vehicles we start getting less for the money and end up paying 2x, 3x on what the car may have cost in say the USA.

[123.rishabh]

For enhanced safety in India, we will have to gradually move to Advanced driver assistance systems(ADAS) in order to reduce the fatality rate & I think that can only happen once we have the basic infrastructure like road markings, proper lanes etc.

[sv97]

Originally Posted by CEF_Beasts

Here is a crash of the Indian spec Seltos, both people inside the car were safe. From the look of it, it feels as if the hand break was pulled by someone, which caused the car to go into the divider and overturn.

It was due to a tyre burst I think as that is what was mentioned in the original FB post.

Mod Note - When quoting a post, you are requested to remove You Tube's URL.
Thank You.

[The Rationalist]

I feel there should be some crowdfunding to buy cars and handover to GNCAP and get the cars tested and get it published. These defiant car makers in India needs to be taken to task for hiding the safety of cars built here. The government is gloves in hand with the manufacturers by not implementing Bharat crash testing. But when did governments bother about safety of people!

[RavSam]

Originally Posted by sv97

It was due to a tyre burst I think as that is what was mentioned in the original FB post.

In India, the accidents are majorly of three types.
1. Pvt. vehicle not driven by owner - Driver lost control
2. Pvt. vehicle driven by owner or his known ones - Tyre Burst
3. Trucks driven by drivers - Brake fail

Now in case of trucks, the brakes are usually working unless overloaded but mostly the over worked drivers doze off and put heavy foot on the accelerator causing the accident or they simply drive fast to gain "inaam/prize" awarded for delivering on time.

Tyre burst is always the reason when the impact causes the tyre to burst 'after' the accident.

I remember the one incident when I worked at a car dealership when the over smart customer test driving an automatic car stating he had experience of driving lots of cars, slammed on the freaking brake pedal to shift into sports mode! only to get rear ended by an auto rickshaw and cause the car to hit a barrier and tyre to burst later. Reason given: you guessed it... tyre burst. Only the sales person accompanying him knew the real reason but even he had half knowledge about the sport mode.

Now the electronic parking brake having "P" makes a newbie think that it's "power" mode and can press it during a drive.