[longhorn]

I can't understand why 3 and 4 star is clubbed together. Also there is no in between, its either 3 or 4. 3, 4 and 5 should be independent. The benefits actually are higher for 4 and 5 stars, not so much between 0 and 3.

[shreyascashyap]

I had booked a Kia Seltos last week. Once the crash test review came out, I cancelled my booking. I won't settle for anything that isn't 4 star or better.

[Kosfactor]

We need affordable cars that meets Indian safety standards, sure those who want 5 star watered down NCAP rated cars can pay more and get it. But do you? Would you pay 1L more ONLY for 6 airbags? You won't, you need sunroof, alloys, big screen etc to sweeten the deal.

The entry level cars can be used daily due to their high fuel efficiency, low maintenance, low cost of ownership. The same customer if they buy a 10L vehicle it's likely that there is no money left to fill fuel and would probably take a scooter to work. So as far as his daily commute is concerned the Alto is safe vs the Nexon parked at home.

Those who are particular about safety, would you park your daily drive Alto at home and take a zoom car 5 star rated rental car for your highway trips always? Nope. Do you always wear a helmet when you park your 5 star rated car at home and get around in a 2 wheeler? Nope. Do you and the passenger wear seatbelts in your 5 star rated cars always? Nope! Would you even drive within speed limits , never to ever skip a signal and the list goes on.

We will get there eventually, let's not prod government into mandating stuff ahead of us the people, it will be a disaster.

[GTO]

Mod Note: New, multiple choice poll has been added

I voted for 5-stars as well as "depends".

- For my highway car with family, it has to be 5 stars. Indian highways are way too dangerous for anything lesser (4 is a minimum). Actually, since 2005 now, I have always taken the 5-star cars out on the highway. From 2005 & up, it was mostly the C220 and since 2015, mostly the 530d.

- "Depends" for a purely city car. Right now, my city driver includes a 0-star 1997 Jeep. Am I going to abandon it? No way. But I do keep my speeds in check & drive that old girl cautiously. And tomorrow, if I was looking at a purely city car, I would be okay with a cheap unrated hatchback.

- That said, because of the nature of the job, I have to frequently drive on the highway - including at speed - in unrated or 0-star cars. Every new car launched in India is taken on the highway by me. I don't take my family along when testing cheap hatchbacks / budget sedans on my highway runs.

In terms of total number of km, I perhaps drive 0-star / unrated new cars more than my own 5-star car.

[SoumenD]

Personally, more than stars I would look at a stable bodyshell . But yeah a minimum of 4 stars is what I expect in my car. One of the reasons why I avoided Baleno and i20 while shopping last year(April 2019). India made i20 for Africa scored 3* IIRC with unstable rated bodyshell.

I agree even the Indian Jazz hasn’t been tested, but African Amaze results(4* with stable bodyshell) gave me some confidence. I don’t think Honda would provide us an inferior car compared to Africa at least. Jazz feels better built in every respect compared to the Amaze , so I hope it would give similar results atleast. But then we can’t be sure until it’s actually tested by GNCAP. Hope its done soon.

P.S: If I was shopping now, my default choice would have been the polo tsi AT/Rapid AT. Wish they had this combination(1.0L with TC box) back then.

[TaurusSHO]

Originally Posted by GTO

Mod Note: New, multiple choice poll has been added

Yes, thank you for the revision. Now I can finally vote on this poll which, I think 4 stars is/should be the minimum safety rating for a new vehicle in India.

[The Rationalist]

Originally Posted by GTO

[b]
because of the nature of the job, I have to frequently drive on the highway - including at speed - in unrated or 0-star cars. Every new car launched in India is taken on the highway by me. I don't take my family along when testing cheap hatchbacks / budget sedans on my highway runs.

That's something I never thought about! Hope nothing untoward happens. Scary to know about the risks you guys have to take. Respect for that. Stay safe all you guys who do test drives.

[pnredkar]

While we may individually continue debating on this topic, we as a community should strive to spread more awareness on safety aspects of cars. I have couple of suggestions here:

1. A request to moderators; please include a line about safety rating (preferably GNCAP) in either the positives (GNCAP 4 & 5) or negatives (<= GNCAP 3 or untested) in each car review. Since many non-BHPians also refer to teamBHP reviews, this would be our way to spread more awareness. Few manufacturers may try to undermine GNCAP, but we would be making a statement that it is important for teamBHP community for the cars sold here.

2. Individually, many of us are the go-to persons for car buying advice/suggestions. Please use this opportunity to promote safe cars. Yes, many may not be convinced and continue to pursue bling over core abilities, but hopefully we would have planted a seed about safety in such minds.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

That's something I never thought about! Hope nothing untoward happens.Stay safe all you guys who do test drives.

Thanks bud. If we didn't take a 0-star car on the highway, how else would be tell you this in our Official Review:

The high-speed stability of the S-Presso is okay. Just don’t push it too hard. The car is at home most in the city, not on the highway. I thoroughly enjoyed driving this peppy little thing in the city, but not so much on the expressway due to its road manners. On broken roads, the car suffers side-to-side body movement that can make passengers uncomfortable. The rear end can get bouncy on road undulations too. Crosswinds affect it on the expressway; if you take it on the highway, drive it in a sedate manner. You can feel the lightweight nature of the car at speed. What’s worrying is that while the engine will easily take the car to high speeds, it isn’t capable of handling that. In such a small & light car, we wouldn’t recommend going over 90 – 100 km/h on the highway. Don’t get me wrong - straight line stability is okay. Even at 110 - 120 km/h on the expressway, it didn’t feel overtly nervous in a straight line. But it can’t handle an emergency manouveur or fast lane change at those speeds. The car itself - we can guess going by Maruti's track record - has a basic level of crash test safety. Frankly, this kind of car is best restricted to city use only.

[rageshgr]

5 years ago when I was hunting for my next car, I was clear on what I wanted. Safety was priority number 1.
Airbags
Strong structure
ABS
EBD
Were must.

The fact that my Polo GT TSI had ESP, TC, BA, Hill-Hold over and above this, sealed the deal. And of course, the powerful 1.2 TSI and the quick shifting and intelligent 7-DSG sweetened it further.

[airbus]

My next car must have minimum safety rating of 4 star, preferably 5 star. Hope we would have more choices in 2021

[gururajrv]

5 is always better! There’s no compromise on safety standards going forward considering how dynamic world has turned out to be in almost all aspects! You’ll never know what you’ll be presented with when you enter the Warzone! So it’s always better to be better equipped at all times instead of just entering the Warzone with a gun but no ammunition to safeguard

[Jeroen]

In all honesty, I have no idea what the safety rating of our current cars are. Or for that matter any car we ever had.

It is just something I am not interested in.
Jeroen

[gmhossain]

I guess, each car has their own merits and demerits. However, at the end, it's us who need to decide on what aspect should be given priority while selecting the car within the given budget.

I regularly drive along infamous Kolkata-Siliguri route. Five years ago, we used to take around 8 to 9 hours to cover the distance of around 270 km. However, in last two years it has come down to around 6 to 7 hours. Clearly, the average speed on the highway has gone up significantly across the country. So, in my opinion, the need for owning a safer car now is much higher than earlier.

Here is a thread that I had started in February this year seeking advice for our next car, where our priority was set at the beginning https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/what-...ml#post4759036 (Advice needed: Tata Nexon XM vs Altroz XT).

[akash_v12]

I'll keep it simple. As high as you possibly can get. There's nothing called the highest safety. I'd rather invest in safety and performance rather than features.