[rakesh_r]

The Indian Government now takes a U-Turn on its 6 airbag mandate.
The Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said that the government has decided against mandating six airbags on Indian cars, arguing that the new Bharat NCAP safety standards and star rating on cars will itself prompt companies to go for adding more safety apparatus to attract buyers. He also said that the entire auto industry was on board on the safety feature, but for one player, stopping short of naming the company.

Such knee jerk decisions are bound to effect future investments for sure.

Any guesses on which car company would it be?

https://epaper.timesgroup.com/articl...009_toipuc_TOI

[Shreyans_Jain]

The ministry has turned into a joke. It is ridiculous that it is so shamelessly pushing vested interests, while the interests of the tax payers and road users have no backing. Be it ethanol blending, excessively high tolls, no implementation of 60km between tolls rule, regular flip flops on diesel and now the backtracking on mandatory 6 airbags.

[GrammarNazi]

For now, good! Here's why - Link (NHTSA: 52 million airbags across 12 car brands to be recalled over manufacturing defect)

It was obvious to me that a huge part of all those defective airbags would find a second home in the poorly regulated car markets with easily influenced Govts and no protective body like the NHTSA (countries like India, Africa and Latin America).

B-NCAP would only do crash testing, and nothing of the sort that the NHTSA does to protect citizens (not just consumers).

[Manoj2268]

Looks like the cheque from MSIL has been cashed...kidding!

Shameless lobbying has succeeded, finally. We will see more tin cans on the road with little to no safety. It is now upto the public to shun unsafe cars.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by GrammarNazi

For now, good! Here's why - Link (NHTSA: 52 million airbags across 12 car brands to be recalled over manufacturing defect)

It was obvious to me that a huge part of all those defective airbags would find a second home in the poorly regulated car markets with easily influenced Govts and no protective body like the NHTSA (countries like India, Africa and Latin America).

B-NCAP would only do crash testing, and nothing of the sort that the NHTSA does to protect citizens (not just consumers).

What’s stopping these faulty airbags from being used in Indian cars now? If a manufacturer had been willing to compromise ethics and deliberately use faulty airbags post the 6 airbags rule, they will do so anyway. That’s a separate issue altogether.

[Naetik30]

It is incredible that one car maker can hold the entire Indian car market to ransom. Sorry for the rant - but we Indians get what we deserve. It is so openly understood by everyone who the that car maker is. And still we see 80% of top sellers are from that same car maker.

[GTO]

Deeply saddened to read this news. As I have posted many times before, side airbags are as important as front airbags. Reason being, in a frontal or rear impact, you have a lot of crumple zone area between your body and the other vehicle.

But in a side impact, it's just the B-Pillar, the door and part of the monocoque structure. 1 foot or less. One of the most dangerous kinds of accidents is a fast or bigger vehicle T-boning you on the driver side at a junction. Watch this video from 25 seconds onward:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crHanEl-MkQ

But I knew it would be a challenge as 6 airbags doesn't mean you just install them in the car. There are a whole lot of engineering changes required, which makes things difficult to implement in older models.

Perhaps, the government can push this down by 2 - 3 years, instead of cancelling the brave move. That way, a lot of these older cars would anyway be discontinued, and it gives manufacturers ample time to R&D 6 airbags into their new & existing models.

Maruti perhaps has the most cars in which fitting 6 airbags is a challenge. Seeing their general lackadaisical attitude toward safety, my money is on them as the 1 OEM who opposed this.

[ferrarirules]

All due to intense "lobbying" by one of largest car manufacturers in the country. We know which one it is.

Till the time people in this country don't stop running behind mileage numbers and concentrate on safety features, these norms will never become the law.

Excerpt from the TOI article

While the road transport ministry had issued a draft notification mandating six airbags in all cars from October, the government did not follow it up with the
final order amid intense lobbying led by one of the largest car makers in the country.

He also said that the entire auto industry was on board on the safety feature, but for one player, stopping short of naming the company

[dust-n-bones]

While I appreciate what many members say, I think the government deferring to a standards body is the right way to go, long term.

The government, specifically MoRTH in this case, has become too intrusive and ad-hoc lately without being backed up by sound research and long term planning.

From ethanol blending, to taxes on diesel to designing greenfield elevated highways, it seems to leap before looking, decisions being made by whoever has the ear of the hon'ble minister.

In this case, what use would an airbag be if your body shell is going to crumple on you?

A stable and long term safer cars policy with clear milestones (e.g., minimum 3 BNCAP stars by 2025, with clear criteria) is the right way to go. Let each manufacturer decide if they can meet the criteria with airbags, body-shells, ADAS or all together or something entirely different.

[Ays7]

This is disheartening and is definitely a step backward. On a side note, I am amazed at number of flip flops our Minister of Transportation does. I am glad he doesn't head Finance or Home or Defence Ministry.

I wish they had at least named and shamed the car manufacturer that is opposing this. This kind of flip flops, going back on decisions taken so routinely is one of the reasons why we are a developing country and not developed country. We take decisions half heartedly, and do not understand the consequences and then we end up rolling back those decisions. This move is so patently unfair to other manufacturers who would have invested Millions to redesign their cars.

Alas, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

[rakesh_r]

Originally Posted by ferrarirules

Till the time people in this country don't stop running behind mileage numbers and concentrate on safety features, these norms will never become the law.

Here mileage is not the only issue, spare part availability is another factor. For eg, i own one of the tin cans, a 2014 Wagon R Vxi which I use only for city runs. Recently I had to get the Steering Rack and Engine mounts replaced. Got the job done through an FNG. The spares were procured in 20 min flat. I see no other manufacturer whose spare parts can be procured in such notice, i will be glad to be proven wrong. The car was back on the road in 4 hrs flat.

Whereas my Gurkha suffered a broken Clutch pedal retract spring. FM didn't have it in stock. I didn't have to wait though as one of the owners from the BS6 Gurkha group offered to give his spare one, FOC.

Meanwhile my friend is finding it extremely difficult to get spares for his Logan. Even the Mahindra SVC refuses to touch his car and recently turned him away saying they no longer service the Logan. Maruti is poles opposite. I have even seen a 20+ year old 800 being serviced by MASS. Heck, you still get spares for the Zen (MH410).
Now why shouldn't people buy cars from Maruti, safety be damned.

I am neither supporting nor a fan boy of Maruti, and the Wagon R would be my last Maruti for sure. Before getting the Gurkha, I had an SCross 1.6 which i would say was one the safest cars from Maruti.
No doubt, VW, Skoda, Mahindra and Tata do make some really safe cars, but they need to gain customer's trust by improving their support.
The day they do this, that's when people will start ditching unsafe cars, till then, India will always come home in a Maruti.

[fiat_tarun]

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

The Indian Government now takes a U-Turn on its 6 airbag mandate.
...

Such knee jerk decisions are bound to effect future investments for sure.

The introduction of the proposal for 6 airbags itself was a knee jerk reaction ! There is a process that is followed to introduce new standards & legislation where the standard, feasability and timelines are discussed in various panels and finally put up for discussion and implementation in a CMVR meeting hosted by MoRTH.

The 6 airbag proposal did not go through any of this and was directly announced via the media (IIRC, after a fatal accident involving medical students in Nagpur, connected to a political family).

[RaghavEvoX]

What a terrible decision !!

Now the manufacturers who were offering 6 airbags as standard also will start giving only 2 airbags to reduce costs.

And the worst part is, only the top-end will be reserved for the 6 airbags and customers will be forced to buy the top-end just for this safety feature.

Policy updates with no clarity and frequent changes will not make the country investment friendly.

One of the highly rated and knowledgeable minister in the government, who I happen to meet few months back, taking these kind of decisions is sad. (Probably another twitter/X clarification soon is on the cards).

[professortarzan]

I was recently challenging a friend of mine that the October deadline will get pushed further, as it always is with the state of affairs in our country. But boy, even I didn't expect such a backtrack.

We all know who that one manufacturer is. But let's be honest, for an informed safety conscious buyer, would adding air pillows give the confidence that an unstable body structure would save them in an accident? And for the rest, safety is not a concern. For such demographic, 6 airbags is just an extra expense on top of their purchase. Unless these end customers change and start introspecting, nothing will change. But the question is, why would these end customers change? In a country like India, majority of people need a car that takes them from A to B in a city at city speeds. And these cars do exactly that, by being light on the pocket.

Meanwhile, this manufacturer will continue doing what they always do best. Affordable but weak tin cans, high mileage, impeccable service/spares availability, unbelievable levels of part sharing. As a business, their strategies are next to none. They know what the mass market appreciates. Two years ago, I thought their decline would start considering the safety campaigns, but its quite clear that is not happening anytime soon.

[ferrarirules]

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

Here mileage is not the only issue, spare part availability is another factor. For eg, i own one of the tin cans, a 2014 Wagon R Vxi which I use only for city runs. Recently I had to get the Steering Rack and Engine mounts replaced. Got the job done through an FNG. The spares were procured in 20 min flat. I see no other manufacturer whose spare parts can be procured in such notice, i will be glad to be proven wrong. The car was back on the road in 4 hrs flat.

I would any day prioritize my family and mine safety over availability of spare parts or mileage numbers. Yes, longer turn around due to part unavailability is frustrating but it doesn't rank over safety.

There is well known saying "Jaan hai to Jahan hai" (Translation -If there’s life, then there’s the world).