[Nanolover]

From the video, the body shell looks extremely stable with little to no flex on the A pillar or the pillar rails.

The main reasons for the 0 star, i feel are below:

1. No seat belt pretensioner - No 1 reason, see how much the front dummies are sliding around and submarining on the seat. This definitely has an impact on the chest area

2. New protocol gives more points for safety features like ISOFIX seat mounts, ESP, side & curtain airbags, rear seatbelt reminders etc., none of which the C3 has.

In fact ESP is compulsory now for any vehicle to get 5 stars rating. This is why the new batch of Tatas tested under new protocol ( Punch ev , Nexon EV etc.) have 6 airbags and ESP as standard.

[ron178]

Originally Posted by Nanolover

1. No seat belt pretensioner

No matter what else they add, until they fix this the ë-C3 will remain a zero star car. They could get it up to two with just that much.

Beyond that as you pointed out there are other requirements like ESC and curtain airbags. There was also considerable pedal intrusion that if fixed could add some points. But yes, the baseline is there and there is scope for a lot of short-term improvement.

Also interesting: although this new seatbelt loading penalty was not part of the old protocols, the loadcells that measure the force used to determine the penalty used to be fitted even to old frontal impact tests and in fact this even used to be reported sometimes: eg. in Maruti Suzuki Ertiga the pretensioner failed to work. And in other cars like the Tigor there was no pretensioner on the passenger side. So there is a good chance a number of cars tested earlier will struggle even in the frontal impact if reassessed.

[randeepsr]

I had booked the Citroen eC3 and for some financing reason had to back out of the purchase in 2023. This news makes me feel not so bad about the back out of purchase decision. The driving dynamics over our broken roads are good for eC3 but I guess Citroen needs to invest more in their product safety for the India market.
Currently I am happy I delayed/cancelled the purchase; I have a better product with longer range and features in Punch.ev

[5252rpm]

Quite a poor show from Citroen but I am least worried. They are pretty much not serious about the market so it makes no sense for me to criticize on this part.

But this should rings bells for our community as well. Second instance of a car which was validated as "great in engineering" scoring poor on crash tests(first was Seltos). Considering the forum works as influencer for many car purchase across the country, we should relook at the way we assess the engineering front. For a layman better engineering= safe car, but at times we are sending wrong message to larger audience.

[Thyag]

There is something off about this lashings from senior personnel of GNCAP, even Scorpio N scored zero stars in ANCAP due to the new updates.

On any given day I will choose from Citroen than Maruti (except Scross & Jimny). Citroen makes really good mechanically sorted cars, hope they correct their mistakes and stay in here 🙏

[evilminstrel]

I still feel Citroen will do a good job in India purely on the basis of the car's dynamics, built quality, and peppy engine. No one, except urban gives two hoots about safety in India (and I am not saying one should not). But the matter of fact is that Wagon Rs, Swifts, Hyundais, and Kias have been doing well with subpar built quality and safety.Citroen has at least managed to make a better car and good built quality.

Furthermore, NCAP policies have evolved into ludicrous absurdities, possibly due to severe lobbying by carmakers to remain in the game with "safe cars" tag. Policies with fewer than six airbags in base models have been marked with a zero rating. At some point, particularly for higher variants, the NCAP rating becomes irrelevant, and therefore painting the whole brand/variants/model with the same brush is a mistake. NCAP is cheap advertising, and car makers know how to ace that with subpar cars. This is similar to our CBSE exams, which assess a person's ability to score rather than their knowledge or skills. If you think Hyundai/Kia/Suzuki have a better rating and are therefore safer cars, think again. Its just that they have managed to have features in relevant models, leading to higher scores at NCAPs. Airbags have no meaning if your car shell is pierced to the end or crushed like a can during an accident. It remains a gimmick, then.

Why Citroen is still not in market then? The much lower than optimal touchpoints are in my opinion is the biggest reason for them falling flat. 58 touchpoints all over India against other brands touching a thousand or more, what do you expect?

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com...1.cms?from=mdr

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by evilminstrel

I still feel Citroen will do a good job in India purely on the basis of the car's dynamics, built quality, and peppy engine. No one, except urban gives two hoots about safety in India (and I am not saying one should not). But the matter of fact is that Wagon Rs, Swifts, Hyundais, and Kias have been doing well with subpar built quality and safety.Citroen has at least managed to make a better car and good built quality.

Furthermore, NCAP policies have evolved into ludicrous absurdities, possibly due to severe lobbying by carmakers to remain in the game with "safe cars" tag.

This doesnt take anything away from the fact that the test process is same across models and therefore a 0 star is a 0 star. Citroen eC3 has failed the test fair and square. If they think it is anything worth the effort, they will try to make amends in the next edition.

[Comrade]

So Citroen is not even providing pre-tensioners for the front seat belts? How low can they go with cheapening the product!! And where is the price-benefit to the customer? I don’t see Tata cheapening Punch so much or Nissan-Renault with Kiger-Magnite duo. Citroen’s cars aren’t exceptionally affordable compared to other manufacturers. They seem to have not figured out the market.

[theturbogirl]

Originally Posted by evilminstrel

But the matter of fact is that Wagon Rs, Swifts, Hyundais, and Kias have been doing well with subpar built quality and safety.Citroen has at least managed to make a better car and good built quality.

Why Citroen is still not in market then? The much lower than optimal touchpoints are in my opinion is the biggest reason for them falling flat. 58 touchpoints all over India against other brands touching a thousand or more, what do you expect?

I agree Citroen has far better build quality than Japanese and Koreans in India. The lesser touchpoint is an issue they need to overcome fast.

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

This doesnt take anything away from the fact that the test process is same across models and therefore a 0 star is a 0 star. Citroen eC3 has failed the test fair and square. If they think it is anything worth the effort, they will try to make amends in the next edition.

If Indians were caring about the safety, Maruti, Hyundai and Kia would not have been making trillions out of can-cars. Having said that, Citroen surely is doing something wrong, safety (or should I say airbags, or dash cams, or ADAS etc.) is definitely lesser of the evils.

[Sourd810]

Originally Posted by theturbogirl

Citroen surely is doing something wrong, safety (or should I say airbags, or dash cams, or ADAS etc.) is definitely lesser of the evils.

Citroen is failing because of many reasons

1) Few variants on offer on the launch day
2) giving no importance to even basic features
3) no automatic gearbox on launch
4) miniscule touchpoints and service centre
5) 0 on safety

Maruti, Hyundai and Kia are making trillions out of can-cars because throughout the years, besides safety they have developed more than 200 touchpoints and service centres in India, whenever they launch a new car, they launch it with many variants with necessary features on offer, they even have automatic gearbox option on the very first day! unlike Citroen.
Also, the ZXi + variant of Wagon R is cheaper than the mid Feel variant of C3.