How safe is your Car?

[Surprise]

ABS, Airbag and other features on safety is getting popular. Can we take it as we have a safer car once we have all these features bundled in the car we own?

Can we provide the results on safety level of different cars in different segment in our website to make the visitor knowledge on the same.

Read an article on a related note

http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/aug/23motoring.htm

[zenx]

doors which do not jam, anti submarine seats and good side impact beams are very useful. Crash tesing is not a legal requirement in India yet tho Tata does its own testing (and the Indica really does have the above) Seat belts etc are essentials - even for sudden braking - dunno how some models still have optional ones at the rear.

[Max]

in India manufactures should provide 4 way air bags system. Let them price it 75k above I think many people like me will pay for it. In current trend if you want car with air bag system it costs more then 10lakhs. C segments cars also should include air bags system.

[sbasak]

In India, safety is a still way far to go. We still see Autos carrying 8+ people! Cars like Maruti 800 & Omnis are so fragile that even airbags will not help you in case of high speed crash with a truck.

[Bomi]

Does anyone in India (barring a few misguided souls) want to pay for safety features? I went to see the Ford Fiesta two days ago and asked the salesman why they had not provided airbags even in the top-end petrol version or even as an option. His answer summed it all "People want more dhinchak for their money. Thats why we have leather upholstery, leather clad steering wheel, 6-cd changer in the top end Fiesta." I think the Government in every city, should publish the daily road accident toll, in large font, on the first page of all newspapers. That would perhaps jolt us into demanding more safety features and even driving safely.

[lamborghini]

India still has a long, long way to go.
First, the roads need to be improved as they are a major safety hazard. After that, the law also needs to be changed with the fine's having a price hike or even better would e the flashier the car, more the money to be paid to the cops of which a bit would go to the cops pocket so he wouldn't accept bribes.
the Law should state that in the case a person is hit on the road and is not on a zebra crossing, it would be his fault and not the owner of the vehicle and stuff like that.
they should also do something about the taxi's and generally unsafe cars and auto's and buses.
Taxi's which look unsafe and have suffered more then 5 major accidents should be taken off the roads. Actually, that should be the case with almost every vehicle unless it has been repaired properly.
The Governent should make radial tyres (then move on to tubeless in a few years) compulsory along with 3 point seatbelts and all cars should be fitted with one including cabs (when did you ever see a cabbie wearing a seat belt?).
Tax incentives/subsidies for manufacturers producing cars which get a ranking of 4 or more out of 5 in an Indian Spec Car Crash Test (something like NCAP but in India) would aso help manufacterers. The same could be applied to people buying those cars and electric/hybird powered cars.

[normally_crazy]

Safety ?

In India the best safety you can have is - HORNS ! forget everything else - mirrors,ABS,EBD,Airbags,Impact Beams are passe !

[sivadas]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

Safety ?

In India the best safety you can have is - HORNS ! forget everything else - mirrors,ABS,EBD,Airbags,Impact Beams are passe !

But most of us have one Ganesha(can be any other god as well) idol kept in the front for safety (I remember somebody else had posted this earlier).

[msprabhakar]

Value associated with safety features is a by-product of evaluative culture. No, I'm not talking of any hi-funda philosophy. What this means in our context is, an average person (Indians included) evaluates the benefits of a feature (safety, in this case) against factors in the environment that will negate the benefit. So, an average Indian realises that there's not much value at the current moment in ABS, airbags, etc. when he/she carries a 10x risk of being killed due to bad roads/ street lighting, steel rods projecting from the rear of a truck, vehicles cutting lanes or coming in the opposite direction, an open nullah on 26/7,...

Did you know that (western) insurance stats say that Electronic Stability Control (ESC) alone has saved more lives than seat belts + airbags + ABS put together? If our courts are so evidence-based, why haven't they put the priority in the right order? For that matter, the courts should have put the priority first on the quality of roads over everything else!

As the Ford Fiesta rep said "People want more dhinchak for their money", and as R.K.Laxman has always been saying, the common man knows what (or who) adds value!

[devarshi84]

I dont agree that India still has a long way to go.

two main reasons.

1. The fastest I travelled in India was 155kmph on the ahmedabad baroda expressway for a max of maybe 10mins. in the Europeans countries and N.American countries the max speeds are much higher. Plus the snow and fog conditions make it compulsary to have the safety equipments. The average speed of a car in India wont be more than 20-40kmph which is much slower than In the above mentioned countries.

2. India already has cars on sale which have ABS, Airbags and TCS, crumple zone, Side impact beams and what not. you can have a swift with abs and airbags for 5lakhs. Its the consumer that doesnt want ot buy a car with more safety.

and most important of all such safety equipment is uselessif seatbelts are not fastened.


So all T-bhpians decide on 2 things from today

1. A team-bhp front driver and passenger will always wear seatbelts.
2. A team-bhp member will only buy a car which has ABS and airbags as standard.

[arunkk]

Well... Having ABS and airbags are always nice... But people likes to pump in that extra money for other items like music system and alloy wheels... I would say people are more concerned about looks than safety..
Well my car does not have any of these things.. but it has a car protection pyramid and a moorthy of ganesha... I will drive carefully and I have left the other 50% in the safe hands of God....

cheers
ArunKK

[kiku007]

How a silly mistake raised a crucial question in my mind

Yesterday night my friend's car met with a minor accident and we wanted inspect the damage on the car body. So I turned my Ford Ikon's Key to position II and switched on the head lights. In the Ikon, power will be supplied to the head light and accessories ONLY in this position. This also activates the Car Security-Central Locking System. If I close the door then central locking will be activated and all doors will be locked.

My stupidity, I closed the door from outside and heard the glorious sound of all the car doors being locked!

The head lights were still on. The Car was parked in my office parking lot. We went to my home which was 20 mins away and brought the spare Remote. Unfortunately I don't have the duplicate key for the car.

The doors won't open when the spare remote is used. Meanwhile a friend of mine tried to remove the window beading and try the old Maruti door latch opening technique. But it won't work.

It was 10 PM and called MPL Ford. Their person was in Tambaram and he promised to reach T.Nagar (where we were) in an hour.

He came as promised and opened the door in 90 secs flat.

This is what I learnt from him,

1. Ford Fiesta can be opened by removing the window beading and using a steel ruler to un-lock the door latch. This is not possible for the Ikon
2. For Ikon, he used a thin aluminum rod shaped to be like a hook, lowered in the gap between the top of the door and the car body. Reached the inside door latch and just pulled it to open.
3. When the car has been locked by the remote we cannot open it using the spare remote

Neat job, no stripping of beading, breakage etc. Paid Rs.450

Initially I was very happy that my car is very safe when the old Maruti technique didn't work. But when I saw the Ford Guy open the door so easily I was shocked.

How safe are our cars without the Engine Immobiliser? Even in that case we would still loose our Music Systems or any valuables kept in the car to a smart thief.

I don't think even the immobiliser is absolutely tamper proof but I feel that there aren't so many smart thiefs around here to tamper with that.

So how safe is your car? Are the Car Sec systems without Immobilisers just fancy items which provide keyless entry?

O.T: I had called Srithar in Electra Automotive for help (That's were I give my Car for Service). He said he'll get back in 5 mins. But he didn't bother to call. I understand that I was disturbing him at 10 PM in the night but he could have atleast called back to say if he could help me or not. I'm never going to take my Car there again.

This is what happened with MPL Ford:
Called their Service centre, the security picked up the phone and gave me one of the Service advisors number. Called him, he said he will check where his nearest mechanic is and will get back. Received a Call from the mechanic. This whole process was over in 5 mins.
He was in Tambaram which is atleast 20Kms from my place. He reached my place in 1 hour. to these guys

[snaronikar]

I feel you can open with the duplicate key manually if your car key is struck up in the car itself. Have you tried this. I did the same thing on my WagonR previously when I owned it. It worked. Though the security system has to be readjusted to original again.

Good that Ford guys turned up and helped you out in this case.

[gd1418]

I once suffered this in my Safari while its wheels were getting aligned. The guy centered the steering and then started the engine and closed the door. And, with the engine running the whole car was locked.

I won't go into the procedure how we managed to open but it was a tedious affair that included a lot of ingenuity.

Ever since I carry the duplicate key & remote in the other pocket...

[Rudra Sen]

Mods note: Thread merged.