[lapis_lazuli]

Originally Posted by dragracer567

I have to disagree with this point....Till then, I guess Global NCAP will have to hold the car manufacturers accountable.

Please disagree but I will mostly agree with you on what you have said

Actually my point was India or similar markets get away with the bare minimum, often, originally diluted even from international "bare minimum".
You still pay top dollar!
BTW, quite often, the ship jumping is to streamline manufacturing process so that the production line fits most common local and export variant features and eases inventory management and MoQ requirements for vendors than an overnight change of heart!

[Sankar]

Title of this thread is misleading, because the cars are not the same only the model name is. GNCAP doesn't say these are same cars in their video description either. The white African market NP300/Navara is a 1st generation model, production started in 1997. The grey European NP300 aka Navara is a 3rd generation model first produced in 2014. Mercedes X class is based on this generation Navara.

Ideally this crash test should have been titled 1997 Nissan Navara vs 2014 Nissan Navara, but then it wouldn't be as sensational.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL_2MdSTM7g

Below is a crash test between 1998 Corolla and a 2015 Corolla, the years between them are the same as the Navara's being tested above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkxq2pPw0Uc

Results will always be the same when old and new is crash tested against each other. If the gap between the cars span a couple of decades the results will be as spectacular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtxd27jlZ_g

Whether an old generation car is being allowed to sell in their respective markets is upto the governments of these countries and they probably have other priorities rather than to enforce emission or crash test norms. But I do appreciate what GNCAP is doing, it is helping a lot of people become aware. Take India for an example.

[WorkingGuru]

The way any country is projected in the rest of the world, is IMO the primarily reason for such discrimination. This can been seen across industries, be it cars, phones, food brands or even medicines.

If it is projected largely as a place with a poor population, corrupt system & fragmented society (with biases based on caste, language, gender etc), basically any country where a substantially large part of the well resourced people haven't meritoriously achieved their status, and where consumer interests are not well protected, then the people running the company will judge their bets based on that choose to maximise their profits with the lowest cost of product to the furthest extent it can, irrespective of whether it compromises the product in terms of safety or even performance.

How to fix this ? Build a social structure that synthesises meritocracy within the democracy.
If a vast majority of the countrys' population grew to the status of even middle class on its own merit, having done their fair share of work, being well informed & well educated, staying united & extracting from the government substantial efforts to decent liberties, rights, legal safeguards. Then after all this, maybe it will be possible to ensure that vast majority of the population may get a decent and dignified life.

This AFAIK remains true for any country. Maybe true, maybe partly true. My 2c.

[DrCar]

This is what we deserve when our priorities aren't in right place.

Few examples of safe cars which isn't successful because our priorities weren't sorted :
1.Etios failed because of bare bone interiors. Because we like something light and fast which crumble even when someone sits on it. And yes, each and every drop of fuel is important for us. Importance of our drop of blood is secondary because anyways our body produces enough of it. Fuel is scarce.
2. Figo isn't successful because what matters for us is the Sync3 system. 6 airbags? Not needed, because what is the use of paying for things which might be used only once. Anyways we all are safe drivers.
3. That huge tablet inside car with internet connectivity is a must because our mobile phone screen size is not good enough for us. We will prefer this over any local manufacturer's 5 star rated car.
4. A great looking sticker on the anniversary edition of our model is enough to show to the world that we have achieved something in life. No one will notice us when we buy cars from manufacturers who also builds trucks and tractors as well, because that's too cheap to show-off.

My post is sarcastic but it is just a post which you will read now and forget about it later. This will not harm anyone.
But what about manufacturers who are playing this sarcasm filled games by giving us blinged cars which are hollow inside, and also betting our life with it. More so, we ourselves are investing money in products which are playing with our life. I doubt we will appreciate this kind of sarcasm.

It's upto us to be aware about what we are buying, be educated and informed enough to plunge our money in something safe. Blaming policies and governments will not get us anywhere. It's not as if we don't have any options to buy safer models in all categories.
Manufacturers already are providing that options. How are the policies stopping you from buying such cars?

[renegade004]

I think the next such test should be carried out on the Maruti-Suzuki Swift produced in India and the Suzuki Swift produced in Hungary for the European market. I am sure the results would be just as 'eye opening' as this one.



If I remember correctly, the Indian version of the Swift has earned 2 stars on the Global NCAP test, while the European version has earned 4 or 5 stars.

[Revmatch99]

Manufacturers always use double standards for emerging markets, however as others have pointed out this test is done between an older generation and a newer generation Navara and hence is irrelevant when it comes to proving the double standards. This test only shows how much safer cars have gotten overtime.

[laluks]

Originally Posted by DrCar

It's upto us to be aware about what we are buying, be educated and informed enough to plunge our money in something safe.

I recently had an experience with our mass market leader Maruti on their product SCross, only to learn about their value engineering for Indian product the hard way. I was fooled into thinking that SCross had the same offering in India as elsewhere. So at times we get fooled in the absence of such tests.

May be this test was titled wrong, but it has opened up a can of worms in manufacturers offering to third world countries.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

I think there is a fundamental difference between the sides crashed. one of the vehicles is an RHD while the other is an LHD. Can someone confirm this?

If this is true this will not represent the offset crash scenario. The passenger side usually has lower structural members due to a missing steering system.

[The Rationalist]

Originally Posted by DrCar

Figo isn't successful because what matters for us is the Sync3 system. 6 airbags?

While I agree to your post mostly, this one I have to disagree. I own Two Ford's , previous generation Figo and current Figo Aspire. The build quality of present one is no where near old one and the new ones has scored only 3* in GNCAP, not a safe car when Tata & Mahindra has 2 5* star cars. Ford should have scored 4* at least. I'm not in a position to buy a new car, or else would have traded it for a safer car.

[landcruiser123]

While I'm not condoning manufacturers, the problem is what the customer wants. In the emerging markets, many people just want a car. People in first world markets want specific features in a car. USA took many years to introduce safety measures after years of research after many deaths and pressure from governments, insurance companies, and the public. We just don't value lives in India.

While I hate this double standard, I think some brands are worse than others. I'd love to see an Indian Corolla v/s an American Corolla. Sure, there might be some electronics missing in the Indian version, but would be curious to see the intrusion due to the crash.

Originally Posted by 1.2TSI7DSG

Can someone confirm this?

Both are RHD. Watched the video 5 times to confirm that.

The passenger side usually has lower structural members due to a missing steering system.

Cars should have equal protection for both driver and passenger. What'd happen if a driver had to abandon an overtake and end up crashing the left half into the vehicle in front?

[yesyeswe]

Shouldn't tata make an advertisement like this? they could remove the suzuki badging for legal reasons and run the advertisements during IPL season. Man the advertisements would be sensational, tiago vs swift, altroz vs baleno and so on

I don't know whether legally then can do it or whether the end results would be as dramatic as this video but if it happens, i'm sure people would notice them and the sales would definitely increase.

[fhdowntheline]

How many of our cars have been selling on older platforms just because of lack of a regulatory crash test mechanism ? We are completely at the mercy of the manufacturers words. Cars like the Alto, Wagon R, Scorpio, Bolero, Safari, Hexa, Duster/Terrano, XUV 500 haven't had a significant change of platform since their inception. These are just the top of mind recollection, there may be others.

[romeomidhun]

Source: https://gaadiwaadi.com/gncap-exposes...-african-cars/

As per GlobalNCAP tests, a used 2015 Nissan NP300 model for Europe is safer than a new NP300 for Africa.

In India, we hear similar news like Renault K(C)apture.
We hear similar news about the platform of Hyundai Venue.

We the people are the culprits, or the govt is the culprit or the manufacturers are the culprits?

[Stribog]

Not sure which country in Africa but most of them don't have any manufacturing (of cars) and only import ancient Japanese cars from Japan mostly. Am not surprised at this.

In India, I would squarely blame the buyers, there are automakers producing safe cars but our junta will only buy Maruti tincans and soap boxes whose sheet metal and steel only seem to reduce with every new iteration and whose idea of safety seems to be "2 airbags and seatbelts".

The day Maruti starts dropping in marketshare and customers start demanding better safety features is the day I will blame the govt for not having better standards.

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

I first watched the video without sound and just going by looks, I initially thought the white car was the 2nd hand car from 2015 and the silver one was the new one from 2019. The "new" car looks a generation or two behind the old one. Probably Nissan is selling an older generation car in Africa to keep costs in check. In that case, I don't think the results are really that surprising. I wouldn't necessarily call it double standards.

Double standards for me would be someone manufacturing the same car for EU and another market in the same factory, but with stronger construction for EU market - and happily pointing to 3/4/5-star Euro-NCAP rating to sell the car with weaker construction in the other market.

You are absolutely spot on. This is click bait by NCAP. First this doesn't even say which country in Africa, secondly Africa has NO car manufacturing outside of SA. There are assembly plants in Egypt, Botswana iirc with plants (including Nissan) coming up in Ghana and Algeria.

The African car market except SA is dominated by secondhand imports and the primary source for these is Japan and the Middle East.

So I really don't understand what n a AP means when they say new African Nissan because there is not a chance it has been made in Africa.

@fhdowntheline people will watch these ads and then go down and plonk money on the Spresso which I drove yesterday and it felt so light as though a stiff wind will convert it into an airplane.

Paisa vasool boss and kitna deti hai is everything.