[thedreamcatcher]

Well, since the Diesel cars already command a premium in the price, anywhere form 50k or more depending on the most simple small car onwards

So, if they were to add features like ACC, Air Bags, that would further drive up the cost. Most people, leaving aside the true diesel lovers who exist to harness the torque, look at buying diesel cars from a budget / cost POV. Hence, they do not want to load additional costs to hike the price further

But on higher premium models, they do offer the bells and whistles. Or companies whose variant originated as a diesel variant.

[Live To Jive]

Originally Posted by patil

Now the top end i20 diesel does not come with the rear disc brakes,

Are you sure? I've seen most of the i20 CRDi's with rear disc brakes.

[avisidhu]

Originally Posted by patil

Moreover I live in a Taluka Place of Gulbarga district of Karnataka and here it is very difficult to sell a used petrol car. More than 95% of cars in and around my place are diesel driven and nobody buys petrol cars here. The persons buying a petrol car here is considered insane.
.

It's the same in Punjab. People think you are crazy if you buy a petrol car. No one cares about ABS or Air Bags as long as its a diesel vehicle.
With customers like these, who can blame the manufacturers for not introducing basic features in Diesels.

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by Live To Jive

Are you sure? I've seen most of the i20 CRDi's with rear disc brakes.

Not anymore - chopped off in the 2010 face lift, in lieu of that chrome strip on the grill!

[ajay0612]

Originally Posted by GTO

Why then, do these manufacturers give step-motherly attitude to the diesels?

Swift Diesel: ..

Toyota Altis: ..
Nissan Micra: ..

Hyundai i20: ..

Full marks to manufacturers such as Tata, VW, Ford, Fiat and gang who don't make diesel-heads feel short-changed and give us identical variants / equipment list.

From above examples, it appears that step-motherly treatment is being given by Japanese (& Korean) manufacturers who usually excel in making petrol engine and R&D emphasis has been on improving those rather than on diesel engines. So maybe diesel engines R&D is left to their regional R&D counterparts who are... Wait... Where are they??

[sidindica]

I 20 diesel asta and i20 1.4 automatic petrol asta still have rear disc brakes as standard. Earlier, i20 magna diesel also had them along with standard ABS but since BS4 versions were launched, they were deleted from magna but were retained in ASTA version. Only the sunroof plus 6 airbags versions were withdrawn from these two versions.

[Surviving Brain]

Interesting thread. This also brings to my mind another question. What else determines the difference between a Petrol and diesel (corresponding variant) of a car.

e.g. The difference between i20 petrol vs Diesel is > 1 lacs.
Between Swift petrol vs Diesel is ~75k.
Between Dzire petrol vs Diesel is ~85k.
Between Punto petrol and Diesel is just Rs45k.

[Sheel]

I believe most customers would be willing to spend extra for a Zdi variant, but bugs me as to why manufacturers aren't offering it. What stops them?

[selfdrive]

I have had to ignore a few diesel cars as they dont have a true top end version (with ABS/ airbags)
I have another question - why isnt there a mid version that offers airbags and ABS but is low on other bells and whistles. Like someone pointed out earlier, is this reflective of the fact that the average buyer would prefer to have features like Blue & me, than basic safety standards?

[ajay0612]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

- why isnt there a mid version that offers airbags and ABS but is low on other bells and whistles. Like someone pointed out earlier, is this reflective of the fact that the average buyer would prefer to have features like Blue & me, than basic safety standards?

Hmm. It (airbags and ABS availability as option on middle version) seems one of the reasons of overwhelming bookings of Toyota Etios. Punto Emotion (1.4 & 1.3D) offers ABS only.

My guess is, the manufacturers somehow got the idea that if one is particular about safety than that person should be well off and will not worry about spending a lakh extra for our so much useful body colored handles, chrome grill, leather steering wheel, blah blah!!

[karanraheja]

Originally Posted by Surviving Brain

e.g. The difference between i20 petrol vs Diesel is > 1 lacs.

Correct me if I'm wrong , the i20 Crdi engine is imported and hence i feel the cost difference is higher .

[.anshuman]

Originally Posted by GTO

You forget the best gearbox technology; the VW & Skoda DSGs.

Sadly VW has withdrawn DSG versions from both Jetta and Passat. They are only available with Manual transmission. Only the Vento comes with a AT, that too is a traditional Torque-Converter Auto.

[anilkalvani]

Originally Posted by .anshuman

Sadly VW has withdrawn DSG versions from both Jetta and Passat. They are only available with Manual transmission. Only the Vento comes with a AT, that too is a traditional Torque-Converter Auto.

Sadly VW does not offer us the Vento 1.6 CR AT, the AT comes just with the Petrol. But, as rightly pointed out here, the only sub-10 lac Diesel AT option i have with me is the Verna AT at 10.7L on-road Mumbai without Airbags. And sadly, i may go for it too due to lack of options. The next AT options i have are the Skoda Laura & the Chevrolet Cruze at the sub 17-lac level.

[esteem_lover]

Maybe it is one way of discouraging people from buying diesels. Govt. policy ?

[sagarpadaki]

Firstly,the diesels are priced at a premium over petrols.The end customer does not understand(exclude TBHPians here) why diesel engine is costlier than petrol.He just views the buying of a vehicle from mileage and savings POV

Secondly if the manufacturer gives all the goodies to a diesel the price difference between petrol and diesel and the actual price shoots up.The customer will not buy diesels in that case and the car may bomb in the market.

Indian customer mentality is yet to accept the importance of safety features.Heck many even do not know the importance of seatbelt leave alone ABS and airbags.The aam junta is very price and mileage conscious and this its very easy to please indian customer if you give fog lamps and ICE as OEM.This weekness to visual features is being exploited by the manufacturers to their gain.So until we come out of this diesels will always be sidelined from the petrols except a few exceptions like figo,polo