[GTO]

Thanks to a Team-BHP reader for sharing this news!

Shocking that the Alto K10 has received a ZERO STAR RATING for adult protection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaY1zdgeiQI

The Suzuki Alto K10 received a zero-star adult occupant safety rating because of its unstable vehicle structure and the high forces placed on the dummies which pose an unacceptably high risk of death or injury.

Although the vehicle achieved a three-star rating for child occupant safety, this was achieved mainly because the front row of seats absorbed so much of the crash energy.

References:

1. http://www.latinncap.com/data/pdf/suzuki-alto-en.pdf
2. http://www.latinncap.com/data/pdf/LN...ase_July24.pdf

[akshay4587]

I am not surprised,I believe Tata Nano has a better rating Euro NCAP,isnt it?

[giri1.8]

Was thinking of getting a k10 for commuting, I dropped the plan after seeing this video few weeks back while researching. Would be great if we have a separate active thread(I guess there is a thread which not active) on safety ratings of cars sold here.

[KPS]

Frankly not very surprised as the K10 being a extended Alto chassis. Surly front end extension on the chassis requires significant strengthening which knowing Maruti's poor desire the address safety standards would have been bye-passed. Remember Maruti still sells the Omni and M800 which I am sure would fail NCAP Test too . It is all about the attitude of India's largest manufacturer and ability to push the government.

Swifts/Dzire should have ABS options at the lower trims too if they would like to address safety features going forward.

Only competition can make Maruti change, not the government.

[rohanjf]

Is Latin NCAP as strict as Europe NCAP? I believe it is not. And why did Suzuki have Alto K10 tested in Latin America? Did they have plans to sell it there? I thought our A-star is being sold there as Alto already (which is sold in Europe too). Perhaps they had plans to position this below A-star Alto. Perhaps Suzuki thought they can sell outdated models in all third world countries, and found out the hard way that not all third world countries accept outdated products like India does.

Unsafe cars are cheap to manufacture. This, I believe, is why A-star is so much more expensive than Alto. This is also the reason why companies try to come up with cars for emerging markets, instead of reusing global platforms.

Originally Posted by akshay4587

I am not surprised,I believe Tata Nano has a better rating Euro NCAP,isnt it?

Nano Europa is specifically redesigned for European market. Do you think our Nano is any better than Alto K10?

Originally Posted by giri1.8

Would be great if we have a separate active thread(I guess there is a thread which not active) on safety ratings of cars sold here.

We can check Euro or any other NCAP website for any car. If any car sold in India is not listed in that site, that car is going to fare poorly in that test, hence it is not sold there. So the rating won't exceed 2 out of 5 I guess!

[vinu_h]

The Alto has tested better than the K10. In pursuit of mileage, Suzuki has compromised on safety. I'm less proud of my purchase now.

[julupani]

Its not really a surprise, as underneath the K10 is still basically an old Alto which is a car from the late 90s. I doubt cars like the Santro, Indica etc would do much better in a crash test like that. Though lets be honest the tested variant did not have even airbags.

The Nano on the other hand was designed in the 2nd half of the 2010s, and by a company which has an in house crash test facility. Thus it is not suprising that it actually passed a crash test conducted in the UK, after just the addition of 2 front airbags. I would not be surprised the Euro version of the Nano, with certain modifications, that Tata had planned could possible earn a pretty decent NCAP rating.

What I am more interested in is how the new Alto800/Eon would do in tests like these. The Alto800 and Eon were designed in more modern times, but only to be sold in emerging markets with lax crash safety norms.

[.sushilkumar]

Originally Posted by akshay4587

I am not surprised,I believe Tata Nano has a better rating Euro NCAP,isnt it?

Tata Nano has cleared the Euro NCAP rating with flying colors

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009...ash-test/?_r=0

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/mo...ash-test-video

The Indian Version of Nano is also crash tested by tata at it;s In house facility as for as i remember .

[GTO]

Originally Posted by vinu_h

The Alto has tested better than the K10.

That's the A-Star (aka Alto), pal.

[arjab]

Not surprising at all. What more do you expect from a 20 year old Japanese Kei car model?

Till the time the Government of India continues to turn a blind eye towards implementing mandatory safety systems in cars, we in India will continue to get these geriatric, ageing, unsafe models.

Safety is the biggest "cost addition" factor in vehicle design and which every manufacturer loathes to admit.

If today the India govt brings safety levels at par with Europe (or even 70% of that of Europe), you can safely say goodbye to all these new crop of "budget hatches" , "low-cost cars" that manufacturers are tom-tomming with great pride making these models seem as if they have re-invented the wheel !

[Maky]

Oooooh yes...
Thanks for sharing this.
I shall show this to my parents right away. They were annoyed I chose the expensive Swift instead of Marutis entry level car for the family which " Also gets us from A to B " ; ). Wouldn't it be grand if some major newspaper printed this.

[vinu_h]

Originally Posted by GTO

That's the A-Star (aka Alto), pal.

You're right. A-Star aka Alto Star aka Celerio.

[Equus]

Do we have a consilidated list of the NCAP ratings for all cars sold here?
This one might be a team-BHP exclusive!!!

[akshay4587]

Originally Posted by .sushilkumar

Tata Nano has cleared the Euro NCAP rating with flying colors

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009...ash-test/?_r=0

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/mo...ash-test-video

The Indian Version of Nano is also crash tested by tata at it;s In house facility as for as i remember .

That looks like our Indian version and not the Europa.
This should open the eyes of people who consider an Alto safer than a Nano

[julupani]

Originally Posted by akshay4587

That looks like our Indian version and not the Europa.
This should open the eyes of people who consider an Alto safer than a Nano

Its actually an Indian version with airbags. But still, its the same structure, so the test definitely shows that Nano is not the unsafe tin box that most think it to be.