[Motormania]

Voted for option #4

Back in 2012, while replacing our Aveo, my requirements were ABS + Airbags(at least 4)+ 4 wheel disc brakes.

The Fluidic Verna 1.6 SX(O) fit the bill perfectly, and was also the only car in its segment offering 6 airbags! The additional features like music system, bluetooth etc were never of any significance to us anyways.

I am about to purchase another car, but waiting to save some more so that I can buy the top-end variant with ABS and airbags. Without this, i will NOT buy a car. Period.

[pratyush6]

Impressive results so far - about 67% people so far have ABS + Airbags. I expected the number to be lower but pleasantly surprised.

Not for a minute I would believe that someone would blatantly lie on an poll online, that too at TBHP, if they do, it really defeats their purpose.

[sidindica]

What has effectively killed this industry is

• lack of consumer education
• no interest shown by salespeople in promoting the safety factors and misguiding customers
• the biggest-the sub 4 metre taxation flaw.

• Just venture on the roads and see how many stripped down variants of compact sedans or normal C segments (in public speak, vaddi gaddi) ply on the streets whereas on the similar price ball park, a decent hatch can be had with similar safety equipment. Again, basic driving etiquettes that avoid accidents in the first place is totally missing. People talking in cell phones, jaywalking by pedastrians, people coming from nowhere, cycle rickshaws plying here and there, reckless driving by many bikers, its defensive driving that saves accidents happening in first place.
• Second-dhinchak dhoom boom stereos. People I have seen buying stripped down models and fitting audio systems costing lakhs. Parents of teens are equally to blame for not educating on safety aspects.
• Third-the so called status symbol mindset. Showoff is so prominent in many people as if they are here to have ego fights and rant about it in facebook.
• Fourth-we talk about budgets, but why do most of us get influenced by the factor called "bhedchaal" and only buy cars only to make a neighbour jealous? Is a compact sedan really better than a supermini? Not, obviously.
• Fifth-people of so called expensive cars with 6 airbags-drive with both OSRVMs closed? Lacking etiquettes? Education? what?
• The question is-are we too late to have woken up just because a popular car in India has failed a crash test? Why not in early 2014 when 5 cars got disastrous results?

[lalittalwar]

having safety equipment was one of the main criteria while buying a new car for me, airbags (min 2, better if more) and ABS are bare minimum safety equipment required in a car. these along with traction control with ESP should be made mandatory for all cars sold.

[adimicra]

This poll is giving a very skewed picture.
The reality is most cars even in this forum don't have ABS and airbags (mostly in hatchback and entry-level sedans )

I am 100% sure that people having cars without safety features are not voting in this poll wholeheartedly as they might feel being branded as people who favour music system and alloys wheels over ABS and airbags which is considered to be "bad".

This is the hypocrisy which someone else mentioned in the other thread and very rightly so. The fact is - even in a forum like TBHP where people are very well-informed about the importance of safety, most members buy cars without safety kit . To expect the normal junta to give more importance to safety is a very uphill task indeed .

[zenren]

Which car model in India gives 2 airbags but no ABS?

Just curious as I see that 2 people have voted for that option in the poll!

[civic-sense]

It is wrong to put all blame on the manufacturers. Now almost all brands offer airbags and abs at least in the top variants. People really serious about safety would definitely shell out another 70-80k while buying a 7-8L car.

I sometimes wonder why somebody would go for a VDi when he can have a ZXi for the same price? Is money in the bank more precious than their own lives?

[zenren]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

It is wrong to put all blame on the manufacturers. Now almost all brands offer airbags and abs at least in the top variants. People really serious about safety would definitely shell out another 70-80k while buying a 7-8L car.

I sometimes wonder why somebody would go for a VDi when he can have a ZXi for the same price? Is money in the bank more precious than their own lives?

Protecting or safeguarding our lives cannot be accomplished by just driving around in a car that has ABS and airbags. That is just one among the hundreds of things to be done by someone managing a household. If the ZXi returns 11km for Rs.70 and VDi returns 18km for Rs.45, that is a huge difference in savings for a lot of people who are on the road during most part of the day. Denying them a ZDi option and then blaming them for not choosing the ZXi is not going to make the manufacturers look like angels.

At the end of the day, in case a medical emergency happens in the family and you don't have enough savings in your bank due to thousands of liters of petrol you burnt away (instead of diesel) in the greater interest of family, it is not going to count. This is something most of the common man is fighting for every day.

If these folks need to compromise on quality in some other part of their life to compensate this extra investment on safer cars, then it would be difficult to judge if they would be doing the right thing by buying a car with an exorbitantly priced safety kit. If it was just safety kit alone, then yes. I agree that the customer is to be blamed for not choosing it. However, if the customer needs to pay more than 15% of the cost of the car extra for safety features that cost probably 5% of the car cost, I wouldn't say the customer really got a choice.

[freakmuzik]

I voted considering my Wagon-r out of the three as that's what runs the most. My wagon-r has both ABS and dual Airbags and I had to wait for 7 months against 1.5 months for a normal VXI variant just due to these safety features. Though I had a tough time convincing my parents initially, later on they agreed to this decision. My other two cars, Nano and Eon, don't have them as they aren't even an option at that price point. Yes, the Eon does have a Driver airbag option for the Sportz variant but I wasn't too convinced with having one airbag alone vs no airbag. So due to this, it's only my Wagon-R that does the highway duty (except once or twice in the Eon).

And all my family members wear seatbelts, be it back or front. Again, it was damn difficult to enforce this to my parents but yeah it happened and I showed them the differences in accidents with and without seatbelts and they were convinced! Rear passengers do hesitate to wear it in city limits, but yeah, with some enforcing, they do.

Other than my parents and a very few friends of mine, making others wear the seatbelts is an impossible task. Forget it, even the front passenger seldom wears it. So for the last one year, I tell everyone that if anyone wants to travel in my car, wear seatbelts else look else where & I won't move the car. This worked 100% for anyone occupying the front seats and around 40% for the rear seat passengers.

In any cars that i buy hereafter, safety is first. I don't mind going in for a little cramped Punto/Polo rather than more spacious but less safe options.

Also, I request each and every BHP -ian to vote even if you've bought a car sans the safety features. You're not going to be judged here, and even if you're, kindly don't bother. True votes will only help us analyse the situations better!

[Yeldo]

Originally Posted by zenren

Which car model in India gives 2 airbags but no ABS?

Just curious as I see that 2 people have voted for that option in the poll!

The first generation Corolla had that set- up. Similarly, the first batches of the Octavia too. Now, the Etios/ Liva come with dual airbags but not ABS in the lower spec Petrol variants.

Edit: Forgot to mention the Polo, which sports only airbags and no ABS in the base Trendline variants.

[balajisv]

I bought my Swift VDi 7 years back without any safety features. Well, I was completely unaware at that time.
Definitely not in future.
I'm looking at Ford Ecosport Titanium+ which has 6 airbags and ABS as my next car.

I can't see the poll question and the options while viewing on my android phone. Any advice on how to access the poll?

[model-t]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

It is wrong to put all blame on the manufacturers. Now almost all brands offer airbags and abs at least in the top variants. People really serious about safety would definitely shell out another 70-80k while buying a 7-8L car.

I sometimes wonder why somebody would go for a VDi when he can have a ZXi for the same price? Is money in the bank more precious than their own lives?

For the same piece, not sure about it if the costs are the same.

When I was deciding on my next car, the only thing which ruled the Safari/Storme at the price was the safety features. Hell, I was getting a 4X4 Safari for less than a XUV!! I chose my car just on safety . And I am happy

[civic-sense]

Originally Posted by zenren

Protecting or safeguarding our lives cannot be accomplished by just driving around in a car that has ABS and airbags. That is just one among the hundreds of things to be done by someone managing a household. If the ZXi returns 11km for Rs.70 and VDi returns 18km for Rs.45, that is a huge difference in savings for a lot of people who are on the road during most part of the day. Denying them a ZDi option and then blaming them for not choosing the ZXi is not going to make the manufacturers look like angels.

At the end of the day, in case a medical emergency happens in the family and you don't have enough savings in your bank due to thousands of liters of petrol you burnt away (instead of diesel) in the greater interest of family, it is not going to count. This is something most of the common man is fighting for every day.

ZDis are available for sale, but still hardly anyone buys it. And what medical emergency are you talking about that is more serious than ending up headless, torsoless on a hospital bed? Saving money for that eventuality? Whom are we trying to kid? Look at the other side. LXis and LDis still don't sell well. People can't do without power windows. People want alloys but getting an ZDi means they get useless things like airbags and abs with it. Thus people "save" 70-80K for emergencies resulting out of lack of airbags and abs.

First do what you have to do NOW, than waiting for that emergency.

[arun_josie]

Our first car was Wagonr Lxi(2006): I think there was a top end model with ABS/Airbag. When I asked about ABS, the SA said ABS is nothing but Air Bag System. It will be useful for high speed driving. So, we ignored the top end and went with Lxi without ABS and Airbag.

Second car was Dzire ZDI: Thankfully by this time, I came across Team-Bhp and got to know about the importance of the security features. So, we decided to go with the model having ABS and Airbag. This time the response from the SA was "you will get Vdi within one month but ZDI will take 3-4 months or even 6 months" but we didn't budge(Also Vdi was 90K cheaper). We checked with almost all the MASS in bangalore and the waiting period for ZDI was much higher. The SA tried his best to sell Vdi saying ABS/Airbag is not of much use. But we stuck to our initial decision. 2 years later, I met with an accident and Seat-belt/ABS came in handy to avoid a major crash and save my life as well as a two wheeler rider's life. The Airbag deployed as well.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street...my-life-5.html

Obviously, after the accident I will not consider any car without all the security features that is available. Now I drive a Fiat Linea Emotion.

[zenren]

Seeing the huge volume of responses for the 2 airbags + ABS option makes me wonder about another aspect.

There are a lot of folks here who own more than one car. I know a lot of BHPians who have bigger cars with safety features for long trips and small hatchbacks without any safety kit for city driving. In that case, what should their response be if one of their cars have all safety features while the other doesn't have any?

If they're responding with ABS + 2 airbags option in the poll, are they not effectively thinking that these features are not of much use in city and only needed in highways? If so, how is that any different from someone with just one small car that he uses only in city and never goes on long drives?

Is a guy with Corolla (for highways) and Alto (for city) really more safe on the road than a guy with Palio who drives only within the city limits?