[arvindb4]

It's a tough call to nail them. Manufacturers infiltrate systems with whatever, maybe money or sops. Would you believe that many organisations floating as consumer voice are all funded by the manufacturers.

This is a democracy of tyrants and manipulators.

I am putting my life and savings at stake for this cause. Nothing short of the likes of the chipko movement. I can't bear to see my son like this and I don't want that a single life is wasted like this.

Our lack of information, trust in manufacturer and chalta hai attitude is what brings the common consumer to its knees. It's unfortunate but I am ready to catch this sick bull by the horns. I cannot live with the guilt everytime I see my son.

Anyway I am on it and shall share the details of the expert, as I close in.

[KMT]

In order to get a premium price, it has become necessary for manufacturers to say that a Car has ABS, Airbags, Traction Control etc etc. But it is is unclear as to what the quality/specs of the components are.
Without a proper crash-testing program, the system is wide open to manupulation ( by manufacturers using substandard components).
Please accept our wishes that your son recovers soon from this setback.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by arvindb4

It's a tough call to nail them. Manufacturers infiltrate systems with whatever, maybe money or sops. Would you believe that many organisations floating as consumer voice are all funded by the manufacturers.

Did some Google search and found RASSI - check if they can help. However, the website implies that they "help" automakers develop safer models. So its quite possible that they might use this incident to snag Mahindra as their client. Honda and Maruti is already there in their client list.



http://www.jpresearchindia.com
http://www.rassi.org.in
https://www.rushlane.com/jp-research...-12139542.html

[Guna]

This is terrible and sad. It is one thing to just equip the car with all kind of security features on paper but it is a different matter altogether whether they work when it really matters. I always had this skepticism about cars like XUV or Hexa.

[arvindb4]

Another problem here is that victims don't escalate the issue. Manufacturers go and offer a pittance as compensation. Cook their story and blame the driver and circumstances and do a settlement of sorts. In this country in any case victims shy from litigation.

I think it grossly unfair.

Simple question is that are you willing to spend and trust and putting at stake lives. Until it happens you won't know. Or are you concerned enough not just about you and your dear ones. Not to put their life's at risk and not allow such contraptions to exist on the road. Lethal not just for the occupant but also for the one outside.

JP Research is American. Funded by Bosch, an airbag manufacturer as I am told. I did get in touch with them. But then how do you trust organisations affiliated and funded by the same company who could be the culprit. It's a very grey area.
I really need help here to find a Company or person who can investigate and give me a report that can be validated.

You are right Smart Cat. It's an unbelievable grey alley.
It's hard to trust. I am not giving up hope yet. Let's see. Some international experts have come forward to offer their services for a good cause.
Please do help in case there are any suggestions.

[Olympal]

Terribly sorry to hear what happened to your son. Hope he recovers soon.

I have a few questions regarding airbags:
What is the expected life of the installed airbags.
Is any periodic service required to ensure that the deployment mechanism is working fine.
How can one test the airbags.
The photos show considerable frontal damage. Is that not sufficient to trigger airbags deployment. If not, how much impact is required. Is there a measurement of it.

[revv_maniac]

Hi,

Why dont you tweet about this on Anand Mahindra's twitter handle? Dont forget to post pictures with it. He is pretty active on twitter.

[Ford5]

This appears to be a clear case of malfunction. If not for anything, roll over and hard impact at stop should have 100% deflated the bags. I wish your son speedy recovery and hope Mahindra pays through it's nose for it's shortcoming.

[arvindb4]

I have been in touch with Mahindras from the first day. The first tweet was to Sri Anand Mahindra . But that's another story of apathy, corporate sweet talk, and plain bullying in sugar coated verse. I do hope to share the entire communication in due course.

[roby_dk]

Strange with such kind of impact the Airbags didn't deploy. Such incidents are happening with multiple brands. We have discussed on this forum about airbag issues with Toyota Fortuner. BTW I don't have any faith in Tata and Mahindra they are not following any global standards and their vehicles are hardly tested.

Recently had an unfortunate accident in my Endeavour where the impact was decent and still the airbags deployed. I didn't have any injury or even a minor scratch anywhere and was lucky that I had a safe car on a bad day. I don't believe in the stories around the point of impact if accident is there these safety features should deploy else what is the use of spending such money and being fooled by the manufacturers. Not sure why they are hiding the airbag sensor so that it will not detect such kind of impact.

Below is the picture of the accident.

[arvindb4]

I must admit after seeing the accident of your endeavor suv. The safety net was in place and performed as expected and Thank God that you came out unhurt. Another strange thing is that in case of Mahindra and some other cars, I could not find anywhere in the manual about the placement of sensors and how they get triggered etc etc. Consumer is clueless.

[TB16]

This is really shocking! I'm praying that your son recovers quickly.

Recently my dad (black kizashi) was in an accident where the other car driver (Grey optra) just slept off on the wheel. He bumped straight into the rear right wheel. The impact was quite strong (told by my dad) and the curtain & shoulder airbags (which opens from inside the seat) deployed immediately. My dad said that had those not deployed, his head could've smashed right into the driver side window. Optra's both front airbag also got deployed immediately.

This is 100% a case of manufacturing defect and Mahindra should be held solely responsible for it.

[VKumar]

Really sorry to hear, wishing the kid to get well soon, my heart really sank having read about the incident. I have seen something similar happen in my close circles and still vividly remember the way the parents were devastated by the incident. Stay strong Arvind, entire community is with you.



No one, no matter who he or she is, has a right to spoil a promising life and career in this manner; it's not just about the boy, but the entire family which is now suffering due to the poor quality control or the ignorance of an auto manufacturer who has either used sub standard parts or poor electronics just to keep the costs under check, or say to keep their pricing competitive. One buys a car with 6-7 airbags for their safety and here this thing has failed in doing what it was primarily supposed to do.

Originally Posted by ajmat

• The impact sensors were defective - they sensed neither rapid deceleration not impact

Ajeet, this particular point I would like to put emphasis on. The 2012 XUV of a friend had some issue with the airbag circuitry last year and that was uncovered only when I personally told Mahindra guys to thoroughly check the airbag sensors and circuitry as the car was 5 years old. They had to spend a lot of time just to get things right as probably the system was reading the sensors right but they were actually not sending back the feedback I guess (all these things work in a feedback loop after all). These sensors lie unused for years and I religiously get my airbag and ABS system cross checked in every single service for the same reason.



I starkly remember a friend Akash(Akash1886 from TAI forum) had the airbag sensors of his Honda City gone kaput but there was absolutely no warning on the intrument panel - Honda replaced the inflator free of cost; of course under recall. But the thing is, the inflator was actually offline in his car when he told me about the same. So, airbag system has a life and it's always better to get it well inspected once a year at least.

• The seat sensors did not detect anyone seated

If this is the case then entire R&D team should be sued along with entire product development team as well as Mr. Goenka and Mr. Mahindra. The seat sensors did not detect anyone seated and the vehicle is moving!!


What is over engineering? Well, thinking as an engineer of 10 different situations, and if anyone of the 10 is true - that means someone is inside the car.

[audioholic]

Very unfortunate incident and I wish your son a full recovery. Perhaps it might take some time, but when he has achieved before, I bet he will take on any challenge and get back to action as early as possible. I am someone who has justified the non-deployment of airbags in many incidents. However, in this case, I fully support that the airbags should have triggered and saved your son from those injuries. I suppose his head has hit the pillar of the car hard and hence the severe injuries. This was not supposed to happen and he should have been saved by the side and curtain airbags.

I am not sure what the condition of the car currently is. However, a scan of the airbag controller will give you good evidence on its functioning and will help take further action against Mahindra. We can derive crucial information from the Airbag controller related to whether it detected a collision, whether it had any issues beforehand and also if it has stored freeze frame data of the crash, which it should have in case it did detect a crash. If not, then it is time to sue the company. Even if it has detected a crash, the airbags did not inflate that too multiple units. Hence, most probably the Airbag sensor did not detect the crash itself. Please consider doing some fieldwork so that the company cant give lame reasons for why the airbags did not trigger.

Originally Posted by ajmat

I dont think Mahindras have a proper crash testing facility but again the cars have been sold in Australia and South Africa

I have seen the XUV being tested in Applus Idiada, Spain which is regarded one of the best automotive test facilities in the entire world. Not sure if they also do a crash test there, or it is just the environment and driving dynamics tests.

[revvharder]

This is really a frightening accident, hope your son recovers fast and regains his health back. But this is a serious situation what does mahindra expect the owners to do in a car crash? Open the airbags manually, yours is not the only case where airbags of xuv did not deploy. I searched the net and there are several similar situations and airbags did not deploy. Your post is a real eye opener for me as even I was considering an xuv but I think I would have to settle for an ecosport or creta myself as I too am 18 years old and the last thing I would want in a car crash is airbags not deploying. You should really sue mahindra for this.