[Aaron:)]

This is absolutely appalling. Not that it makes it any less serious, but the results of the i10 and S-Presso were as expected. But the Seltos?!

1) The Seltos is a 20 lakh rupee car. Is it too much to expect a safe and stable structure after spending that kind of money?

2) I’d like to reiterate that the Seltos just about scored 3 stars. A few decimals less and it would’ve been 2 stars.

3) Get this. The Renault Duster actually scored more on adult occupant safety than the Seltos!

4) There are many comments on this forum praising Hyundai and Kia for their so-called ‘quality’ and ‘depth of engineering’. I might be wrong, but there’s surely a bit of bias here. Which is completely out of line with what Team BHP stands for.

5) The threads about the brake failure issues have faded into oblivion. I’ve hardly ever seen them feature on the homepage. Why? Is brake failure not a serious enough issue?

6) Tata and Mahindra have received brickbats for their niggles and aftersales. Honda for it’s falling quality levels. Toyota for it’s overpriced and under-specced cars. Let me point out that none of these issues are as as grave as brake failure or an unstable body structure.

7) Quality isn’t soft touch plastics or the thud sound of door closing. True quality is when a car is safe, reliable and well engineered. The Seltos is a car with known brake failure issues and poor crash safety. By no stretch of imagination can it be called a quality product.

Honestly, I’d rather stick with the Indians, Japs or Germans when it comes to buying a new car. The Koreans i.e. Hyundai and Kia are off my list. Because I value quality engineering more than bling.

[TurboGuy]

Originally Posted by SoumenD

Request mods to highlight this point in BOLD in the official reviews. The way in TATA vehicles it’s mentioned ‘service is a hit or miss’, Hyundai/Kia vehicle reviews should have ‘safety is questionable’. Shameful to see 20L cars being rated structurally unstable

Spot on.

When the majority of the buyers are inclined towards swanky features and re-sale value, I don't expect the Korean twins and Maruti to prioritise safety. What is the point of having all those goodies and even 4 or 6 airbags when all you have is an unsafe shell? Isn't it even unethical to claim 6 airbags makes you safer while the chassis is feeble? Unless the authorities implement stringent safety rules, the trend continues and each and every review of a new car should emphasise on the safety rating as well.

Big shout out to Tata and Mahindra for leading from the front, it's disgusting the other leading manufacturers still get away with their unsafe cars. Hope the market evolves in the coming years.

[Lowflyer23]

But can somebody help me get the contact details of GNCAP headquarters so I can send an email requesting them to test the Indian spec EcoSport and the Tata Harrier or am I just being stupid and it's not possible at all?

[FURY_44]

I am not a total car guy unlike many of you here, but I do have a fair share of knowledge about the industry and I swear by TATA cars to any of my friends who are on the look out to purchase a car.

A couple of years ago one of my friend considered and even bought the i20, I suggested him to please look at TATA cars especially the NEXON, he wasn't very keen on TATA since they didn't give him the "corporate" discount which the Hyundai guys gave and I left it there.

This thread gave me a chance to get back at him to prove how TATA car's are worth considering and a are a lot more safer than Huyndai or Kia for that matter, here's two lines as he quoted, just like how TBhp reviews state "service is a hit or a miss with TATA".

"The new Creta is good, TATA service is still pathetic" these GNCAP ratings will have no effect on the sales of Hyundai cars I believe.

[sachinayak]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Eleven pages and counting in less than 12 hours. Looks everyone is taking safety seriously

And this thread is still not on the "Hot Threads" page of Team-BHP. Thankfully this tops the news thread and hence leads users to this forum discussion.

[sandygordon]

I am a seltos owner. Ownership of the Seltos GTX Plus DCT has not been a nice experience for me. From the gear box failure with replacement of actuator unit, to fear of brake failure and now this shocker of a news. As an auto enthusiast I am really disappointed. After spending 21L and clocking over 18000km, Seltos is yet to excite me. I had more thrills in my humble 1.3 S cross. Considering my financial situation, I cannot change my car for altleast next 3-4 years.

Overall it feels like a quality product, but fails to stimulate an enthusiast. It is like a jack of all trades with a zillion gizmos and good performance, but it has killed the budding enthusiast in me. I have never felt the confidence to harness those 140 horses available in my ride. I decided not to remap it as the 140ps is already too much for the dynamics on offer.

I have been keeping out of team bhp for some time now. May be Seltos has made me that average pseudo proud "Joe" who is always proud of his car's looks and little concerned about anything else. Sometime I feel Seltos is for those braggers who want to display their fancy chorme or "de-chrome", for those ceramic and detailing freaks who wants their instagram pages filled with those dope looks.

[Jas21]

Originally Posted by sandygordon

I am a seltos owner. Ownership of the Seltos GTX Plus DCT has not been a nice experience for me. From the gear box failure with replacement of actuator unit, to fear of brake failure and now this shocker of a news. As an auto enthusiast I am really disappointed. After spending 21L and clocking over 18000km, Seltos is yet to excite me. I had more thrills in my humble 1.3 S cross. Considering my financial situation, I cannot change my car for altleast next 3-4 years.

Overall it feels like a quality product, but fails to stimulate an enthusiast. It is like a jack of all trades with a zillion gizmos and good performance, but it has killed the budding enthusiast in me.

And yet, at Team-BHP, in one of the current threads, it is listed as one of the Best Enthusiasts' cars.

[The Riddler]

What a shame, Kia!

My heartfelt gratitude to GNCAP for testing these cars. I had almost zeroed in to purchase a Kia Seltos 1.5 D AT (Gravity Grey). I was in touch with the Kia SA about a test drive. In fact he is getting the car home today for a test drive.

As soon as I saw the results yesterday, sent the link to my SA on WhatsApp. He did not have anything to say. Surprisingly, he did not try to blabber his way out (I was expecting him to do it). I've clearly told him that Kia Seltos is not in my shortlist anymore and I will not invest INR 21.5 lakhs for a car with an unstable body structure. It barely scored 3 points

I will vote with my wallet on this. No Kia/Hyundai cars for me till they produce a car for the Indian market with a GNCAP safety rating of 4 or above.

[tj123]

In my opinion our ridiculously high government taxation system on car also have to shoulder some blame. I am playing devil’s advocate here, manufactures may be skipping some key safety features in the chassis to keep their selling price low or read as keep their margins and in lieu offer some additional features to add some novelty . Consumers pay hard earned money and receiving watered down version of car is totally unacceptable. Customer awareness and some noise in the media may help improve this situation.
Kudos to Global NCAP for testing and bringing out unbiased safety results, hope to see more of the same .

[Carz77]

Very disappointing from Kia, never expected this. In fact, my top pick for my upgrade next year was Seltos. Not sure now and will wait if there is any design correction from Kia in 2021, else look out for other options.

Regarding GNCAP, I think there should a mandate from Govt to test all cars and rate them even before the launch, just like emission norms. At least, customers will be aware of what they are buying and decide accordingly

[gopi_rm]

The result for S-Presso is expected as Maruti has already publicly admitted its commitment towards safety. But the results for Nios and Seltos are totally unexpected from one of the growing global OEMs. I have seen in Kia Seltos website where they mentioned that high strengt steel is used but the crash test shows it is a lie. I believed their words and was thinking how Kia could offer everything such as engine, gearbox, features and safety at a competitive price while the competitors cannot do the same. Now I can understand where the corners were cut.

One of my friends has booked Kia Sonet Diesel last week and planned delivery is on Jan. After reading this news, I called and informed him to cancel Sonet booking and check out Nexon and XUV3OO which are 5 star rated. He though Hyundai Venue is 4 star rated and Sonet would have been same. I told him that 4 star rated Venue is from Australian market and not from India market and he understood the difference. Now he is going to test drive Nexon and XUV3OO. He is planning to keep the car at least 10 years.

[k_ajay]

Oh, darn. Was not expecting such concerning comments on safety for the Kia Seltos.. Not a bit surprised on the outcome and ratings of Hyundai or Maruti. Specially Maruti's job being putting tin sheets on road with people inside it, their lives be damned. Who cares!?

With the Seltos scoring the announced, tough chance the Kia Sonet is going to have a more sound body structure and overall higher safety.. For me, this changes things, in considering the Sonet, until things are proven otherwise.

Time and again, Indians keep ignoring manufacturers who are putting safety as one of their important 'feature', going for fancy features, much to their own peril. Time for everyone to seriously and always consider Tata and Mahindra, with the 4 and 5 star rated safer cars, while making purchase decision evaluation.

KIA - The Power to Surprise. Heck, yeah! Agree now.

[SaiSW]

Originally Posted by deetjohn

Attachment 2079379
Each of those can be seen in a very different light now!

The most appropriate response I feel I can give to that Espresso advertisement is, this picture

Jokes aside, what a shocker. After so many of their cars failing in crash tests, you'd think Maruti might have turned a corner ( especially considering brezza got a half decent score ) but no. Nope. They're right back where they were.

[VVN]

Totally expecting Maruti and Hyundai to run to the Indian Gov and come up with some nonsense about airbags, hill hold, ESP etc. Not long before Maruti and Hyundai start their 'Safety' PR by mentioning the number of airbags. Aam junta won't realise that the structure itself was deemed unstable and no amount of airbags can protect them in case of a frontal crash.

Hopefully this will put an end to the many owner reviews where they judge the build quality and safety of the car by the 'thud' of the door closing. I may sound like a pessimist but there is no way Maruti or Hyundai are going to change things. This hullabaloo will last for 1 more week and die down eventually. Next month we will again see Baleno, Seltos, Creta and Swift dominate the sales charts. As long as we Indians don't value our own life, why should the manufacturers care? If end consumers (including BHPians sadly) are happy with a shoddily built S-Presso or i10 or Swift, why would the OEMs worry about structural integrity?

I was in a minor crash with an Activa the over day where I unfortunately crashed the scooty from behind. The scooty was fine but my bumper assembly came out from the sides. My car is extremely reliable and has given me 0 issues in the almost 3 years of ownership. But that incident shook me. I am one of the many who still don't trust Tata and Mahindra when it comes to building reliable and long lasting cars. But now, I think I am ready to trade multiple visits to the service centre for safety (if need be). The next car is definitely going to be based on safety and reliability over sales figures, resale value and 'barebones or boring' interiors.

[IntoTheStorm]

Maruti had released the same statement again saying that it complies to GOI mandated safety standards!
I am glad that I didnt wait for new i20 or Kia sonet and got me a Polo 1.0 TSI. Safety was my first priority and what hooked me onto Polo apart from performance and handling was the safety aspects of Polo. Especially after watching that video of Polo flying from the bridge in Hyderabad,and driver surviving despite that horrific crash!. Also I have always felt that some of our fellow Bhpians didnt give enough credit to Mahindra or Tata for their efforts to create a safety first culture!. Hopefully things will change, especially when you've got to use your knee caps as crumple zones.