[ishlinea7260]

Being a Seltos owner for quite some time now am not happy with these results.

Really surprised with the crash test rating on the Kia Seltos. I honestly did not expect it to fare 3 stars whilst the Australian Seltos has a 5 star rating.

This is a case of sheer double standards of Kia Motors.
Bear in mind the top end diesel variant with the automatic gearbox costs between 19-20 lakhs on road, in some states it might cost even more. Thats not cheap by any means. IMHO if you are asking top dollar for your product you better provide the same and not shortchange your customers!

Some cars have excellent features but are compromised on safety, whilst others might be structurally safe but they let you down with electronic , engine and gearbox troubles.
Is there any modern car in the 2 million rupee bracket that ticks all the boxes?

It seems like Hyundai India and KIA India are becoming the next Maruti not only are they catching up in sales but also in providing less safe cars as compared to their foreign counterparts.

[CEF_Beasts]

Sorry but it was high time I post this!

Not intended to offend anyone.

[Dr.Abhi]

Even Ignis scored 9.99 as compared to seltos 8.03. this is unforgivable on kia's part to provide unsafe tincans at this price point. I think its high time, each and every car on sale in India must be crash tested so that buyer can make a informed decision. Now the people who have purchased Seltos must be pulling their hair that they dont have a safe car even after paying a fortune. Pity state of conditions in India.

[skarthiksr]

Since the day Tata achieved five star rating for the Nexon, they have been marketing it heavily. In fact, Tata should be credited for bringing in a new benchmark for Indian cars on the safety aspect. Next, Mahindra achieved the feat and now they are displaying it on all their TV ads of XUV300.

Skoda setup a stall in my office campus earlier this year and was talking about safety multiple times during our conversation. In fact, one of the SAs jumped even further ahead and said this: 'Sir, did you see the Polo flyover accident in Hyderabad? The driver walked out of the car right after the accident. That's how our cars are built' (I think it was an imported one though).

Considering that manufacturers are pushing the safety aspect as a marketing tool, it is disappointing to see that our Team-BHP Car of the Year, 2019 Kia Seltos has achieved this rating.

Next, I am curious about what rating would the Ford Ecosport achieve if the Indian version is tested considering that Figo/Aspire had earlier achieved only three stars with unstable body shell.

[padmrajravi]

Seltos scoring 3 stars is very disturbing. Especially when the international counterpart scored 5 stars. That is clearly double standards. And it means we cannot make any purchase based on Euro NCAP or ANCAP ratings. Australian Seltos even has steering on the same side that India has. So there really is no justification for a different crash rating other than for sheet metal quality and absence of strength members.

That said, I am not very confident about Tata too. No crash tests yet for Harrier is definitely concerning. Hope I am proved wrong and it gets at least 4 stars. Surprising that this segment does not have a single 5 star rated car. Even Compass is not yet crash tested by GNCAP. Going by this rating, we can not consider its international five star rating. Looks like if you want a CSUV, it is better to buy from the segment below.

[jeganatu]

Originally Posted by VRJ

Well well well, this settles the debate once and for all. The Koreans aren't as safe as everyone assumed them to be. We all know Maruti's aren't safe from day one (except Brezza).

Guess what's worse than the Indian spec getting a 3-star rating? The Australian spec getting the 5-star rating . What disgusting double standard is this. What on earth is the Indian government doing except for collecting ludicrous taxes? Like how in the USA, BLM (Black Lives Matter) has gained traction, i think in India we should start 'Indian Lives Matter' too.

Australia 5-star rating link: https://www.carblogindia.com/kia-sel...ting-by-ancap/

Good observation, thank you. The Seltos is borderline 3-star. It crosses the mark by 0.03. I'd consider the Seltos a 2-star car.

The difference is because Australian seltos gets 6 Air bags and several proactive safety like EBD, ESP etc standard across all variant. Hence this tests got 5 stars.

original.pdf


https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.ancap.c...pdf?1581646950

While Indian version was tested with the base HTE variant . Note, only the top variant of Seltos and Sonet in India gets 6 airbags, ESP. Rest all lower variant does not get the useful proactive safety feature ESP .

Having ESP is more important as it prevents the crash caused due to skidding, than having 2 or more extra air bag which is reactive after crashing. Also ESP, EBD, TCS helps in controlling crashes in multiple occasions, while airbags does only once and that too after the crash.

[ps_abhijith]

I owned an elite i20, and it was dedicatedly used for long highway runs on the weekends. Used to clock in 10k kms every 6 months, with just weekend runs. The biggest confidence for me and my family on the car was that it was safe, and if ever something goes wrong, we all will be protected. The respect only increased when my family got a new swift in 2019 and the i20 felt like a tank. My only grudge against the car was the high maintenance cost.

I now feel disappointed as well as kind of guilty, after hearing about the brake issues in creta and seltos, and now the 3 star safety. Recently I did advise couple of my relatives and few colleagues to go with the Seltos. They were considering Nexon / XUV300 or Harrier, and I may have played a part in them ending up with Seltos. Well its better than the zero which most suzuki cars get, but we now know to expect only that from suzuki. Never expected this from Hyundai.

In reality, even if they put a banner at their showrooms saying that seltos has only 3 stars, I don't expect it will have any impact on the sales with the current customer mentality. Most customers still give least priority to safety. The sales numbers of Swift is a living proof for this. So in a way the mass market customers are responsible for driving a company like Hyundai to the point where they start to ignore safety. They would have looked at the market, and seen that if another giant can sell tin cans and still make a profit, why cant we? Cant blame the company alone in this.

Sad that the "leaders" are leading only in Sales, but have forgotten or conveniently ignored to lead in areas that matters to a customer.

[anshuman1117]

I guess the chatter that I had heard from many that these Koreans companies have questionable ethics and integrity is turning out to be true. It is said that these Korean businesses mostly focus on bling and other exclusive, attractive features to attract customers instead of reliability, safety and longevity like the Japanese.

These results and the recent Hyundai debacle in Latin NCAP with their HB20 and the recent losses in the American market have made me extremely sad that these companies are not what they are perceived to be. They are indeed unethical and totally profit driven with planned obsolescence of their vehicles. Looking for a way to maximise profits anyhow. Else why would they downgrade the construction of the HB20? I guess I will not consider them for a long time.

Maruti, with the current chairman, also cannot be expected to focus on safety and car rigidity. I am truly astounded that TATA is able to provide such safe cars under 10 Lacs! Maybe the taxes itself are so prohibitive that the others are not able to maximise their profits, and hence resorting to substandard build!

But then, what excuse does Kia have for a poor performance when most Seltos variants cost 15L+ and when the cheaper Brezza earned 4 stars?

[Karthik Chandra]

This is absolutely ridiculous from Kia . Selstos should have been a 5 star car for the money they charge.

When TATA can manage 4 stars for a 5 lacs Tiago and 5 stars for a 6 lacs Altroz there is no excuse for any manufacturer.

Unfortunately the market will keep lapping up Seltos' and we will soon get a report on how quickly Kia sold half a million vehicles. My brother bought one last year

This crash test rating needs to be mentioned under cons in respective official reviews.

[greyhound82]

Originally Posted by jeganatu

The difference is because Australian seltos gets 6 Air bags and several proactive safety like EBD, ESP etc standard across all variant. Hence this tests got 5 stars.

The platform of Indian version is also unstable .

[SansGT]

Check out this interview from ACI. Especially from 10:28, where they talk about the crash worthiness on the new i20. It is so evident that he is going round and round, trying to avoid this topic and ends up giving an inconclusive answer. Such things only raise doubts about the product.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNo59tVBnhc&t=719s

[Carma2017]

Originally Posted by shortbread

True, no one in their right sense or with any concern of safety would buy one,

BUT zero stars in this day and age?! They have designed a death rap and that too an ugly one at that....

Zero stars is inevitable for such a cheap car. Since the Alto is also a zero star vehicle, this was expected.

Interestingly, I thought GNCAP used to test the highest selling variant. In India they test the least safe variant only. Sounds a bit sensationalist. The body instability and footwell comments are copy-paste from Santro test report!!

[TurboOnTarmac]

Originally Posted by Dinesh_Malhotra

I am forced to think about cancelling my booking for KIA SONET GTX+ Diesel Automatic and move onto TATA NEXON Diesel (AMT) XZA (O) model.

What do you guys suggest?

For me, as a proud owner of 2020 BS VI NEXON D XZA (O), it will still be Nexon any day. You may have more bling in Seltos, but I doubt it can match the tank like build, safety and amazing driving dynamics/handling of Nexon.

My experience of After Sales Service of Tata dealer in Bangalore with Prerana Motors has been good and re-assuring. My car came with a factory defect of battery power leakage due to fuse issue impacting battery drainage and a faulty ECU. But both were rectified (ECU was replaced) with zero cost to me and even Prerana gave me replacement car while they fix the issue.

Its been four months with my Baloo (that's what i call him) and its always like the famous dialogue by Tom Cruise from the movie Jerry Maguire - " You complete me"

I think its time Team-BHP review start crediting ASS improvements that Tata genuinely trying along with safety ratings.

[jeganatu]

Originally Posted by RoadMonkey

I doubt these will do anything to the sales of the respective cars. The Indian buyer does not really care about the safety aspect of the cars as long as it has the usual bling. There's some on T-Bhp who think there's a shift towards higher consciousness of the safety aspect - but we've long known about the poor GNCAP rating of the most sold car in October '20, the MS Swift.

Seltos has been able to capture the attention of people like no premium car before, the Creta has had a long path to its current standing. I think it would be fair to assume that neither the Creta nor any of the Venue siblings will do better than the Seltos in this. Hyundai is on to the same success formula as MSIL. Give the people superficial features at the expense of what really matters. Who can blame them, after all, that's what the customer wants.

Even Team-BHP does not vouch FOR it! Praises success of Hyundai and Kia, praises Tata and Mahindra on getting 5 stars, but questions their after sales as Do or DIE.

Please check Facebook page of Seltos and Sonet. So many complaints of fogging, rattling, braking, DCT, tyre burst, etc being posted every day. But Indians and even a few BHPians do not care! They just want to own a Kia or fancy electronics. The news of confirmed 10k bookings of i20 is shocking. Such a premium price for small hatch

[John316_WRC]

I now know for sure our second family car will be from Tata or Mahindra or Honda.

Heck even the Amaze scored 4 stars!

I wont buy any car from Maruti or Hyundai/Kia.