[PrasannaDhana]

I voted for 4 stars minimum.

I have been buying cars for the past 2 decades(my influence on the purchase has been vital). We have predominantly bought Marutis for their reliability, fuss free ownership and lower running costs, Tatas for their durability, ability to take abuse and value for money nature. I have also had other brands, and usually change cars every 3 years until recently.

To be honest, we have never thought about crash worthiness or safety rating until 2018, when Tata and Mahindra started to spearhead the awareness towards safety even in mainstream Indian cars. Safety was somehow attributed to luxe marques before.

Currently I have 4 cars, with none getting prioritized based on safety ratings during purchase.

If I had to buy something now (even if it is pre-owned) I don't think I would settle anything below 4 stars. And quite a deviation from my purchase habit, none of the Marutis will be in my choices for a new/used car now.

I believe the awareness needs to spread more and the recent crash tests are a very welcome move. The crash tests need to become mandatory. Once customers start buying safer cars, the manufacturers will be forced to give safer cars.

My choice here is minimum 4 because if had chosen 5* as minimum, I really don't have much of cars to choose from. If the market gets more 5* cars, my choice will be minimum 5*. Our market has to evolve much better, but hopefully it is.

[Annibaddh]

There's absolutely no way I'll pick anything less than 5 stars. I have 2 cars in my garrage right now, a Hyundai i10 (going on 12 years) and a Vento TDi HL (going on 9). Guess the mileage? The i10 has run 27K kms. Is used regularly, but for weekend city runs *only*. The Vento has run 107K kms. It was one of the few cars that had a safety rating (Polo version though - 4 stars) and mine was the top trim.

Therefore Vento is used on most days, and *all* highway runs. The car 'feels' solid, planted and safe. What's more I know I am lazy so have 2 separate car seats for the cars, because if I bought one, I'd end up doing some runs with my kid without the car seat and that is a no no. I end up insisting that even passengers in the back wear car seats (although sometimes unsuccessfully).

The point being, in a road environment such as ours, there's no way in heaven, I'm going to buy a car with anything less than absolutely top safety creds. The reason I dropped the Harrier after booking one.

[five46]

Presently owning the proverbial Tin Can.

Wish my next car to have minimum 4 stars and a feature of starting the car only when the seat-belt is buckled, a feature similar to side stand cut-off in some new Honda two wheelers.

[bosem123]

My opinion is that a company needs to couple good after sales service and high availability of spare parts in maximum areas of the country as well. Only then it makes sense to buy cars with high ratings. This is exactly why Maruti supercedes other manufacturers despite making tin cans

[AirbusCapt]

Folks the safety rating is secondary. Primary should always be how much does the structure deform under impact. There are lot of 3/4 star rated cars which have an unstable structure post impact. Unfortunately this information is either hidden or not directly available from the rating agency.

[Spaced Out]

Great thread. I agree with some of the other members that a car's safety rating is not the end of the story. I appreciate that the OP was not making this argument or even implying it, and I do welcome the awareness around safety ratings post the GNCAP ratings.

I would love to see a poll, if one has not been done already, on how many members insist on back seat passengers buckling up in the back seat or using car seat/booster seat for kids.

In my pre-pandemic Uber using days, I would insist on using cabs which had operational seat belts. I was very particular about this on early morning rides to & from airports.

I also used a car seat whenever I used a Zoomcar for family trips.

To recap, great to see that Indian consumers will make buys with safety in minds. However, all this is moot if they insist on driving as if they are playing an arcade game and not take basic precautions by buckling up for all passengers.

[SuvidC]

Bought a 2020 Vento TSI back in September. Used Tiago as a daily driver for 3 years before that. Both of these have 4-star safety ratings (Vento through the Polo) for the Indian versions, and my next car (whenever that is) is definitely going to be a 5-star safety rated vehicle. We also have a 2016 Baleno in the garage but that car is strictly used as a city runabout. Have been a victim of multiple road accidents in my college days, and so safety is more than essential for me. All other features are secondary.

[Raghuwire]

Originally Posted by GTO

Mod Note: New, multiple choice poll has been added

I voted for 5-stars as well as "depends".

And tomorrow, if I was looking at a purely city car, I would be okay with a cheap unrated hatchback.

Just curious about your choice here GTO. Now that we have rated cars at almost each price point, why not choose that over unrated cars? For example if mileage is concern, then probably Ertiga, if a small car is needed Tiago, if AT is needed then too multiple options are available. City drives in Mumbai, especially in the non peak hours or the expressways can be above 80 kmph too.

[HrB]

Voted for 5 stars. Since we now have options (read Tata, Mahindra), why settle for less? After all its me and/or my family who would be in it in case any unfortunate incident takes place.

[1:1]

Can we have an option to buy full safety kit (ABS/EBD/Additional Airbags/ ESC/ Break Assist/) even in the base varient? would that not solve problem across the borad.

These offerings are available internationally but not in India.

[Carma2017]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

‘If the safety features work as intended. No question of an accident’ What are you smoking?

Collision warning and braking systems will brake the vehicle and save the vehicle during a potential crash to an extent (within the laws of physics). But the passengers will fly out of the window if they are not wearing seat belts when the collision avoidance systems kick in and do emergency braking .

Don’t imagine all these technologies will magically save in any given scenario....

On a lighter note, I don't smoke. So, whatever you are insinuating does not apply.

On a more serious note, I get your point. Like Napalm said, safety is a game of probabilities. All passive safety tech reduces possibilities of injuries and all active safety tech reduces possibilities of accidents. But for the cases of drivers exceeding speed limits (I don't think we are allowed legally anywhere in India to cross 90kmph) or a health issue etc, possibility of injury will remain. I admit that.

Having said the above, I will repeat myself. In this forum, we are voting to support a star rating system which only evaluates frontal collision, no side impact , rear impact, small offset or Pole impact. It is not even equivalent to current generation of Latin NCAP on which Indian evaluation system of GNCAP is based, leave alone EuroNCAP or JNCAP. If I transpose the test results to Global norms, all 5 stars would vanish. Hence, this is another reason why I don't support such ratings as this is only another means of saying " I follow the law/NCAP of the land".

We should look at comprehensive safety including braking, handling, collision resistance, theft / burglary resistance etc. Till the time, we don't have a comprehensive rating, I will trust my within speed limit driving style, follow traffic rules and trust my AEB and Airbag equipped car more than any ratings.

[Breathe2drive]

Would definitely prefer to buy 5 star rated cars but it is only limited to 3 at the moment. Would love to buy almost-new used bimmer (if pocket permits) for highway drives and a cheap peppy small car with low or no rating for city runabouts.

[saikarthik]

I voted 4 as minimum because the way the test is carried out is very technical, but still some 4 star rated cars at the border of making it to 5 have better protection in injury severity.

Important for me is to have higher degree of cabin protection, since I drive carefully enough and we can't control other vehicles on the road, basic features like

Good front lighting system,
ABS, ESP,
dual airbags,
Isofix mounts

are must, additional active and passive safety features are welcome.

Just a couple of days back, when I was discussing with a friend about my future car purchase and why I intend to purchase either Nexon or Altroz, he was super casually suggesting "for your attentiveness and driving behavior, why don't you buy a Suzuki". and that person works in automotive industry (and worked in accident reporting team too). I completely lost it, despite me telling and showing him the importance of safety. He owns a Swift.

P.S: I don't own a car currently, but use my sister's old Zen Estillo LXi )which I intend to replace with Nexon.

[francisvellara]

Ideally, 5 stars would be my minimum, but that's hard to stick to, practically. Consider buying a small hatchback. There just aren't enough options to choose from which meet the 5 star safety rating. Until Indian cars are tested regularly, I would go with 'Depends'. Safety is a priority, but 5 stars might have to give way for a better car in other respects.

[Annibaddh]

Originally Posted by Carma2017

On a lighter note, I don't smoke. So, whatever you are insinuating does not apply.

On a more serious note, I get your point. Like Napalm said, safety is a game of probabilities. All passive safety tech reduces possibilities of injuries and all active safety tech reduces possibilities of accidents. But for the cases of drivers exceeding speed limits (I don't think we are allowed legally anywhere in India to cross 90kmph) or a health issue etc, possibility of injury will remain. I admit that.

Having said the above, I will repeat myself. In this forum, we are voting to support a star rating system which only evaluates frontal collision, no side impact , rear impact, small offset or Pole impact. It is not even equivalent to current generation of Latin NCAP on which Indian evaluation system of GNCAP is based, leave alone EuroNCAP or JNCAP. If I transpose the test results to Global norms, all 5 stars would vanish. Hence, this is another reason why I don't support such ratings as this is only another means of saying " I follow the law/NCAP of the land".

We should look at comprehensive safety including braking, handling, collision resistance, theft / burglary resistance etc. Till the time, we don't have a comprehensive rating, I will trust my within speed limit driving style, follow traffic rules and trust my AEB and Airbag equipped car more than any ratings.

Actually there are quite a few stretches with 100kmph as the limit now. Agra Lucknow being one. Even the 4-laner non access controlled Jaipur-Agra has 90 as tops. Might I add, I thought the Agra-Lko deserved a higher 120 rating until I saw a Baleno driver do a complete u-turn and start driving back in the right-most lane to get back to a missed exist for a mid-way! There's no safety rating good enough for stupidity.