[thetank]

An average car buyer in India is more concerned about mileage and exterior looks rather than safety. Needless to say, car manufacturers selling safety features as a luxury add-on has not helped. We are slowly making progress and will get there hopefully.

[landcruiser123]

Because most customers don't demand for safety packs. Try getting a Maruti with a VXI and optional ABS or an LXi with optional airbags. Although these models exist on paper, I know only one friend who owns a Swift VXi (o) ABS from the first gen. If people would demand it, they'd make safe base variants of cars too.

Hope government regulation can save us.

[DicKy]

They offer.
No demand.
They remove the option.

Other than people who specifically want the top end and end up ticking the safety option for just ticking the boxes, there isn't much demand I guess.
Swift had ABS variants, even the F10D WagonR had airbag option I believe.
Etios range had safety options, while the Zest even had a whole new variant for safety pack. XM(S) I believe.

Add to that the showroom guys will dissuade heavily since it means making a fresh order instead of allotting from the yard.
"Sir, a few thousand more and you can have the higher variant"
"Sir, even if it's a small crash, minimum ₹1 lakhs damage for the airbags themselves"
"Sir, we don't need ABS for city roads. Those are for long highway trips only.
"Sir, I will bundle up some accessories for ₹xxx instead of the safety pack and I will ensure you get the delivery within this week."

There goes the safety packs.

[roadrunner_nv]

Priority! That's it.

The consumer behaviour drives manufacturer offering. The race between panoramic sunroof and ABS/ESP is won by the former. We love the bling and don't think of the bang.

Thankfully, there are nuts like us who want top class or best possible protection on the cars we buy. That has at least forced manufacturers to get the top end fully equipped. Either a regulatory change or customer behaviour will force top class features today to entry level mandates tomorrow.

[abtyagi]

Toyota Etios GD varient had a specific safety pack, called as GD-SP. I purchased that in 2013. It has ABS, Twin airbag. Not sure if it has ESP, user manual is a bit confusing on that.

[Kosfactor]

Mk1 i20 came in with a Euro NCAP 5 star rating sticker, Side curtain airbags, ABS, all wheel discs etc. Nobody was willing to pay for it.

It's not very appealing to pay more for things that can't be seen unless you crash into something, so throw in a sunroof and leather seats, some chrome door handles along with safety pack and now the car has additional safety kit and it looks like you paid more than others did, everyone is happy.

[saikarthik]

As many said, there are no takers and as well as the manufacturers do not offer them on lower variants to push higher variants.

But there is another angle to it. Many components/parts in a car has variants too, especially electronics and wiring harness to optimize cost. So if you want to integrate say an airbag, the whole wiring needs to be changed (since airbag wiring cannot be add-on due to safety reason), the ECUs are connected (sharing information), all concerned ones need to be updated with wither software or hardware or variant selection. The calibration of airbag ECU will vary due to weight which needs to be coded again.

Say if lower variant needs to be compatible for safety features from higher variants as a pack, then the price gap between variants reduce and also there will be a lot of circuits and parts of other features will be on vehicle but unused.

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by saikarthik

As many said, there are no takers and as well as the manufacturers do not offer them on lower variants to push higher variants.

I have always wondered... Do people pay a premium for more features and hence manufacturers add safety pack too or do people pay it for safety and hence manufacturers add other features as well.

I would guess it is the former.

[Mountainman21]

I believe, many us (including myself) who are more aware about cars consider ourselves as more evolved when safety of vehicle is considered or prioritized when purchasing a vehicle (which is not a bad thing). However, looking down on mass users who for no fault of theirs assume the car is safe (better than two wheeler at least) and meet local regulations is a wrong thing to do.

Ideally what we should be doing is making our peers aware of safety parameters and importance of using seat belts, child seats etc. so our whole car market moves together towards safer vehicles.

Usually, what I see in many cases is people boasting that I chose a safe vehicle over others cause I am unique in looking for safety and mass consumers just values gizmos. This is entirely wrong, because no one is buying a car while being fully aware that car is unsafe.

My 2 cents to make the discussion more productive. No offense to anyone.

P.S.: I personally always go for the top most variant which offers best of safety and gizmos.

[Moroder]

When we purchased our Amaze over 7 years ago the advice we got was it will be expensive to refill the airbags after a minor accident. Forgot about the repairs to person if mishap happens. Went with the non aribag S model. I was a student and a bigger novice then regarding automobiles and didn’t interfere. We still laugh about this stupidity when we plan new cars now.

[Carpainter]

Originally Posted by Moroder

When we purchased our Amaze over 7 years ago the advice we got was it will be expensive to refill the airbags after a minor accident.

While the subject matter of this topic had been discussed earlier if I remember correctly, I'd still like to know what would be the cost and reliability of re installation of airbags at dealership level after an accident.

Manufacturers don't provide safety features in lower variants because there is no demand for it and they try to keep the cost of base model as low as possible to give it a competitive sticker price. Now it's always a good thing that they could offer an additional variant with only safety equipments added, which is what we want, but the additional cost of say around 1lakh will put most people off. They'd rather have fancy gizmos and tangible or visible differentiator for the extra money they're paying rather than safety packs that they can't show off or don't feel the importance of it.

Slightly off topic but manufacturers don't want offer it as an optional customisation just like they don't offer other features as an option. I think it creates production chain problem for them. Say I want leather seat from the top variant but don't need sunroof. In expensive luxury cars, customer has the option to customize exactly what he wants but to do that in models that sell thousands of units a month would be difficult. Only thing that will make them offer better safety kit in base variants is if the government mandate them to do that. I don't see this happening anytime soon.

[kiran_aithal]

Just my 2 cents here...
To change the behavior of the manufacturers, it is important that the behavior and preferences of the general public changes too.

It is only in the past 15+ years that we have changes in the Indian automobile scene - various world class manufacturers have set shop and some good roads and highways built. And like every other BIG decision made at home, the opinion of family/elders are taken for buying a car (mostly first timers). Nothing wrong with it. But, it ends up largely leaning to buy a car which has the most 'Paisa Vasool' features; mileage kitna deta hai?, how many ppl can fit in/travel? etc. Safety features is the last thing on the list as it does not offer a visible tangible benefit for the money spent.

In my case, I have 'educated' many of friends and family to look at safety first (or at least along with other features) and, give them some 'not so good examples' of near and dear ones being involved in accidents.

The govt and other agencies too have to stress upon car safety along with the messages displayed for road safety on the highways and other places.

[Raghu M]

The trick is simple. There will be supply when there is demand. Our requirements are features and not safety to put it flat. I really get amused when reviewers start with the looks of the car and describe how many LEDs a car has and how cool the DRLs look. Then they just mention, you have 6 airbags (not even specifically ABS, EBD etc.). The reviewers even mention that a specific manufacturer missed out on providing DRLs and it is a sore miss. I fail to understand how that becomes a selling point.

Coming to your point, the request cannot be simply met because a top end doesn't just have extra airbags, there are loads of sensors and programs to help them run. It's a package that needs to be taken wholesome at least to an extent.

[Raghu M]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

Because most customers don't demand for safety packs. Try getting a Maruti with a VXI and optional ABS or an LXi with optional airbags. Although these models exist on paper, I know only one friend who owns a Swift VXi (o) ABS from the first gen. If people would demand it, they'd make safe base variants of cars too.

Hope government regulation can save us.

+1 to that. I know only one friend who owns a Ritz ZXi, have seen very few ones of the top trim. It mostly ends at VXi.

[KGS]

We are moving in a positive direction regarding safety aspect of cars but we are yet not completely over from our days of "Kitna deti hai?" (What's the average of this car ?)

Even though with advent of GNCAP and awareness among the millennials and other well informed public on platforms like TBHP, we are much better equipped to ask serious questions to manufacturers.

There are still a lot of people in our country who have a budget in mind , they simply go to nearest showroom (mostly it is MSIL , obviously not MSIL's fault to be present in all corners of India), they ask the sales advisor which car can fit my budget , give me some discount and accessories and deal done.

Also the mass market manufacturer knows very well that for each customer who might reject a car for lack of 6 airbags , there are 10 in queue to buy it for latest fancy gadget like big touch screen and panoramic sunroof. Waiting list for all the major cars is the biggest proof in front of us. So why will a manufacturer care for that minority safety conscious person. They are already making good profit.

Only thing that we can do at our part is to ask questions, lots of questions at every possible opportunity with the manufacturers and sales advisors. This will make them aware that safety conscious public is also a big chunk now and they need to listen to us sooner rather than later.