[sridhar-v]

At most city commute speeds the SRS ie "supplementary restraint systems" - read primarily as Airbags- will not be efective. Only Seat belts and ABS will be useful.
But I have seen that majority of side impacts happen, though at lowish speed, in a city setup.
So of utmost importance will be a mechanically sound body shell. And small size is equally important to enable defensive driving.
The Ford Ecosport is an ideal car for such use.

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

A friend of mine hit a pothole while riding his Duke 390 and had a bad fall- few broken ribs and many bruises; He required 6 months of bed rest.

Someone driving a non-ABS Maruti Alto through the same spot at 60kmph might have suffered from a damaged tire and/or bent steel rim.

It is sad, we all will know some case like this if we think hard enough.

I lost someone I know to a truck - he had put his money on a superbike and was wearing all the required safety equipment worth as much as the bike itself. He was not doing insane stunts either, just a bit of mud on the road on the Ghat road and that's it. Even the oldest beat up M800 would have brought him home in one piece.

Roads have improved a lot since I started driving, As I see it now, Roads are safer now than ever before. The accident numbers have more or less remained the same however the number of vehicles have increased a lot.

[kiku007]

IMHO the wrong question is being asked and then the justifications are quite unfortunate to read but I guess that's the reality.

It has taken me several years to convince many of my friends and family in India that IT IS NOT OK to say that they don't need seat belts within the city. For them seat belts were for the highway. Over a period of time, they understood and more people are belting up inside a car irrespective of the silly city limit rule they created out of thin air.

Now I see an thread in TBHP on why it's ok to drive a poorly rated (by GNCAP) car inside the city.

To each his own. Safety is relative. Not everyone has the budget. Sure.

How do parents earning two-million+ rupees/year justify sending their children to school in overcrowded auto-rickshaws? Also the same parents travel on two-wheelers instead of cars to work? Just these two things raise the risk of accidents, injury or death several times over. When that itself doesn't matter, I do understand why GNCAP rating inside the city won't matter.

Anyways I feel that this thread is taking the conversations around safety backwards and not forwards. It's a honest reflection of the state of affairs though.

[SankalpDesai]

Voted YES.

I think it is a no brainer. Even an unrated car would be much better than a 2-wheeler on a daily basis or public transport in current pandemic situation.

2-wheelers expose you and the pillion to road surface, dust, noises at close quarters, higher probability to injuries in case of an accident, etc. The only saving grace would be that the head would be safer compared to other parts of the body due to a helmet.

Public transport system is a hotbed for germs and infections. While you can take precautions and maintain distance, it is not entirely your choice. It is also extremely uncomfortable for the elderly.

An unrated car spec'ed with right safety gear, seatbelts bolted and careful driver behind the wheel is far safer option for the city.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by GTO

For a Mumbai-Goa drive, if you gave me the option of riding shotgun in a Benz by an ordinary driver or a Scorpio by SS-Traveller, I would most definitely choose the latter.

Thank you for reposing such faith and confidence in my driving ability. How about me in a Benz though?



Disclaimer: Not my car!

[UP!!!!]

Voted Yes.

We already have a WagonR which is mostly used for city usage. It has been doing farm duties and city runs since last couple of years. It’s very cheap to maintain and can park anywhere without worrying much about it.

[sid_deb]

Voted Yes

With the only exception, avoid drives during late night or early morning even in the city. Safety depends on both the car and driver. The average latter just takes it for granted jumping red lights and over-speeding during such odd hours.

[AjiGTI]

Voted yes, I use my Alto for most of my office commute and market runs. The average speed of my office commute is 20 km/hr and most of the time it is crawling.

[viXit]

Why not?!

City speeds nowadays if you want to avoid chalans are super safe if belted, and all these unrated small cars have tiny cabins, and good visibility and are pretty convenient and fuel efficient due to lighter weight In the city.

Small cabins cool faster, and are much more convenient in the crowded metropolitan areas we live in.

If it were upto me ,I'd ditch the Honda city I'm driving daily and snatch my grandfather's Maruti 800.

[ashokabs]

I have lived in Delhi and NCR for over 30 years. I can safely state that city driving here is perhaps not like other cities. Speeds tend to be much higher and people are very iffy about driving etiquette, defensive driving and an unsafe car can be as much a death trap as a motorcycle or scooter.

On the other hand just think that a collision takes place between cars travelling towards each other at 60 kmph. Each is doing only 30 kmph but at the combined speed it is a deadly situation for fatal accidents. This is especially so if the car is unrated or rated zero.

I for one disagree and think it is wrong to think that city driving is safe from high risk of death if one is using unsafe cars.

[Amsdoc]

I voted yes, because we all do it and have been doing so for ages. A useful statistic would be to check the number of car fatalities inside city and which cars were involved, though it would be very difficult to find such a report. I would say the number will be pretty low for the occupants of the vehicle that is. pedestrian safety is a whole new level that we haven't yet graduated to(apart from removal of bullbars).
On a side note and I don't know if this has been covered before. I recently read in one of the car magazines in the Q&A section, 1 guy said that he would not buy a Seltos because of its GNCAP rating, and the reviewers came down heavily on him saying that the great results by TATA/Mahindra were because of sponsored runs where they gave them the top spec version and for the others (like Seltos) they have chosen the base level version. Is there any truth in this?

[lamborghini]

Voted NO.

While I would be willing to compromise on the safety for a pure city car - I don't see myself willingly buying a car that has been tested and awarded anything below 3 stars.

At home, these city cars are often the beaters and there is no getting around the odd expressway / highway trip with these cars ferrying family, staff, or even our dogs. Whilst in the immediate family, we always buckle up on the highway - there is no guarantee for extended family / staff doing the same in the rear, so a stable & sturdy body shell is required.

[Annibaddh]

Voted yes but only because I already own an i10 which I’ve sparingly used (weekend runs within city only, mum used a scooter to go to work). Now it is fast becoming our beater. I’d not buy another car below certain safety thresholds. That’s for sure.

[chinmaypillay]

Voted yes, since the whole point of having a beater car is practicality and ease of repairs. The confidence you feel in driving these cars freely in the city is something to be felt. In the current crop, my pick would be the Celerio manual (base variant) if I have to get a beater car. In cities like Bangalore where the crawling speed is 2 to 10 kmph, it would not feel like a compromise since MOST of the cars are safe at that speeds.

Sadly, now options are very limited if we are to include GNCAP test ratings along with the above said parameters. Tiago is a nice car, but honestly the engine does not appeal to me much like the Suzukis. Until such a time comes when the test ratings blend well with the actual parameters, I would not mind going for cars with zero ratings in the city.

[Merc_Freak]

Voted yes. I know how important it is to have a beater car in the city. Because you simply can’t do everyday errands in your prized possession of a car. You need a car to use everyday , and it shouldn’t hurt you even if it takes a dent or two. Safety doesn’t matter in this scenario as it won’t reach high speeds anyway.