[saikarthik]

Just observed that all the safest cars in India that are being sold are of either Tata motors or Mahindra considering top 10. Exception being VW Polo and remember it's an old platform and still safer hatch today.

Mahindra XUV700 is 5th in the list due to miniscule difference in point of adult protection however ranks higher in overall safety. Also point to not is that unlike ENCAP, GNCAP won't test the safety assist (active safety - ADAS) or VRU (vulnerable road user) scenarios, if mandated XUV700 will rank 1st in overall rating, though it's not fair to say this as other's aren't offering these features.

Note to Mods: I think we need a separate thread to discuss the safest cars that are being sold in India, and also have discussions on the "reading between the scores". Something like the list TopGear and GT used to maintain and update time to time.

[GTO]

You wanted a new thread, you got it . Moved out. Proud of what both these companies are achieving .

[VW2010]

Considering the affordability and buying power change or increase in India it is high time people also prefer safety over gimmicks. That phase will take a few more years where safer vehicles are preferred over gimmicks.

One place where I want these two companies to create a bigger impact is attracting tech and core engineering talents to build a career in india by creating a collaborative program on R and D. The wealth of brains are not tapped fully yet by our industries.

I hope these two companies also lead in that aspect where say even an IIT final year projects are real research projects in these segments and not some theoretical concepts.

[sumeethaldankar]

I think the list could change if manafacturer's bring in other vehicles like the Harrier, Safari, S-cross etc. But yes it seems only Indians care about Indians while the rest are just to milk the public. Kudos to TATA and Mahindra for leading the pack in safety.

[JigarKansagara]

Considering all these cars are crash tested at 64 km/hr, which is the speed at which no one drives on highways we especially need 5 star rated cars on our roads. And I'm glad to see that more and more people are now leaning towards safe cars rather than fuel efficient ones.

[ron178]

This may be off-topic, but I think it deserves a mention and I can't find a better thread to post this.

Here's some trivia: this is not the first time local manufacturers in a developing market have been more proactive than foreign players in taking up safety and NCAP ratings.

I notice a lot of similarities with the safety journey of Tata and Mahindra with that of Malaysian manufacturers Proton and Perodua when ASEAN NCAP was first set up in the region.

Preliminary: I will be referring to both ASEAN NCAP and ANCAP in this post, please remember that ANCAP is not short for ASEAN NCAP, the two are different NCAPs. ANCAP is for Australasia and ASEAN NCAP is for the ASEAN region.

When ASEAN NCAP was first set up, they tested the Proton Saga FLX in 2012 with a driver's airbag. With risk of life-threatening injuries to the passenger's head the Saga FLX scored one star for adult protection.



This was neither new nor unprecedented.

Proton had a history of making cars that performed very badly in crash tests, even in export markets like Australia. This is the one-star Proton Arena/Jumbuck tested by ANCAP in 2008.



And this is the three-star Proton Waja/Impian tested by Euro NCAP in 2002, a car Proton claimed was 'developed to Euro NCAP standards' but showed a compromised passenger compartment. The crashed car even featured on Top Gear, where presenters showed the interior view of the compromised passenger compartment (which didn't look too bad from the outside) (Timestamp: 00:00:35)

https://youtu.be/XA4tQn7smKU?t=35

To top it off, Proton's cars were (and still are) of the tinny, light, fuel-efficient type, In Malaysia, they call them 'Milo Tins', the equivalent of what we call 'tin cans' here in India.

Then, there came a change in Proton's management and they decided they would make safety a top selling point for all Protons.

The Saga FLX was discontinued and only the Saga FLX Plus with double airbags was sold, which scored an improved three stars in ASEAN NCAP tests.



Proton then developed their RESS architecture which made extensive use of hot press-formed steel to keep mass at a minimum (in line with their older cars and their fuel economy commitments) while greatly improving structural integrity. This architecture also featured side and curtain airbags, a first for Proton.

The RESS body structure made its debut on the Proton Prevé and its hatchback version the Suprima S, and the results showed:





Today, Proton heavily advertises safety as a top selling point. You'll find the ASEAN NCAP rating in nearly every Proton advertisement.

Perodua Motor, another Malaysian carmaker, showed improvements.

This was the 3-star Perodua Myvi tested in 2013:



And this was the 5-star Perodua Myvi tested in 2017:



I think of the Mahindra Scorpio as the Proton Jumbuck, the Tata Zest as the Proton Saga, the exported Mahindra XUV500* as the Impian and the Nexon as the Prevé and suddenly it seems all too familiar.

*read BHPian rpm's post (Am I being stupid in sticking with the outgoing XUV500 booking?) explaining why the 4-star ANCAP rating might not have been as good as it seemed.

To explain my analogy: Tata and Mahindra are local to India just as Proton and Perodua are to Malaysia, all of them had a reputation for selling cars with poor to average levels of safety and now all of them use safety as a big selling point over competition. Am I the only one who sees the parallelism?

[anjan_c2007]

The most expected, excellent safety ratings and going by the way the two homegrown companies are improving, let us hope they catch up in ameliorating their very conventional new-born model niggles, together with their adolescent niggles too. Middle and Old Age niggles occur in most cars.

If they score on the reliability stakes, the safety and reliability combo will be a game changer for our car market, allowing them to score over the rivals.

[Raghu M]

Trust me, the single selling point for buying the XUV3OO was the safety. Of course, it had class leading features as well. Was a really proud feeling when I booked it. Wanted to strongly buy an Indian brand and the XUV has not let me down a single day. The interiors, build quality and the heart are all just purely awesome.

[ags82]

We have to consider safety rating of a car as a major buying criteria but never to misunderstand 5 star means built like a tank, can take anything at any speed. The GNCAP tests are created to show a scenario how a car fares in a front offset at 64kms/hr. That said kudos to Mahindra and Tata for thinking about passenger safety as a priority compared to other brands. I wonder how these 5 star rated cars would fare in Euro NCAP scenario with side impact, side pole and full frontal collision.

[hajaar]

The title and data are a bit misleading. "Just observed that all the safest cars in India that are being sold are of either Tata motors or Mahindra considering top 10."

What about cars like the CRV, Fortuner, the German cars etc. They will be far superior. Maybe you ought to mention that these are the safest cars under a certain price point.

[raghukodali]

I don't see Toyotas (Etios, Crysta, Fortuner) in this list. Is it that they are not tested by global NCAP or is there any other reason.

Actually, I could not find Innova Crysta in any list compiled on the internet.

[Dr.AD]

It is definitely great to see these Indian cars scoring so well in the crash tests. Safety in "some of" the India cars (I say some because still there are many Indian cars which do not figure in this list) is increasing by leaps and bounds and that is a welcome sign. Kudos to these manufacturers and designers.

Originally Posted by saikarthik

Just observed that all the safest cars in India that are being sold are of either Tata motors or Mahindra considering top 10. Exception being VW Polo and remember it's an old platform and still safer hatch today.

Having said that it is great to see this trend of increasing safety in Indian cars, I think this statement (or more specifically the thread title "9 of 10 safest cars in India are from Mahindra & Tata") is not true. What about Audi, BMW and Mercedes? What about Volvo? What about cars like Skoda Octavia and VW Tiguan? I am sure almost all of these cars are 5-star rated in Euro NCAP (which is a harder test to pass than Global NCAP and is often the global benchmark of car safety).

Maybe that some of these absolutely safest Euro cars, which are also sold in India, are directly tested for Euro NCAP and not tested at Global NCAP at all. Therefore, the list you mentioned (which is strictly Global NCAP) does not figure these cars. That could be the reason this list is a bit misleading.

Therefore, the opening statement can be modified a bit to include some limiters such as cars under a certain price point or cars sold in volume segment with minimum certain number of copies sold each month etc. Again, I take your point about increasing safety in Indian manufacturers and I applaud them for that. But we have to keep the overall perspective in picture before reading too much in this list.

Originally Posted by hajaar

The title and data are a bit misleading. "Just observed that all the safest cars in India that are being sold are of either Tata motors or Mahindra considering top 10."

What about cars like the CRV, Fortuner, the German cars etc. They will be far superior. Maybe you ought to mention that these are the safest cars under a certain price point.

Well said. Exactly my point too.

[Godzilla]

This is good step to list. However this does not give the full picture as GNCAP does not include Crash prevention tech as a parameter yet. (GNCAP is inferior compared to other NCAPS as it only include two parameters adult and child crash rating, but other include crash avoidance and pedestrian safety) They have planned to include only next year 2022. IMO important safety feature such as ESP is skipped in cars such as Punch as is portrayed as a safe car. However, I would pick Nissan Magnite Turbo as the safest car in sub 10 lakh segment as it has decent crash ratings + ESP + Hill hold + Traction control.

Another point to note is Mahindra XUV700 does not include ESP in lower variants. This is disappointing why a 10+ lakh car cannot offer basic safety feature such as ESP.

Additionally there are awesome tech such as MCB. Multi collision braking in VW and Skoda Kushaq which IMO are fantastic safety features but it will take time for NCAP agencies to recognise them as important and include them in their rating systems.

[Celes]

Originally Posted by raghukodali

I don't see Toyotas (Etios, Crysta, Fortuner) in this list. Is it that they are not tested by global NCAP or is there any other reason.

Actually, I could not find Innova Crysta in any list compiled on the internet.

Although Innova & Fortuner may seem burly, safe and tough built, I believe these vehicles may not score that high on safety parameters as they are based on ladder frame construction, whereas a monocoque construction like xuv7oo is amongst the safest cars on Indian roads.

[sravankrishnan]

I've sometimes wondered why NCAPs follow a 5-star system and if using a 10-star system instead would be more informative.

How would it impact our perception of safety and would some of the 5-star rated cars be pushed towards 9 or 8 stars on such a scale that can accommodate a larger number of factors?