[amit]

More and more cars today come equipped with airbags and though they are a proven safety feature, they do have their risks. And these are big risks which could result in death if not used correctly.

Most average car buyers do not know the risks of airbags and many of them are sitting ducks for dangerous injuries, ironically, from a feature thats intended to save them. Car makers spend huge sums of money in training their dealership sales staff in the art of selling as well as educating car buyers about their set of wheels. We all have had salespeople spending time with us at delivery time telling us about the features and ways of using them in our new cars. BUT, how many of us have been told about the risks of a vital safety feature like the Airbags?

For all of us who have bought cars equipped with ABS and Airbags, please vote on this poll and share with us how good the dealership and salesperson were in explaining these vital safety features to you. Please also specifiy the car name and model and dealership name and city.

Insipration for this thread was from this thread.

[amit]

In my case:

Car bought: Maruti-Suzuki SX4 Zxi.

Dealership: Vitesse, Worli, Mumbai.

Though the salesperson spent time taking me through the features, he said NOTHING about ABS and Airbags. Not one word. Ironically, he had the key to the on position and explained the basic stuff about oil light, battery light coming on and going off if normal blah blah and even on how to toggle between odo, trip A and trip B. Even showed me how to set the clock but nothing about what could happen if I didn't belt up and drive in a car equipped with air bags.

But, forget Airbags, when I finally drove off, I wasn't told to belt up and drive safe either.

I have seen a Toyota Innova V being driven on Palm Beach Road at about 80kmph by a couple with a kid sitting on the mother's lap in the front passenger seat

Either dealerships aren't telling people about airbags and the correct way of keeping yourself safe or Indians with their typical "it will never happen to me" attitude choose to ignore what they are told.

[grvanand]

My Palio is equipped with it at the drivers side. A mention about the feature was made to us but nothing else, it being a SRS and wearing a seatbelt all the time is a must, delearship didnt mention it at all. By the attitude of the dealership, I guess they were thrilled about the fact that they could sell another piece of 1.6 for which, the production had been stopped then.
O.T. Even the way ABS works was not explained, was shoched when the ABS made a cranking kind of a sound when for the first time it made its presence felt.

[normally_crazy]

How do you expect the dealership / sales person to tell you about airbags/ABS - when in the 1st place they try and sell you the loew end model NOT equipped with airbags/ABS ?

[snaronikar]

I second NC's opinion. The sales guy/girl does not even know about these things. When I went to enquire about SX4 about 6 months back, the sales person did not even know about these features. The dealer was Kalyani Motors.

[1100D]

Salesperson in India is just interested in keeping him/her employed, moreover the average customer knowledge is zilch, so they get away with blabberring anything. On an Innova Testdrive a nice looking girl told me that the engine turns 5000 times every second as it is very advanced, then was blabberring about how path breaking the headlights are. I was pretending to be ignorant, enjoying the show.

Now expecting them to know ABS, when some of them haven't even driven a go-kart is expecting too much.

[ankit.jhamb]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

How do you expect the dealership / sales person to tell you about airbags/ABS - when in the 1st place they try and sell you the loew end model NOT equipped with airbags/ABS ?

by telling about the extra features(abs+airbags),do you think an average customer will buy the car ??
on the other hand i have seen many people who insist that their car should have airbags and abs.

[ankit.jhamb]

i have a question for other members
is it technically possible for each and every car model (800,alto....)to have airbags and abs??

[normally_crazy]

yes- Ankit its possible. But the one factor that decides it all is - $$$

[lamborghini]

No one ever told me about the ABS in the cars and I had to ask.
About ABS, most of them say it works only above 120kmph.
Pretty wierd if you ask me.

[dockap]

most of the auto salesmen will not know the full form of ABS
when i was looking to buy a verna when they launched the crdi sx abs model there was a long waiting list and only the non abs version was readily available the showroom manager told me that ABS is not needed and it will increase the brakeing distance of the car

when i test drove the scorpio mhawk i was telling the salesperson who came for the testdrive that airbag option is not available and he tells me that airbags are not needed and M&M didnt give airbags because customer feedback said that airbags are rarely used so they are not required

most of the people whom i know have all been either not told or they have been discouraged by the showroom people not to go for ABS and airbags they were made to spend the money on accesories like alloy wheels and mp3 players

[girishg]

i had to literally fight my way with the salesperson at maruti when i bought the swift,

i wanted the vxi(abs) and he was like no one buys it, its useless dont bother with it.

however: i persisted and had to wait for one from the factory yo be made on order.

majority of the sales people would have no clue of the importance and functions performed by either.

[fiery enzyme]

Originally Posted by dockap

most of the auto salesmen will not know the full form of ABS
when i was looking to buy a verna when they launched the crdi sx abs model there was a long waiting list and only the non abs version was readily available the showroom manager told me that ABS is not needed and it will increase the brakeing distance of the car

when i test drove the scorpio mhawk i was telling the salesperson who came for the testdrive that airbag option is not available and he tells me that airbags are not needed and M&M didnt give airbags because customer feedback said that airbags are rarely used so they are not required

[ankit.jhamb]

Originally Posted by normally_crazy

yes- Ankit its possible. But the one factor that decides it all is - $$$

then i think it is the responsibility of manufacturers to have these features in their car.
safety is important,not money.
and manufacturers like MSIL,TATA will always enjoy economies of scale,
so it is important for them to ""ATLEAST OFFER THEM IN THEIR MODELS""

[shatrughna]

Even I was not told about it by the dealer. In my case, may be its because I am a loyal cusotmer of the delaer in question who (salesman) assumes that I know more than him about the car that I chose to buy( Verna SX) after a good long test drive and testing all the features.