[menonrajesh]

Originally Posted by madan80

Attachment 7122

well.. couple of things - the car cabin still seems to be in place. considering the car was upside down in the water, it must have been going quite fast and flipped. the right side seems smashed, but the A -pillar has held up.

also the front right wheel seems to be come off, so that must be the area of impact.

Also - the roof seems to have borne an impact.

I just hope the folks are fine- cause it seems to have been a bad crash!!!

must say - kudos to maruti -
now lets hear what happend from the driving folks!

Yeah, asuming that the occupants are safe and sound, lets call this as a 'safe post-mortem' An innovative idea from MUL?

[Rotorhead]

Guess the guy just got the idea of offroading with the Dzire and when he took a turn to do that he suddenly found water instead of road and ended up with unDzireable consequences. Or maybe its some handy work of Maruti's competitors...the lesser the competition the better, even better with no competition at all so drown it.

[Tech]

Seems like the driver was trying to check if the DZire fulfilled his desire to run in water like the sQuba car.

[Jaggu]

Torque steer in action !!

so much for expert road testing, test driver has to pay is that correct?

[ram_hyundai]

Originally Posted by condor

And I thought only TBHP-ians take a car for Torture Drive. Who ever did this, sure beat us.
Not if the car had insurance coverage.

But notice that the car did not have regular licence plate. It had a temp plate, and we know how good a temp plate is. It is very much possible that the car was a regular car, but used for test drives. If this incident had not happened, the car would have definitely been sold to somebody.

Hey buddie dont be ignorant yaar.Dint you see the test drive decals all over the vehicle.
ram

[vivekji05]

Or I wonder if it's the lift-off oversteer that caused the guy to lose control.

When I test drove the Dezire, I loved the way it oversteered and dived into corners everytime I lifted off the throttle. Also pointed out that it could be disasterous and unmanageable to the novice driver. Must be that the guy wasn't prepared to give an opposite lock when the tail stepped out of the line. Or on the straight, he could have been trying to take an imaginary slalom and the rear tried to overtake the front and he veered and ended up in the lake, backwards.

Anyone has felt the Swift Dezire's tail happy nature?

[1100D]

Swift itself (especially the Diesel) has the tail happy nature, it is both good and bad. I too was caught off-guard at a high speed curve, but managed to hold the line without anyone realising the potential danger. The tail happy nature in the swift gets accentuated under braking as well.

the swift diesel on stock tyres does tend to be tail happy. have not driven the DZire.
I'm not so sure about lift off oversteer. It sounds implausible that lift off oversteer requiring opposite lock can be induced in the Dzire. would maruti risk lawsuits and bad publicity by releasing a car like that?

@vivekji05- can you give details as to what speeds and angles of corners this happens?

some amount of lift off oversteer is anticipated and acceptable, even enjoyable, but to a degree requiring opposite lock?

this road-thannerbhavi road has no major bends. the curves are gradual and have good visibilty.

I've done a full 140kmph on this road in an M800(college days) on stock tyres, with no trouble.

for this guy to overcook a maneuver on a straight road in a car with vastly superior handling and braking....the mind boggles

[svsantosh]

Sources informed that, all the four persons who were inside the car sustained injuries and have been admitted to A J Hospital here. The car was later pulled out from the river with the help of locals and a crane. Fire services from NMPT too was summoned to the spot.
It is said that the accident was the result of reckless and negligent driving by the driver who had taken the newly-launched model of the Maruti Swift car for test driving.

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D A I J I W O R L D

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Btw, guys, Dont you think every car that rolls out of the Company;s gate come with some kind of insurance. Types are - InTransit Insurance, Freight Insurance, Air/Ship insurance, etc etc, Even insurance for Warehoused cars. So someone will sure pay the cost of that car.


If that is the case, has anyone ever heard of a TDriver paying up for damages? I have never heard such a case. How can a Tdriver be held liable? He can even end up saying the car was not in a good condition to drive, so on and so forth.!


Throw some light guys.

[Murugan]

Very tragic. Pray the occupants and others, if any, involved in the accident have a speedy recovery.

Originally Posted by akash_m

How the occupants would have come out is still a mystery, that too under water!

I'm sure a lot of us are interested in knowing that. Were the windows down and did they manage to swim out? Did the occupants or the rescuers manage to open the doors/ power windows underwater and come out? Or did the windows/ doors need to be broken/ ripped to rescue the occupants.

Originally Posted by prince

nearest dealer to my place is mandovi motors.

later i came to know the real reason why test drive was not possiblie

Hope you will be able to find out from the dealer and update us on what exactly happened - genuine accident due to traffic/ road conditions, driver error, vehicle dynamics or brake/ other vehicle (DZiRE) failure; how the occupants were rescued etc. Definitely the dealer and Maruti owes the vehicle buying public an explanation since a new 'demo car' is involved in the accident.

Originally Posted by rippergeo

I've driven on this particular road hundreds of times. its impossible to crash the car here unless you are a total idiot. there are no pedestrians on this road. quite a few oil tankers are parked here all the time but thats about it.

Originally Posted by nbr

This road is famous for drag races, its a beautiful strech,

Originally Posted by Shan2nu

When i test drove the 2ltr CR-V there, i did notice a few trucks suddenly popping out of nowhere.

Originally Posted by maddy42

Frankly dude how can you get your car to crash on that road.

Request our members with an investigative frame of mind to post pictures of the accident site and their comments on the likely events that led to the accident based on an on-the-spot investigation.

Originally Posted by rippergeo

the test driver is usually made to pay in such situations.

Originally Posted by mjothi

Just curious, who will be held for this. I mean, will the sales person accompanied would be fined or charged anything on this? Because, the showroom guys have no hold on the driver trying to test drive. infact, I have not seen anyone asking even for a DL when you go for TD.

Originally Posted by JayD

does the customer have to pay for this?? Coz i don't think the customer pays for minor accidents, but since this is a major one, he may have to pay up right?? Can they claim insurance as the car does not seem to be have a proper reg number??

Not sure on who pays what percentage among
1. Insurance company (I'm sure the RTO office does not permit these vehicles on-road without insurance or do they?)
2. Car's owner (possibly the Maruti dealer here)
3. Driver
4. Accompanying 'test driver' (if he was not driving the car)
5. Salesman
towards
1. Medical reimbursement
2. Compensation towards temporary/ permanent disability (God forbid) of those involved in the accident
3. Repair & depriciation cost of the vehicle

All of us need to know the answers to these questions before going on our next test drive.

Atleast one dealer in Chennai (not from the Maruti stable) used to take a photocopy of the driving license and an indemnity (is that the right word?) from the test driver (potential buyer) promising to reimburse the dealer towards all expenses in the event of an accident.

Originally Posted by JayD

Test drive cars are the ZDI model right?? Does it have an airbag?

Originally Posted by flipsyde

seems like a worthwhile crash test. looks like the crumple zones have worked well

The safest variant of the DZiRE (Zdi as also Zxi) to have had an unfortunate accident I suppose. Did the airbags deploy? If they did, how much did they contribute towards reducing the injury to the occupants? If they did not deploy, why not? Have the crumple zones and others safety features stood up to mandatory standards? Techies on the forum - please enlighten us.

Originally Posted by phamilyman

hmm, don't our people take it to 140-150 for a TD? 100-120 our standard TD guys do.

Originally Posted by nbr

when i bought my Swift, i was checking out its top speed on this road.Hardly any traffic on this road.

Do'nt these guys bother about handling the car's engine gently during the running period? I have also seen the 'test drivers' (drivers from the dealer) gunning the engine to unpleasant revs and doing jack rabbit starts, sometimes right under the eyes of the customer waiting to take delivery of that particular car. A sad and irritating experience. Surely the dealers have a duty towards educating and ensuring the compliance of their drivers and even the customers.

Originally Posted by phamilyman

IT seems to be someone who got the road wrong, and rest the stock tyres did them in.

What is this about stock tyres? I did not understand. I thought the Zdi variant had the best tyres among the DZiRE stabe with alloys to boot (no pun intended there). Or is it that the new tyres would have been smooth during the running in period. Please explain.

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Torque steer in action !!

Originally Posted by vivekji05

Or I wonder if it's the lift-off oversteer that caused the guy to lose control.

When I test drove the Dezire, I loved the way it oversteered and dived into corners everytime I lifted off the throttle. Also pointed out that it could be disasterous and unmanageable to the novice driver. Must be that the guy wasn't prepared to give an opposite lock when the tail stepped out of the line. Or on the straight, he could have been trying to take an imaginary slalom and the rear tried to overtake the front and he veered and ended up in the lake, backwards.

Originally Posted by rippergeo

the swift diesel on stock tyres does tend to be tail happy. have not driven the DZire.
I'm not so sure about lift off oversteer. It sounds implausible that lift off oversteer requiring opposite lock can be induced in the Dzire. would maruti risk lawsuits and bad publicity by releasing a car like that?

@vivekji05- can you give details as to what speeds and angles of corners this happens?

some amount of lift off oversteer is anticipated and acceptable, even enjoyable, but to a degree requiring opposite lock?

this road-thannerbhavi road has no major bends. the curves are gradual and have good visibilty. I've done a full 140kmph on this road in an M800(college days) on stock tyres, with no trouble. for this guy to overcook a maneuver on a straight road in a car with vastly superior handling and braking....the mind boggles

Guys, guys please explain this 'Torque steer' and 'lift off oversteer' stuff and how to 'give opposite lock' or is it already somewhere on team-bhp. If so, would love to have the link to educate myself.

[vivekji05]

As I said, he could have been trying to do an imaginary slalom on what is presumably a straight road when the car turned more than intended, which he corrected, swung the opposite way, corrected again, swung even more and peacefully headed to the lake.

I didn't mean that every corner in the Dzire must be accompanied by a degree of opposite locks. If that guy wasnt prepared for the oversteer, he could not have corrected the course of the vehicle in time. Once he crossed the limits of grip at rear and turned the wheel in the other direction, it must have caused the vehicle to twist in the opposite direction and finally ended up in the lake. Onlookers would have seen this and called it as 'reckless driving'.This is only my wild guess thinking that the person is a novice and exceeded the limits in what is basically a tail happy car.

I do agree that the Swift itself is a tail happy car (even though it doesn't really have a tail to be happy about). But imagine the turning moment created by hanging another 25kg to its rear at some distance. Sure, they have played around with the spring rates of the rear suspension, now dont tell me that. The SX4 is also quite tail happy but the grippy tyres add a sense of security. The Dzire is to be driven to be believed.

The effect of oversteer in the Dzire can be felt even on straight road at speeds around 80kmph forget in turns. I demonstrated this to my friend who happens to be the Reg. Manager of Maruti operations in Kerala. I asked him to flick the wheel to either side, which he did. He had his leg on the accelerator, so it didnt work. Then I aked him to step off the gas pedal while doing the same thing. The rear came loose and the Dzire turned into a puppy wagging its tail.

He admitted that it is there but also argued that it will not be felt until someone does it purposefully like us. Then I put the question of someone trying to shed some speed when approaching a corner by lifting off the pedal and he was perplexed. One can feel that the rear turning around and trying to overatke the front wheels while cornering. In a straight line you can sense that the rear wheels are not following the front wheels on the same line.The Dzire is great on track and in the hands of an expert driver..

As for the compensation, do not worry. The insurance company will take care of that. So when you take a test drive, have no worries of wrecking it. Must be what that person who took it for a test drive was thinking.

Worser still, is the rule of 'customer is the king'. Suppose something happens to the customer, the dealer will have to pay compensation.

Now let's think of it from the dealer's point. He buys a test drive vehicle(alright with 30% discount), let people who may or may not buy that car drive it recklessly, and if he crashes the dealer will be held responsible for everything. Firstly, for the damaged vehicle that has to be repaired and then for all the injuries to the person inside, who in first place caused that accident to happen.

And please pray for the poor sales executive who will also be in the hospital bed beside him. If he doesn't come back in a specified time, the dealership would have employed another on to do his job. How about that?

Note from Moderator: Kindly take advantage of POST EDIT facility provided for 20 minutes from posting

[Rotorhead]

Thats an interesting observation by vivek. Anybody else experience or heard from anybody about this the DZire's Desire for tail swinging ?.

[ravi@64bhp]

Pardon my ignorance. Please somebody enlighten me as to what is 'tail happy' nature.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by vivekji05

I do agree that the Swift itself is a tail happy car (even though it doesn't really have a tail to be happy about). But imagine the turning moment created by hanging another 25kg to its rear at some distance. Sure, they have played around with the spring rates of the rear suspension, now dont tell me that. The SX4 is also quite tail happy but the grippy tyres add a sense of security. The Dzire is to be driven to be believed.

Amazing sense of humour, vivekji05. And a very objectively-written feedback too. Keep in comin' mate. I too have read about the tail-happy traits of the Swift in this forum.

[Rotorhead]

Originally Posted by ravi@64bhp

Pardon my ignorance. Please somebody enlighten me as to what is 'tail happy' nature.

"tail-happy" means that the tail of the car decides to go its own way when you are expecting it to follow the rest of your car . Though when you anticipate this and understand this behaviour it can be put into best use when you are into race mode.