[UNSC117]

It's ironic that a feature made to protect the occupant actually does the opposite. Honestly speaking, I didn't expect Suzuki to respond in such a manner after this detrimental of a failure occured.

[sudeepg]

I am somehow inclined to wholly accept what the OP has endured with NEXA officials. NEXAs response is nothing surprising when I consider the three instances I have had to interact with them. It is very difficult to get them to accept any genuine issues or requests. I always ignore and avoid them. They just keep blabbering.

That said, I wonder how the injury can be serious. It is a fact that airbags could cause some injury, but serious injury? Isn't it the main reason to have an airbag to prevent serious injuries in an accident?

[100Kmphormore]

The gall of these corporations! I hope you have dashcam footage to prove them otherwise.

I faced a similar, irritating blamegame with Royal Enfield refusing a warranty replacement and insurance claim over replacing the ignition switch on my Himalayan that had its bolts coming off and got damaged due to vibrations at highway speeds. My only mistake wasnt taking photos of the initial issue and hoofing it to the nearest RE service center to avoid a life threatening incident in case of steering lockage etc. Reason for denying - external damage, wearable component etc. It still runs great on the repair done by a reputed mechanic in a small town in Karnataka. I had to give up when it was consuming my time and mental space and anyways was considering selling off the vehicle soon.

This trend of blaming the customer wont give them any more uptick in sales, I for one do not recommend RE motorcycles to anyone at all now.

[true_sedan]

Absolutely pathetic response from Maruti. The gall to claim that the customer is wrong and lying is unbelievable. This is becoming a trend with Indian manufacturers. First with Mahindra claiming that "the scorpio n involved in wheels coming off has mysteriously burnt in their yard." And now this. It's time we hold manufacturers responsible.

[Gedaliah]

This is not just one manufacturer or one incident. In this country customer has no value and is treated as such. The rules are in favor of manufacturers and whoever can lobby with the government can get the rules adjusted as per their requirements. This has been seen in many instances where forest laws, labor laws, environmental laws etc. were diluted to allow corporates to reap in heavy benefits. As long the as the people stay dis-interested in actual policy making and do not question such actions in court there is no chance this is going to get better.

Such an occurrence in a Maruti car that too developed just last year using a well-architected platform (as per Suzuki) raises lot of questions and concerns. This too shall get swept under the carpet and business will go on.

[amitnair]

Good to know that the instance didn't hurt the passengers much. Automobile manufacturers here are mostly unethical when it comes to accepting faulty parts to be replaced under warranty, or accepting poor product design & quality.

The recent instance with Scorpio N suspension failure leading to the owner losing his limb and then the vehicle catching fire is also an example of bad quality and malpractices from manufacturers.

They do it because of lax govt policies that don't protect customers. Existing procedures are complex and time-consuming.

[Cresterk]

Well maybe there actually was an accident. Maybe it hit a fly. Considering the build quality of our new cars, that would have been a serious threat to life had the airbags not deployed

— Maruti legal team probably arguing this in court

[FASTLIFE]

IMHO, Maruti doesn't have a product for India. The Alto K10 is not a K10 anymore, the WagonR is what the WagonR has been since its inception (Stingray being the exception). The S-Cross, SX-4, Kizashi, Baleno (old model), and Vitara, all solid, well-built cars, are dead. There's nothing to buy other than an Innova "variant" and Brezza.

[vamsi.vadrevu]

The only thing drawing customers to Suzuki was their after sales experience. I've seen the service experience of my family Alto K10 2013 slip and fall into pathetic realm first hand.

When I had plans to buy a car in 2017, i hadn't considered maruti. When I bought a car in 2023, i didn't buy a maruti. I believe the service experience was good up until 2010.

As the upper management started to retire or got replaced by the new blood, I think we started to see this penny pinching attitude.

This attitude stems from the fact that they're the largest car maker here. It's high time we break their over confidence. It's been long overdue that they actually built a safe car for Indians. This level of disregard for Indian customer surely ought to be punished by the customers.

[ASP007]

The owner should thank his stars. That could have gone really bad in many ways given that he has cardiac issues, and the car ramming into pedestrians or other vehicles on the road after the airbag burst.

I've a question - as per the OP, the car was not involved in any accident or didn't hit any pothole at high speed. What if the vehicle was bumped by another car or a cricket ball or an animal when it was parked earlier? Will it trigger the sensors later on after the car is on the move?

Anyways time has come MSIL to send it's engineers to Mahindra to learn how not to deploy airbags! (sorry, couldn't resist).

[Max Coutinho]

Recently I got to know of an incident where a colleague of my sisters met with an accident on the highway in which he lost his wife and 6-year-old daughter sitting on the front seat, his 10-year-old son sleeping on the back seat lost one of his legs, while this colleague who was driving escaped with minor injuries. The tragedy also was that he was on a tour in his newly-bought Mahindra Scorpio (Safety: 5 Star Global NCAP rating) and in this accident the airbags did not deploy. His son is still undergoing treatment and he is in no mental state to pursue this case with Mahindra or the govt. apparatus. It is shocking that after buying expensive vehicles with so-called 5-Star safety features, there is still the probability that it may not work at all when it is needed. Other than our resolve to fix the lacunae in the system, what are we missing here? Surely, the extreme lethargy that companies show in even trying to get to know how and why of their own products functioning in real world situations is something that cannot be excused. Technically, there is no reason why airbags should deploy even in one case, when there is no impact of any kind or not deploy where there is impact. So it's reasonable to assume there is a technical error rather than some divine intervention in some cases!

[Itachi_Uchiha]

Originally Posted by hrman

Just speculation: I can see seat covers which look after market. Could a faulty after market seat cover installation have triggered this?

I think this is the higher varient which comes with leather seat cover from the company. But if we do think it that way, Why would an aftermarket seat cover trigger airbag deployment, I think the airbags are triggered due to impact on the outer sensor, not the seat itself right?
This is definitely a defective airbag module if the OP is true in his words that the car didn't hit anything (which actually seems to be the case).