Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anirudh B Balotiaa on August 21, 2012 at 3:01pm

I think "heavy" cars say European ones are more safe..like the ones from Chevrolet or now Volkswagen..Vento specially is a solid built cars and compared to the Korean parts they seem to be more well built.

Also Alok, for kids safety, you may also want to look at SUVs like Scorpio, Innova, XYLO, XUV...

Not a car expert by any stretch! :-) 

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Permalink Reply by Raghav Sehgal on August 22, 2012 at 12:50pm

Honda is a shittiest car when it comes to safety. It might and i am saying might be safer than maruti. A honda city rear ended my swift couple of years ago. The damage to swift was far lesser than that to city. Euro crash test norms wont save you in case of a mishap. One of the reasons for better mileage for city is the thin metal sheet it uses. However, Civic is a solidly build car and same goes for Accord. You need to figure out the parameters for safety on Indian roads. Trust me, airbags can cause more damage on Indian roads. Infact, depending on age of your kids, the impact of airbags can cause more damage to head and chest of young kids. And in India, with the roads we have, you wont finds air bags too useful. You pretty much would switch them off, rather than risking a deployement while going at 60kmph over a pothole. I also had safety criterion for my parents while picking a car (i picked up scorpio) and I zeroed on following:

1. Build Quality - Amongst Indian players, Tata and Mahindra have best built quality. Followed by Ford + GM, Volksvagen, Toyota and Hyundai (in that order). But Tata/ GM has reliability issues. Ford is picking up but it is fuel guzzler. Hyundai i20 onwards the build quality is good, below that it aint that good in lower models. Mahindra is not best at anything but does everything like a work horse. VV's dealerships are known to be shadiest of all, replacing old parts and taking out new parts when car goes for servicing. They are same as that of their subsidiary brand - Skoda. Brilliant cars, bad servicing. You cant afford to have a part replaced thereby endangering whole car making it more prone to, well, anything in the world. VV is doing their best to exorcise the past ghosts but still long way to go. Toyota is also a workhorse and is pretty safe and reliable car. My grudge is that is is pretty much naked in terms of features it offers at the same price as others do. ABS Innova is priced same as XUV. No point touching Innova if you can get XUV at same price.

2. ABS, ABS, ABS - Never buy a car without ABS. That is perhaps the most useful tool on Indian roads with every moron cutting in every possible manner. ABS has saved my life and others' life couple of times. The driver should be aware of what ABS is though.

3. Head Room - Kids keep jumping around in the car. It is best to have enough head room.

For more details about my car buying process, you may go through my post on team bhp (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-drives-initial-ownership-reports...). For your budget, I would really recommend Scorpio. SUVs are safest for kids. They dont fly, they dont overturn 180 degree (worst case 90 degree), have sufficient impact absorbing capability. My second recommendations would be an Innova or  Safari.

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Permalink Reply by Kartik R on August 24, 2012 at 3:10pm

If :

1.) Mileage is not important

2.) Buget is 10 - 12 lakhs

Get any second hand car that is from a superior segment. I suggest Merc.

I had overheard an entire conversation on my way back in a public transport volvo. The person answering the call was owner of a car showroom and the person who called was much similar to you and had similar concerns.

The car showroom owner explained to him that air bags are only useful to prevent the passenger from banging himself into glass/car. It is really just a support system. The real savior is the seat belt. If the seatbelt is not latched and the car bangs into something, the air bags are potentially dangerous to your body because of the speed with which they open into your face and are capable of severe damages.

So, seatbelt always on and heavy metal body ( skoda is one of the safest cars that comes to mind when we talk about car body ) should rid you of your worries.

If it was me, I'd take a second hand merc :)

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Permalink Reply by Abhishek Dabas on August 24, 2012 at 3:13pm

It never occurs to us Indians that we do have seatbelts in rear seats. First we have to believe that they are of some use. Second, we ve to somehow get the kids to buckle in.

Since, neither of these seems possible, go for the 6 airbag version. Unless, you can restrict the vehicle to city use only!

And when it comes to safely of kids, what is a budget? I get ripped off by people on a daily basis on this premise! :)

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Permalink Reply by Venu Madhav Arremsetty on August 24, 2012 at 3:59pm

Be it City travel or Highway travel SAFETY is SAFETY Period.

Your car has very good airbag system and you dont have habit of putting your seatbelt. NO USE. If you donot put your seat belt the impact of the airbags to save you diminishes massively

Kids should always put their seat belts in the rear and never make them sit in your lap. On Impact Kids fly towards front if the seat belt is not put on resulting in massive physical damage.

Most of the cars (barring SUV's and few others) in India donot have curtain type (sideways) airbags.

Following is the link of crash test results for Honda City:

http://www.howsafeisyourcar.com.au/2012/Honda/City/VTi-GM-4D-Sedan-...

Point to be noted the Honda city tested in above link has complete set of airbags. Honda City in India has only 2 air bags.

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Permalink Reply by Anirudh B Balotiaa on August 24, 2012 at 5:50pm

Forget Rear Seat belts, how many of us will make sure even front seat belts are buckled if the law is not enforced????

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Permalink Reply by Ujjwal K. Acharya on August 25, 2012 at 2:33pm

In my personal opinion, cars without airbags should be banned, these are basic safe guard against any unforeseen road accidents. In India we ignore security assuming its not required in city drive, Its a myth, many life or criticality could have been saved if air bags were there.

If its about safety for family (not hiring a cab) go for maximum no. of air bags. This is only thing along with ABS which actually works to save you. I know a Ford accident every one was saved with minor injuries thanks to 10 air bags in the car.

Go for it !!!

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Permalink Reply by Kandarp Devashrayee on August 25, 2012 at 7:16pm

Alok Ji,

Dont know much about your conclusion but after reading all of our suggestive friends advises I become more confused as I was earlier. I was also having the same queries and was searching for answer since last 1 month or so.
I am more confused now....
Please tell me your conclusion as well...
  

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