Watch A Bunch Of Indian Market Cars Fold Like Paper In Crash Tests
These cars have three things in common: all are made for the Indian market, all were deemed to have ‘unstable’ body structures, and all were given zero stars in recent Global NCAP tests. It’s clear that while much of the world takes the safety of new cars for granted, you’re much less fortunate if you’re buying a car in a developing market.
As well as the shoddy bodyshells, these cars also have a complete lack of safety features. Only one - the Renault Kwid - was fitted with an airbag, and none of the cars even have seatbelt pre-tensioners.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Indian market cars spectacularly fail a Global NCAP test - a couple of years ago we were looking at another motley crew of budget cars that had scored 0 points. These tests don’t appear to show that much progress has happened in that time, and remember, these are big, global car companies that are more than capable of making cars for other markets that are perfectly safe.
Commenting on the lack of airbags in certain Kwid models, Global NCAP secretary general David Ward said:
“It is very surprising that a manufacturer like Renault introduced the Kwid initially lacking this essential feature [an airbag]. Global NCAP strongly believes that no manufacturer anywhere in the world should be developing new models that are so clearly sub-standard. Car makers must ensure that their new models pass the UN’s minimum crash test regulations, and support use of an airbag.”
The silver lining is that the Indian government will introduce mandatory crash tests for all new cars in late 2017, which should put a stop to manufacturers flogging such woefully inadequate cars in the country.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Here is whatvis interesting. The Swift is manufactured in India and then exported to other markets. We get the 4 door version in India. So you’d expect the car to be the same as the ones for other markets. But, they cut on costs by skimping on bracing, etc for the Indian market specifically. The UK market cars score decent enough. Even the central europe and latin america Swifts are okayish in crash tests. But the ones they sell to us have the structural rigidity of a tissue paper.
That’s pretty f*ed up dude, they’re literally playing with your lifes….
But did you die?
They probably use Volvos to test the strength of the crash wall
3 lug wheels? wow
“shocking” would imply that we were surprised.
Honestly i’m from india and I say INDIAN CARS SUCK
True
You’d think that from the number of times Maldonado crashed, Renault (who were basically Lotus) would be able to do better than that poor effort.
Looks like we’ve found a solution to the problem of India’s overpopulation.
Now I’ll think again if I’m ever gonna ride shotgun on my friend’s Celerio lmao, especially when my other friend drives it like there’s no tomorrow, I mean every time there’s an open stretch of road, he’ll use those power the car has (below a 100HP) to it’s limits (tire squeal all the way) It’s fun though, and I also remembered when we almost had a head-on collision between us and a mid-size SUV, the story is my other friend who was driving that time floored it on the accelerator and shifting like mad on a narrow road towards our house then there’s this Toyota Fortuner (SUV) which was going the opposite way doing the same exact thing (accelerating like mad), the two cars almost hit each other but good thing both my friend and the guy on the SUV braked immediately, after that we almost crapped ourselves but now we just laugh at it just like any other joke
The Eon one. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a dummy’s face almost come all the way off!