Why Do Indians Care More About Mileage Than Safety Features?

[ChequeMate]

Behold, my first official post on TAI forums (apart from my introductory post, which if you didn't read, I'm a 22 yo male who got his first job recently).
As some of you might know I am trying to get my first car and before I came to TAI, I have been asking around my car owning relatives, friends and neighbours about what features shall I look for in my car. They raised some points like getting a white or light coloured car, good infotainment system, getting a 2nd hand car, etc.

But the point they most stressed on is that the car should give good mileage. Strangely enough only a few of them cared about giving me any advice on safety features like dual airbags, ABS, etc.
This makes me wonder how something so vital to a life and death situation is less important than going a few extra kms per litre.

 

[kkn13]

Re: Why do Indians care more about mileage than safety features

I actually see more and more people opting to use Uber and Zoomcar instead of buying a car
People are actually selling off their cars in these favours

Those who arent , are not after mileage these days . I dont remember the last time anyone cared about mileage in my own circles , if it gives 8-10kmpl, they are happy enough as long as comfort etc arent compromised

^^ Just what Ive observed in my circles, not saying you are wrong or anything
Im also around the same age as you

 

[twinturbo]

Re: Why do Indians care more about mileage than safety features

Interesting thread, ChequeMate. This is the sad reality about the Indian automobile market. The perception of the car is very different for an average un-informed car buyer compared to the informed one.

For most of the average car-buying public, mileage takes top priority over everything else. "Kitna Det Hai?" defines the car for them. Nobody cares about safety (both active and passive safety aids), stability or robustness of the body structure, refinement, road manners, etc.

I have personally witnessed people who cover very less distances per month investing in diesel cars when an equally competent petrol engine option is available. They just need to see that magic 20+ kmpl figure on the MID and praise themselves. They don't care about the additional investment they are making on getting the diesel variant and the kind of running required to break-even. I have witnessed people buying the diesel mid/lower variants of a car for mileage, when the fully-kitted top-end petrol variant is available for a similar price.

No matter how much we discuss on this and try to make people aware, things won't change. As a result, we might witness cars becoming lighter and lighter just to aid fuel economy.

But yeah, we are starting to see a small change in the scenario, with some manufacturers making safety aids such as ABS and airbags as standard features. Hope the situation improves soon, for good.

Sad fact : People paid close to ₹7 lakhs to buy a 2-cylinder Celerio Diesel that redefined the terms "NVH and refinement" for modern cars.

 

[Akash1886]

I have been asking around my car owning relatives, friends and neighbours about what features shall I look for in my car. They raised some points like getting a white or light coloured car, good infotainment system, getting a 2nd hand car, etc.

But the point they most stressed on is that the car should give good mileage. Strangely enough only a few of them cared about giving me any advice on safety features like dual airbags, ABS, etc.
This makes me wonder how something so vital to a life and death situation is less important than going a few extra kms per litre.

Firstly, by starting this thread you have raised a serious Q on the sensibilities of our public at large. Why most buyers are concerned about the cosmetic features & FE than safety is because:

1) They do not want to invest the money on safety

2) They do not have proper knowledge of the safety features

3) They want minimum monthly fuel bills

4) For them car is a mode of A-to-B transportation.

5) People believe accidents don't happen daily.

6) People feel in the concept of more the merrier. More FE gives a psychological peace to them.

7) Everyone wants to be a car owner. In India the "Hum bhi gaadiwale hain" syndrome has spread like an epidemic. So, no matter whether it has ABS or not, Airbags or not, It should have good looks and good FE. Design of alloy matters more than the absence of disc brakes.

8) Not everyone has the temperament to understand crash safety ratings and have access to them.

How some brands are milking customers due to their lack of interest and knowledge on safety:

1) Some brands have taken advantage of this and priced their entry variant very low. Most people are awestruck by the looks and the lucrative pricing and the brands laugh their way to bank.

2) People are scared off by SA of the large waiting periods for (o) [Optional] variants.

3) Often the SA too don't inform or push the customers to opt for a variant with safety features.

4) Lack of proper India specific safety norms.

This is the sad reality about the Indian automobile market. The perception of the car is very different for an average un-informed car buyer compared to the informed one.

Moreover not everyone in general is willing to understand the concept and importance of the safety features.

For most of the average car-buying public, mileage takes top priority over everything else. "Kitna Det Hai?" defines the car for them.

2nd most important factor after kitna deti hai, is, kitne me milegi? (How much will it cost?)

Nobody cares about safety (both active and passive safety aids), stability or robustness of the body structure, refinement, road manners, etc.

Lack of Interest & Lack of Knowledge are 2 main culprits here.

I have personally witnessed people who cover very less distances per month investing in diesel cars when an equally competent petrol engine option is available. They just need to see that magic 20+ kmpl figure on the MID and praise themselves.

Firstly at many places in India the diesel costs much less than petrol and Secondly, the enhanced FE gives them added peace & satisfaction.

I have witnessed people buying the diesel mid/lower variants of a car for mileage, when the fully-kitted top-end petrol variant is available for a similar price.

They want to minimize the fuel expense.

No matter how much we discuss on this and try to make people aware, things won't change. As a result, we might witness cars becoming lighter and lighter just to aid fuel economy.

Also even after crash test failures, some of those cars are still on the Top 10 selling cars chart.

But yeah, we are starting to see a small change in the scenario, with some manufacturers making safety aids such as ABS and airbags as standard features. Hope the situation improves soon, for good.

For the situation to actually improve, it has to be a 2-way process i.e the buyer has to change their mindset and give importance to safety and secondly the concerned authorities need to step up and make necessary changes in car safety regulations.

Sad fact : People paid close to ₹7 lakhs to buy a 2-cylinder Celerio Diesel that redefined the terms "NVH and refinement" for modern cars.

You have rubbed my wound again and that too on Sunday night! I was traumatized when I drove one. http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/f...3-maruti-suzuki-celerio-diesel-mt-driven.html

Regards

Akash

 

[carcommentor]

The reason is quite obvious. There are lakhs of unsafe cars, trucks, buses and vans plying Indian potholed, congested and pathetic roads without accidents for years together. This gives people confidence and they think the safety measures are superfluous.
Even in cars that do have safety measures , many have unstable structure, rendering the safety features like airbags useless. Some manufactures even cut corners by making smaller airbags! NCAP star ratings are practically useless up to 2 stars as the injuries caused by these rated cars are as bad as no rated cars. So that leaves very little percentage of car models that are actually safe . No wonder people are skeptical about safety features and ignore it completely.

 

[k2point0]

When there is so much of population, the safety of people is always neglected. Driving on 2-Wheeler is riskier than on four-wheeler but in many Indian cities, people prefer to go on bikes so that they can reach fast.
I believe India should go the Singapore's way - make personal vehicles expensive.

 

[vijay_968]

Why waste money on Safety Features: Lot many Indians believe MORE in God than any "Active and Passive Safety Features, Road Manners and Safe Driving". As God will ensure that we return home safely in one-piece, we feel, there is NO need for Safety Features in Car. Following types of drivers are strong believers in God :

• driving with Mirrors folded (removing Mirrors implies more trust in God)
• driving with two (or more) bald Tyres
• doing 40 plus kph in dense Fog
• skating at 70 plus kph on wet roads
• "80-0 kph braking time/distance ? What is THAT ??" type of people.
• "Driving is being Mobile. So, why should I NOT use a Mobile Phone ?" type of people.
• "I have paid Road Tax. Why should I YIELD ?" type of people.
• "Can YOU run-away after hitting me" type of people

On top of above, many Indian drivers are cocksure that with their lightning reactions, they can avoid any unfortunate incidence.

FE: We Indians know very well that "even if we offer a "truck load of Nimbu (Lemon), Coconuts, Bananas", God will NOT interfere with a Car's FE figures. Irrespective of the right foot, the car has to return the best FE, so that more frequent (and affordable) "Point A to Point B" drives will come. So, WE CHOOSE A CAR with the best mileage figures. I am pretty sure, most of us would have come across the below TWO:

1. Typical Indian mind set --- I will improve upon the manufacturer claimed FE figures. I am the BEST and hence a car driven by ME, definitely HAS to give the best FE figures in MY CIRCLE.
2. Typical Indian dialogue --- "Last time I maintained 150 kph for one hour and got an FE of 21 kpl. I know how to get the best out of this Petrol engine. My co-brother bought THAT overrated ____an / ___an CAR and he gets only 13-15 kpl at those speeds. Idiot, he says he is driving a safer car".

PS: If I sounded like mocking Believers, I am sorry. I am a believer and recently, I went all the way from Bangalroe to Chennai primarily for doing Car Pooja there. But, I also know one important aspect --- "If God doesn't see my efforts on Safety, he will let me face the music". I drive safe.

 

[ankathil.arjun]

Well, I would say that in general, most Indian are not very serious about safety. It's not just in terms of cars, even in general, safety takes a back seat.

I have seen that in most of the apartments, the Fire extinguishers are made mandatory, however, no one bothers to replace them once they expire.
Hardly any homes have fire alarms.
In construction sites, or during road works, no proper barricading and enclosure is done. We can see the cranes swinging over people, where as it is a rule that no one should be in the swing circle of a JCB.

These same things are also reflected when it comes to road safety, and also the safety features in our cars.
The only way to get safety importance, is to enforce it, and we have seen that happening with helmets and seat belts. Number of awareness campaigns, ads and shows have not helped much to convince people to use the helmets and seatbelts for their safety. Its only the enforcement that has helped. Similarly, even though there are a lot of awareness campaigns done for vehicular safety, everyone thinks that they cannot get into an accident, as they drive safe, and ignore these features.

 

[acechip]

This may sound a bit OT, but in fact, the question is part of the fundamental issues that bothers the country today. How do we view ourselves as a nation? Do we look at ourselves as having 1 billion cellphone connections or having less than 200 million toilets ?
Having a 1 crore + Merc plying alongside a dirty, run down tempo? Or having a supposed energy surplus whilst having less than 100% electrification of villages and load shedding in urban areas.
In my opinion and experience of visiting and staying in multiple world geographies, until this contrast exists in such a sharp manner, we cannot call ourselves anywhere close to being a developed nation. Governments of the day may throw all kinds of statistics, but this is more about whether we stay 2 feet behind the zebra crossing at the traffic signal., ie, our attitude. And thus, car safety also ties into all this. We have a long, long way to go. Until things happen on a compulsory basis, I would urge all potential car buyers to stretch their budgets and get the variants with all the essential safety kit.

 

[vikyjoshi]

this is indeed a very interesting thread. Love the way the discussion is happening in here.
Some points from my end:

1. Generally we the general buyer are shopping for cars on a stretched budget.
eg, I have 5 L with me then when I have say Tiago in my budget, I will try to get the car from next class. So where i would have got a Tiago top end with all safety features, I end up buying the car of higher segment but without any safety features (Generally OEMs offer safety in all top 1 or 2 variants)

2. Then there is yet another thought, why should I pay 50K extra for that airbag? Because you generally overmine the strength of the car. You get a feeling that in cocoon of a car you are super safe.

3. I dont drive fast, I dont need air bags or any other premium features.

For most i feel they think that safety features will come in handy in emergencies, but the blings are used on daily basis. So less importance is given to safety. One needs to realise the fact that emergencies come without any warning, and when they come they hit you hard. If you are not prepared then God bless.

 

[acechip]

My close friend, who is your typical Indian car buyer/user (doesnt care about technicalities) recounted this incident recently - he was traveling with family in his Vento 1.6 MPI to Mahabaleshwar from Pune, driving at a regular 80 kph or thereabouts. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a large goat/sheep , erstwhile hidden in the thick bushes of the highway median, jumped on the road right in front of his car. He tried his best, but in a flash, his car just tossed it off the road. After recovering from his shock, he took his car aside to check and found that only his front bumper/grill and part of the headlight was damaged. The car's sheer build heft had managed to take the impact of a 20-25kg animal easily. A villager on a 2-wheeler meanwhile came up to him and asked him not to stay back, because of the potential commotion, and said that he had witnessed it and it was not my friends fault at all. Had this been in any other lighter car, there would have surely been additional damage and a disabled car, if not its occupants. My friend says, he is now fully satisfied in buying a well-built German car even if it gives him a meagre average on the roads (9-10 kmpl).

 

[vijay_968]

Acechip's above post made me think more on the subject and I ended up with one IIHS News article dated Apr 2009, dealing with FE and Safety. Some excerpts from it are given below:

• Three front-to-front crash tests, each involving a microcar or minicar into a midsize model from the same manufacturer, show how extra vehicle size and weight enhance occupant protection in collisions.
• "There are good reasons people buy minicars," says Institute president Adrian Lund. "They're more affordable, and they use less gas. But the safety trade-offs are clear from our new tests. Equally clear are the implications when it comes to fuel economy. If automakers downsize cars so their fleets use less fuel, occupant safety will be compromised.
• The Institute chose pairs of 2009 models from Daimler, Honda, and Toyota because these automakers have micro and mini models that earn good frontal crashworthiness ratings.
• The Honda Fit, Smart Fortwo, and Toyota Yaris are good performers in the Institute's frontal offset barrier test, but all three are poor performers in the frontal collisions with midsize cars . These results reflect the laws of the physical universe, specifically principles related to force and distance.
• Although the physics of frontal car crashes are described in terms of what happens to the vehicles, usually injuries depend on the forces that act on the occupants, and these forces are affected by two key physical factors. One is the weight of a crashing vehicle, which determines how much its velocity will change during impact. The greater the change, the greater the forces on the people inside and the higher the injury risk. The second factor is vehicle size, specifically the distance from the front of a vehicle to its occupant compartment. The longer this is, the lower the forces on the occupants. My Comment: Longer the Bonnet and the Boot, safer are the occupants.
• Size and weight affect injury likelihood in all kinds of crashes. In a collision involving two vehicles that differ in size and weight, the people in the smaller, lighter vehicle will be at a disadvantage. The bigger, heavier vehicle will push the smaller, lighter one backward during the impact. This means there will be more force on the occupants of the lighter vehicle. Greater force means greater risk, so the likelihood of injury goes up in the smaller, lighter vehicle.
• Some proponents of mini and small cars claim they're as safe as bigger, heavier cars. But the claims don't hold up. For example, there's a claim that the addition of safety features to the smallest cars in recent years reduces injury risk, and this is true as far as it goes. Airbags, advanced belts, electronic stability control, and other features are helping. They've been added to cars of all sizes, though, so the smallest cars still don't match the bigger cars in terms of occupant protection
• Yet another claim is that minicars are easier to maneuver, so their drivers can avoid crashes in the first place. Insurance claims experience says otherwise. The frequency of claims filed for crash damage is higher for mini 4-door cars than for midsize ones.
• One reason people buy smaller cars is to conserve fuel ... The conflict is that smaller vehicles use less fuel but do a relatively poor job of protecting people in crashes, so fuel conservation policies have tended to conflict with motor vehicle safety policies.
• Another way to conserve fuel, and serve safety at the same time, is to set lower speed limits. Me: Govt is planning to increase Highway speed limits in India. I originally thought it was a good idea. I have my doubts, now.

Link to the original article: here

========================== End ====================

Above article is VERY OLD and Car designs have evolved much over the past 8 years. But, Physics is, well Physics. If manufacturers of light weight cars are currently using stiffer "impact belts" around car exterior, it is well and good. But still, these lines from the article are echoing in my mind : After striking the front of the C class, the Smart went airborne and turned around 450 degrees. Hummmmm.

 

[acechip]

Lets not go back so far as 2009. The crash tests conducted by the GNCAP recently proved that you need to beef up the design to at least stand a chance to pass the test. For example, the Kwid needed additional bolstering on more than one occasion to pass the standard frontal impact test.There are also other real life examples, a recent post in a popular Indian Fiat website, of a frontal collision between a Linea and a BMW 3, where both cars were heavily damaged at the engine compartment level but the occupants escaped with very minor injuries. Both cars were essentially intact from the A pillar itself.


On the other hand, if driven rashly or irresponsibly, not even the safest car can save you.

 

[msjawahar]

And also we Indians do care a lot about the RESALE value no matter how worse the vehicle is maintained with lots of rattling noise and with worst build quality. People are least bothered about good quality cars, all they needs is mileage and resale value. That's why Maruti is NO 1 for a long time.

 

[kkn13]

^^ I think it also has to do with after sales, over the counter parts availability, fairly low maintenance costs, variety of cars and reliability
Thats why most brands dont survive in our market

But brands like Ford,Hyundai, Honda and Toyota prove you can have your cake and eat it too