Yes, I know most buyers in India rarely consider safety when purchasing a car.
Price and then fuel economy seem to be the most important criteria.
Which is also understandable when most non-indian
(imported) cars sell at about 90-100% duty/tax markup.
To put this all in perspective (from a purchasing power angle), assuming the avg American’s income (per-capita) is over US$25,000, it would take about 1 year’s income to afford the avg new car and about 6-9 months for an avg used car.
For Indian per-capitas of under $400, the avg new car would have to cost about Rs. 20-25,000!
http://www.asiandemographics.com/DI231102.htmIf we just look at urban household incomes, and assume they are 2-3 times the national avg, we get about Rs. 50-75 K for a NEW car.
That’s the current cost of most 2-wheelers...
So the CHEAPEST new car (M 800) is almost 5 times more expensive for the avg Indian urban consumer than the AVG new car for the avg American.
For purposes of this discussion we are excluding all A segment cars (the M 800 is probably the cheapest and most unsafe car in the world), and most B segment cars.
For the minority who can afford C/D segment cars, here is an overview of common features to look for:
0. Seat Belts! I’m assuming that if you care enough about your safety to read this, you are ALWAYS wearing a seat belt.
Whether its required by law or not.
Regardless of if you are sitting in front or behind.
For short or long trips.
At low or high speeds - if you have a head on collision with each car going only 25 km/h, its like hitting a cement wall at 50 km/h!
That’s enough force to kill most humans who are unrestrained ...
As long as a belt is there, just USE it!
You’ll save your own life - what could be more important than that?
That’s why this is number zero since it should go without saying.
Just putting on the lap belt is not enough - you can still hit your head very hard on the dash without the shoulder belt.
Just the shoulder alone will allow you to ’submarine’ or slide under your belt and fracture your feet/knees.
3 point safety belts were put in cars for a reason - your safety!
No excuses!
My grandparents insist they are uncomfortable/restrictive.
Thats purely psychological and typically Indian.
Would you prefer to be comfortably hospitalised or uncomfortably restrained with minimal injuries after an accident?
I feel much more comfortable with the security of restraint when I’m sleeping in the back - I know I won’t go tumbling around during any hard braking!
No matter if you are the world’s safest driver - you can’t control the recklessness of others.
The lap belt should always be worn LOW over your hips and NOT over your soft belly - you could injure your internal organs in a hard collision.
Other than a 3-point belt, its essential to have a ’pre-tensioner’ on all belts.
This device locks the belt when its yanked suddenly.
This is what prevents your face from smashing into the dash in a collision.
So the fake straps that you see on many Marutis are virtually useless other than avoiding a ticket/fine.
When your belt locks up, don’t struggle with it (as I have seen many friends and family do in India) but just lean back and let the slack spool the belt back in.
This will unlock it in a few secs.
The more you pull at it, the more firmly it’ll lock in place (as its supposed to do).
Just remember to sit back & relax!
1. Braking Most cars have two type of brakes drums (older/cheaper) or discs (newer).
Many compromise by putting discs in front and drums behind to lower costs.
Cars with all wheel disc will brake in shorter distances than those with drums.
The Corolla has all discs while the City (my car) has drums behind.
Ventilated discs are a further improvement.
The vents prevent over heating (or at least delay it) and allow faster cool downs of the brake pads/linings.
Why is heat important?
Remember Physics from school? OK, I understand if you slept through!
You never realised you would actually find it useful in REAL life did ya?
The amount of energy in any closed system remains constant.
It can just change its form (potential to kinetic, etc).
So it requires energy to slow your car down.
The kinetic energy of your car is converted via friction of the brakes into mostly heat (thermal energy).
The faster the heat can be dissipated, the better performance your brakes will have.
At high temps, the brakes loose some of their ’grip’ which is called ’fade’.
Vents help reduce this brake fade.
This is why some racing/rally cars have water cooled brakes for faster cooling.
If you have watched high speed (over 200 km/h avg lap speeds) racing at night and wondered what the red glow in the wheels was - now you know!
Its the brake pads glowing red hot!!
The Corolla has vented discs in front compared to ’regular’ discs in the City.
Vented discs will have the same performance as regular discs initially but prolonged use will show much less performance drop off (fade).
It is difficult to induce this condition (fade) in new brakes as it requires high speeds and hard braking but in worn pads its a lot easier.
For Indian conditions, its better to have all wheel discs rather than vented discs in front and drums in the rear.
Bottom line?
Discs are better then drums, and ventilated discs (air cooled) are best.
Water cooled brakes are not available in production cars yet.
1.1 ABS Enter the computer:
No matter how good your vented discs might be, under slippery/wet conditions or high speeds, they WILL lock up.
That means instead of rolling, your tyres will be sliding on the ground.
You will loose total control over your vehicle at this point and be unable to steer around obstacles.
Its kind of like sliding on ice at that point.
Even good drivers who manage to ’pump’ their brakes can only avoid the slowest of collisions.
Letting a chip pump your brakes 10-20 times/sec (compared to 1-2 times/sec for the best humans) is the way forward.
This way you just press down hard on the brake pedal and steer around anything.
The Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) detects when brakes start locking up and starts pulsing them to regain control.
This technology has been tried and tested world-wide for over a decade on millions of cars so its much safer than any other alternative.
All car makers in the C & above segments should at least offer this as an option for customers who value their safety.
As usual, there is a myth here that Indian road conditions do not allow high speeds so its not relevant.
I have managed to engage ABS in a parking lot under 50 km/h when testing a rental car in the US.
You just have to stomp on the pedal very suddenly and hard at lower speeds.
People in Mumbai routinely whiz by at 10-20 km/h over any posted speed limits (yes, there are posted limits in the city & suburbs!).
Monsoons are the ideal time to put such features to the test also.
Loose surfaces like gravel also increase the possibility of skids/locking.
You will know ABS is working is a warning LED flashes on your dash and you feel the brake pedal pulse/shudder.
Do NOT be alarmed, and certainly do not release the pedal!
It completely defeats the system.
This will require some driver retraining.
Insurance companies in the US started eliminating the safety discounts for ABS when the actual stats showed very little reduction in accidents after the first few years of introduction.
Further research showed the cause to be incorrect driver usage of the system.
Hyundai has the cheapest car with ABS in India (standing applause to them and a big fat boo/hiss to Honda for not having it in the City which is double the price!).
Always test out the ABS of any car you buy so you know what to expect.