Maruti is one brand which the majority of Indian car buyers trust. The largest car maker in the country in terms of units sold though, has been on the receiving end due to the low safety standards in its small cars. Recently they have started a new safety drive in their entire line-up.
ASEAN NCAP recently tested Ertiga and Ciaz which are probably manufactured in Indonesia and Thailand respectively. However, the safety features in the Indian version are pretty much the same. Both the cars came out with 4 star safety ratings for adults but the rating for child occupants was a lowly 2 stars.
The variant of the Ciaz tested boasted dual front airbags, ABS, seat belt reminder (driver only) pre-tensioners and load limiter. It was however devoid of Electronic Stability Control. For the Ertiga, the unit tested gets all the above features except ABS which is an optional extra. While Ciaz’s points tally stood at 14.56 for adult occupation out of 16, the Ertiga ended up with 12.39.
Recently 5 Indian cars including Scorpio, Kwid were tested by the folks at Global NCAP and all of them ended up with 0 star rating. India is soon going to get its own version of crash testing organisation called Bharat NCAP in the near future. Let us hope the bars are not lowered though!
