Airbag - A luxury or safety feature?

What's with airbags being a luxury feature? That's just retarded - do i have to fancy music systems and on-board computers etc. to have air-bags in pretty much every car sold? And the Tata's don't even sell cars with Air-bags except the highest Safari model. The Indigos they sell in SA have airbags. I owned a 99 Hyundai Accent abroad which didn't have a power steering but had the bloody airbags. How come safety isn't a concern with either car drivers or manufacturers?

airbags is not a luxury feature, its an safety feature. outside india safety is a 1st priority so all cars there are equiped with airbags. airbags come at a cost so indian customers were not willing to pay before that is now that customers have opened their eyes & running behind safety as the cars & roads are being faster nowadays before customers were just watching the price of the car with airbags & without, with airbags it would cost them app. a lakh more so would thiunk that in our cities airbag is not much of use & save that lakh & go for a non airbag car so in india they were not a hit before but now as safety is being a prime concern buyers are getting smarter & manufacturers are providing all safety features such as 2 front airbags & abs to indian customers.

A good point made here, The manufacturers are not at all concerned about the need of Airbags in Every model , the reason might be the Safety norms in India is not strict and not been made , at once there was a news that New safety norms comes and this will make cars like 800 , omni , versa , Indica, Ikon stop from selling! but no such thing has been implimented till this date , And in other countries like SA or AUS or european COuntires the Airbags is a must be what it is! hence Tata provide airbags for every model they Launch there!

maybe they shud take a step to try and give Airbags as Optional in every model from every company! but still its improving!

 Cheers,
Sri

Airbags should be the norm and not the exception. It's a classic case of taking the Indian consumer for a joy ride. I have checked pretty much every manufacturer - some go to the extent of providing just one airbag - on the driver side for their highest end model - the Chevy Spark and the Zen Estilo. That is just bizarre.

Its a good topic to discuss, Safety should be first priority but who cares here in our country. But one more point... you can not compare the road conditions of european countries with Indian roads. You can not drive Fast in Indian Cities... so all depends on Usage ... If someone travels alot on highways.. Airbag is good to have... but if someone is using car in city only, n cant drive even at 40 kmph ..well wats d use of Airbags den?

So, it depends on Person to Person.... If one can afford... den y not?

People dont change when you tell them that there is a Better option... They change when they realise that there is No Other Option..

Would like to disagree with Rajiv! No need of air bags in the City? Come on now, so you mean to suggest that in the city the only type of accident is someone driving at 40kmp hitting a wall. What if its a head on/offset(which is usually the case) with another vehicle travelling much faster? What then?
Airbags surely do save lives in the city and outside on the highways.

yes man todays airbags are a necessary feature in cars & all the cars should come equiped with it. its for our safety only.

@Binoy, you r rite Airbags surely do save lives ... but how can u forget the price difference between a fully loaded car with Airbags & Abs and a lower model, which is having all the necessary features one requires except airbags? What you will suggest to a guy if he dont have budget to afford additional safety features, Airbags & ABS???.... drop d idea of buying a car? I am talking about Small car buyers. Thats why I said, well it depends on ur usage... in city driving .. chances of frontal collisions.... less den highways? Rite? I live in city like lucknow, where in day time, its really very difficult to drive car over 30-40kmph.

I said IF YOU CAN AFFORD DEN WHY NOT? Airbags reduced chances of serious injuries .. 30% to 40% in frontal collisions but Everything depends on the budget of buyer. Seat Belt... well seat belt can save live.

Anything can happen anywhere fren and I have seen one example at maruti service centre where the Owner was fed up because of Airbags, Swift... minor accident and Airbag deployed. He was like crying.... INSURANCE DOESN'T COVER AIRBAG REPLACEMENT...

You know we are having Fiesta Exi, and had accident last month, My bro Sanjeev was driving ...a kind of frontal too, Fiesta is very safe car .. safety beams n solid body... Check the pics in my photo album.... Seat belt worked fine.. And you know accident was good enough to deploy airbags, but after spending only 13k we got our car back and no injury inside....THANKS A TON TO GOD & TO FORD.... for A Solid Car

Same in case of ABS, its a very good feature.. but in Indian conditions? What I know, ABS doesnt reduce d stopping distance and it just ensures that we have steering control. I am not sure, distance will be shorter with ABS equipped car. And am curious to know.

People dont change when you tell them that there is a Better option... They change when they realise that there is No Other Option..

I guess the big challenge with airbag is that it is a 1-time use setup. (On a lighter note 1-time is enough to save life!!). And it is expensive affair to fit it altogether again. Rajiv that INSURANCE episode was very funny!

 

I guess if one does lot of high speed driving (city/highway) or atleast drives where others are frequently driving at very high speeds then it is a definite thing to go for airbags. I also think more often than not accidents happen when due to hard braking the wheels get locked. So no matter whether at higher or lower speeds more accidents could be avoided if we have ABS as it provides the crucial manoueverability when we brake hard and the wheels get locked.

 

We can also look at airbags & seat belts as passive protection (for folks inside car) whereas ABS is active protection (for car passengers, pedestrains & other vehicles too).

Definitely Jvalant has got a valid point here. Airbags are sort of luxury feature in India. Despite of the fact that it is one of the essential features in a car, only a few go for it. It's a matter of affordability. It's a matter of choice. And unfortunately this choice is always the last one. We don't want airbag in a basic version (a non-power steering or non-air conditioned version) or manufacturer don't want to do that. We, consumers perceive it as a luxury feature or manufacturers have made it a luxury feature is a debatable topic. But my personal view is, we consumers don't want it.

Apart from awareness, the biggest role can be played by government. In India, we don't have any kind of safety measure. There are no crash-tests done before a car can be driven on Indian roads. Airbag is important but there are more important aspects that need to be addressed first. We drive cars like Omni which cannot even sustain a minor accident. Rajiv, if an Omni hits anything, even at 40 kmph, I am sure the driver and co-passenger are going to suffer bigtime. A few days ago, an 800 was crushed by a bus on Sion-Panvel highway. The BEST bus driver in front of this 800 driver hit the brakes all of a sudden and this 800 guy banged into the bus. To make the scenario worse, the 800 was hit by another bus from behind. The 800 driver couldn't survice. I am sure, even if the 800 had airbags, it wasn't going to help the deceased. The body has to be sustain the crash in the first place.

I believe, we have a long way to go when it comes to safety. And the first step should be that we implement crash-tests in the system. A car failing to the test should be banned.



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