In this day and age you’d assume vehicle safety regulations would ensure that every car you drive is safe enough to keep you alive in the majority of crashes. Unfortunately, there are cars out there that are little more than deathtraps waiting to spring shut on unsuspecting victims – and they aren’t all made by no-name manufacturers.
As part of the Global New Car Assessment Program (Global NCAP) testing process, all cars have to go through a rating test to determine just how safe they are for passengers. Five cars in India all received zero-star ratings and among them was the Renault Kwid and a Hyundai Eon. The other three included Indian manufacturers Suzuki Maruti Celerio, Suzuki Maruti Eeco and the Mahindra Scorpio.
All five cars lack airbags and, in the videos below, don’t look like they could stay in one piece if the wind blew too strongly.
While the NCAP crash-test footage is alarming, what’s more worrying is that all five of these cars are available for purchase right now. In fact, the Renault Kwid is India’s fifth best-selling passenger car in March selling 9,743 vehicles according to the Times of India. Since its launch in September 2015, there are 41,205 Kwids on the road in India.
Granted, these deathtraps are actually safer than India’s most popular mode of transport: the motorbike. Still, you’d hope that car companies within the region would put an emphasis on passenger safety when selling them a cheap car, rather than cutting corners to make things affordable.
For some reason NCAP hasn’t released all five video reels for crash tests, so instead take a look at the Renault Kwid, Hyundai Eon, Suzuki Maruti Eeco and the Suzuki Maruti Celerio hurtling towards a wall.
If you’re curious, this is what a five-star rated car does in a crash. Much safer, although I’d still rather not be a crash in the first place.
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