A decade ago if you went to an average Indian car customer and asked what is the most important thing to look for while buying a car, the answer would be mileage. But, not so today, there is a huge list of things to consider before buying a car. It mainly has space saving features. Yes, today’s car customers have started giving more importance to safety features.
Mileage is also seen as an important factor while choosing a car. But that alone has changed the Indian automobile market, which has changed the Indian automobile market. Until last few years we don’t see many safety features in the cars of Maruti Suzuki, the leading company selling low cost cars in India. But due to market competition and changing mindset of customers, Maruti has also changed their plans and started emphasizing on safety features.
As the number of cars and car customers have increased, so have the number of road accidents. Cars crushed like waffles in a road accident may have changed the mindset of customers. That’s why six airbags, good build quality and electronic stability control are standard features in today’s mass market cars.
The company has given six airbags as standard in the recently launched Swift by Maruti. The previous Swift was offered with only two airbags. Also, in the Franks SUV car model that was sold with two airbags, Maruti has quickly launched a variant with six airbags. These new announcements by Maruti show how much importance car customers place on safety.
In its Automotive Consumer Report, Mackenzie also noted that 78% of Indian car buyers today place more importance on safety features than they did a decade ago. Apart from car customers and car companies, the Indian government is also seen as an important reason for the importance given to these safety features.
Over the last few years, the Indian government has been making sure that the vehicles sold in India are safe through new notifications and new regulations from time to time. Examples of this include mandatory ABS on bikes of 125cc or above, two airbags and 3-point seat belts in cars. It is also worth noting that the Government of India has also taken forward the Bharat NCAP Safety Test for India to ensure that cars have adequate safety features.
Due to this, the same safety features that are provided in the cars sold in America and Europe have started to be provided in the cars sold in India. If this trend continues, the cars sold in India will soon reach global standards. The Indian automobile industry is slowly moving towards that change.
