Indian car-buyers must insist on better cars and more safety

The Japanese have a particularly offensive way in which they dismiss people they consider inferior. This is used to best effect against ‘gaijin’, the pejorative for ‘foreigners’, who do not really know how serious this insult is.

With globalisation, I have seen this all over the non-English speaking world, especially from people of countries considered technologically superior in industries like automobiles or transportation systems. To a large extent, I think, it applies to the way automobiles are sold in India; my experience with the Maruti Ciaz has been along these lines.

The Maruti Swift was one hatchback designed to be a global car, with no compromise on safety and performance in design. Subsequent iterations for the Indian version made the cars slightly ‘different’, but not as much as the other ‘designed for India’ cars which play dangerous games with safety like seats inside the rear hatch, more space by re-designing the sides in such a way that side-impact bars are removed and other deletions.

The Maruti Ciaz lies somewhere in the middle. There is no doubt that the two engines on offer have been tweaked to a point where fuel economy is brilliant, without performance suffering a lot. The space provided for people and baggage is excellent too—though the rear seat height and comfort could certainly have been better for taller and fatter people.

Safety test results, however, are not yet available. That does not sound good. The Ciaz has one variant, the VXi+, which has pretty much everything you need. This was the real deal-breaker for us, and when we went in for a cancellation, we encountered the famous dismissive I have mentioned in the beginning.

“Get your booking amount back if you can” was the attitude initially. A few days on social media took care of that. A chance personal encounter at an airport did the rest and the dismissive wave, once again, showed that unless we, as people, insist on better safety in our cars, buses and bikes, we will only deserve such reactions.

By rights, even the lowest-end variants of cars sold in India need to have at least two airbags and, unless the Indian customer demands this, it is not going to happen. We cancelled our booking of the Maruti Ciaz because only the highest spec variant, the Z option in petrol and diesel, provided this; but we did not want the rest of the stuff that is sold bundled in the Z variant that are just expensive distractions.

We are going to continue getting dismissive waves from people who think we are inferior customers. And, at the same time, if you look at the specs of the more Indian Tata Zest, you see a higher attention to safety for even the lowest variants.

Touch-screens Distract from the Windscreen

Should ‘entertainment’ and ‘infotainment’ consoles be sold as part of the front dashboard standard equipment list in cars? The argument is probably going to be decided against these distractions in the new legislation on road safety; so, if you own or are planning to buy a new car which has all sorts of fancy video equipment facing the front seat, please think again. You may have to remove them.

My own experience has been proved time and again that round dials with tactile habit-forming actions work best and make for the least distractions when driving. Push buttons are the worst, regardless of how well you think you know standard keyboards or numerical pads. Push-pull buttons for on/off functions work very well too.

And rotary dials are any day better than digital read-outs. I insist on the presence of a rotary analogue-type simple fuel gauge, engine temperature and speedometer/tachometer combo which my eyes can read and my brain can digest without distraction. Yellow and red lights, as well as audio alarms for danger warnings, catch the eyes and ears and transmit without problems to the brain.

(Veeresh Malik started and sold a couple of companies, is now back to his first love—writing. He is also involved in helping small and midsize family-run businesses re-invent themselves.)