One star for Indian Wagon R
In the name of safety, Global NCAP has damaged a number of cars that cannot be delivered here in the Netherlands. Why do we pay attention to it? Well, Maruti Suzuki shows that the safety features of modern cars are nowhere near comparable all over the world.
Every now and then, remarkable crash test results come out far from us. This is also the case now, because Global NCAP has destroyed, among other things, the very popular and recently facelifted Maruti Suzuki Wagon R in India. The facelift gave reason to subject the car to a crash test again. Unfortunately for Suzuki, the Wagon R has come through less prosperous than before.
Suzuki Wagon R
The Wagon R only gets one star. That is for adult occupants, children are not given a star at all. That is not so much because of what happens to the carriage, but more because of the safety features. The Wagon R has no three-point seat belts (not even in the front), no Isofix and it is not possible to turn off the passenger airbag if a child is in the passenger seat.
What Global NCAP also dislikes is that six airbags will soon be mandatory in India, but Maruti Suzuki does not yet offer this on the Wagon R. This is also not available on the other Maruti Suzuki, the Alto K10, that has collided. It scores slightly better than the Wagon R and gets two stars for adult occupants and – just like the Wagon R – zero stars for children. The president of the FIA’s Towards Zero Foundation comments on these results to Global NCAP. He makes no bones about it: “The continued failure of Maruti Suzuki is unforgivable and unacceptable. The culture at the company must change to put customer safety first.”
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl