Consumers are ready to pay for cars with better safety features, and the thinking isn’t just confined to fully-matured automotive markets – in India, Toyota says it has found that customers don’t mind paying more for safety kit, and the jump in sales has reflected that, Automotive News reports.
In a market where automakers have long been reticent to make airbags a standard item on cars, fearing that its inclusion would have an adverse impact on sales, sales of airbag-equipped Toyotas have thrown that outmoded thinking out of the window.
Eight months after it began offering airbags in all its models sold in the country, sales of Toyota vehicles climbed by 19% during the period, a noticeable hike in comparison with the 5% increase in industry-wide deliveries, the report indicated.
“It has been better than we expected. Even in smaller cities and towns, people are coming to realise the need for safety features,” N. Raja, Toyota India’s senior VP and director for sales and marketing was quoted as saying. He said that customers were willing to pay about 15,000 to 20,000 rupees (RM905 to RM1,200) extra for a car with airbags.
Indian buyers are becoming more safety conscious – in 2014, more than 80% of customers surveyed by J.D. Power stated they wanted ABS in their car, and 76% said airbags were a key item. No details were available on how they viewed the importance of having electronic stability control (ESC) in their cars, but you can bet it’ll be up there as the market matures.
India may only have one percent of the world’s total motor vehicle count, but the country accounts for 15% of global traffic deaths. Despite the high mortality rate, the Indian government has yet to make airbags or vehicle crash tests mandatory.
Besides Toyota, other carmakers in India aren’t waiting for a mandate on airbag fitment and are already including them as standard kit on models. Airbags are now fitted on all Nissan vehicles, and the automaker said it will begin offering a driver airbag as an option on its Datsun GO hatchback, which originally received an abysmal zero-star safety rating in Bharat NCAP crash testing.
Maruti Suzuki, meanwhile, is working on adding airbags to its cars and said it will have them in cars even before the government makes the feature mandatory.
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AI-generated Summary ✨
Comments express frustration with Toyota Malaysia (UMW) for stripping safety features like VSC and multiple airbags to maximize profits, while selling cars at inflated prices. Many believe Malaysians are unaware of global safety standards and continue to buy despite these shortcomings. There is widespread dissatisfaction with the lack of basic safety in models like Vios and Camry, with calls for better safety features and more competitive pricing. Overall, the sentiments are critical and disappointed with Toyota's prioritization of profit over safety.