> Taxation has nothing to do with it.
> Indian drivers are reckless.
I will assume it's a bit of both. Especially if your car is worth $5, most people will treat it as such. And they will perform maintenance service worth 25 cents.
I was in Bangalore/Bangaluru some years back. I have only seen worse driving in Egypt! (imagine Carmageddon II grade driving)
Regarding the cars, I remember that Tata wanted to bring their car to the world, except for the fact that it was a coffin with wheels [0].
"Rohit Baluja, President of India’s Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) said: “These results show that India would benefit enormously from the introduction of minimum crash safety standards..."
A country that doesn't have "minimum crash safety standards" simply does not care for its citizens, whether they lived or died. Article is from 2014.
For the sake of everyone on this planet, I surely hope they do. But living in Europe, and reading something like that in 2014, it will be VERY difficult to change my mind and ignore so many other car producers with (far better) safety record for a Tata. I would prefer to buy a used 2010 VW Golf for e.g. $3k than a brand new Tata for $3k.
Either way, I am very interested (as I believe we all are) to see how all gas/petrol cars will be replaced by electric in the next 20 years. And with the rise of technology, sensors, self-driving and other functionalities (e.g. cars tracking one-another in real time) we will care 'less' for crash-related safety, if we see that crashes are drastically reduced.
Then we can have lighter and faster cars, with more comfort.
Nano has been discontinued. All the latest Tata cars have global ncap 4/5 rating. Whats disappointing is that foreign brands like like VW, Ford don't have 4/5 stars ncap rating cars in india.
There are countries that crash test pedestrian safety in crashes before certifying vehicles for sale; that wouldn't be useless here. Neither India not the US for that matter do so though.
