Saar: The hot-selling hatchback was awarded two stars for both adult and child occupant safety.

As you must be aware that Global NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) has been running a campaign called #SaferCarsForIndia. In recent times, it has released reports on how the Renault Lodgy, Tata Nexon and the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza performed when they were put through the standard crash-testing norms. Now though, Global NCAP has released the crash-testing reports for the Maruti Suzuki Swift. The hot-selling hatchback was awarded two stars for both adult and child occupant safety.

All variants of the Maruti Suzuki Swift come with dual airbags, ISOFIX anchorages for child seats, front seatbelts with pretensioners and load limiters, ABS with EBD and brake assist, and seatbelt reminder and buzzer for the driver. The hatchback lost points mainly because it doesn’t feature a 4-channel ABS and a seatbelt reminder for the front passenger. Also, not all seatbelts are three-point in nature. The car was crash-tested at 64kmph. Here’s the video:

For adult occupants, the car delivered good protection to the head and neck. Even the lower half of the front passenger’s legs showed good protection. The front passenger’s chest, a knee and the lower half of the driver’s legs received adequate protection. Global NCAP concluded that the other knee of the front passenger, both knees and the chest of the driver received marginal protection. The only body part that received poor protection were the feet of the driver. The car’s bodyshell was rated as unstable and it was not capable of withstanding further loadings.

To measure the safety for child occupants, Global NCAP uses two differently-sized dummies – one of a three-year-old and the other of an 18-month-old. The child seat for the elder dummy was installed facing forward with ISOFIX anchorages. The top tether, as per Global NCAP, was able to prevent excessive forward movement during the impact and offered good and marginal protection to the child’s chest. As for the younger dummy, child restraint was installed with ISOFIX and top tether forward facing which explains the absence of head points, resulting in poor protection for the head and chest.

The new Maruti Suzuki Swift was launched at the 2018 Auto Expo. Since then, its tenure has been full of crests and troughs. Back in May this year, the car was part of a recall campaign. The following month, Maruti Suzuki announced that the new Swift has managed to surpass the 1 lakh sales milestone in a record 147 days. In July 2018, 1,279 units of the Swift and Dzire were voluntarily recalled by the manufacturer.

In August, Maruti Suzuki introduced the option of an AMT (automated manual transmission) in the top-spec Z+ trims of the Swift. Last month, the carmaker launched the Swift Special Edition which offers more kit than the L trims at no extra cost. In India, the Maruti Suzuki Swift competes with the likes of the Hyundai Grand i10, Ford Figo and the Toyota Etios Liva.