Value your life - Get ABS and Airbags

ABS is useless in countries like India goes the old saying.Unless you want to end up in the ever increasing statistics of accident victims please don't go by this.Yes you pay a premium initially but trust me one day that will pay you and how.

Just the other day I was traveling on this deserted stretch on the mumbai-bangalore highway at night and yes I was not doing any record breaking speeds just a leisurely 90kmph in a car designed to go much more faster than that when all of a sudden a moron thought it was his moral duty to commit suicide in front of my car and jumped right in front of my car.What happened next was a miracle,I hit the brakes hard but given the distance between the car and the person it was impossible to stop before hitting him.What helped me was that the car had ABS and I could swerve away from the person without the danger of a sideways skid.

Now picture a non ABS car.I am telling you this because I have seen this with my own eyes.Hit the brakes hard and you end up skidding sideways and it is impossible for you to miss the obstacle and not only would the pedestrian have ended up dead,the car and its passengers too would have been put in danger.

I was traveling in a so called D-segment luxury sedan and even then ABS is only optional and that too available only for the highest variant and is not the best selling version.There is no need to talk about cars from the lower segments.

Trust me ABS works on indian roads and its not only the foreign countries which needs them.So even if you are the most miserly person and have even 1% highway travel on Indian roads please go ahead and get that new car with ABS only it is complete value for money.

Also this scenario could even happen in the city roads,how often do obstacles just come up all of a sudden in front of you just like that.Indian roads[especially highways] have improved significantly and so have the cars which are now capable enough to power a village even but what has not changed is the lack of respect for life/safety.Also while there are enough signboards warning motorists, its the residents of places on the highways who need to be aware since on most occasions they are the once who cause all the accidents.

Now although I fortunately did not need the airbags you don't need to be Einstein to figure out that airbags save lives.As for the myth that cars equipped with airbags would deploy the airbags the moment you hit a pothole I can just laugh it out.Airbag deployment algorithms have become far more complex today and actually may not even deploy in case of minor nicks.

Last but not the least please use your seatbelts on all occasions even if they may cause discomfort.Fortunately all new cars are now equipped with seatbelts.

Price of a new car-> Rs. 4 Lakhs
Price of airbags and ABS -> Rs. 25,000
A life saved-> Priceless