Global NCAP Gives India-Made Suzuki Swift 2-Star Rating Out of 5, Should We Be Worried?

The Global New Car Assessment Program (Global NCAP) has released the crash-test results of the Suzuki Swift made by Maruti Suzuki for the Indian market, and even fitted with double airbags and ISOFIX anchorages, the subcompact hatchback received a dismal two-star rating out of a maximum of five for both the Adult Occupant Protection and Child Occupant Protection categories.

According to Global NCAP, while the India-made Swift offered adequate protection to the front seat occupants’ head and neck, it failed to protect the driver’s chest while adequately protecting the passenger’s. Furthermore, both front seat occupants’ knees only had marginal protection as they could be inured by the “dangerous structures behind the dashboard.” To make things even worse, protection for the driver’s feet was rated as poor due to pedal displacement in a crash. Lastly, the organization has labeled the Swift’s bodyshell integrity following the crash as ‘Unstable’ and “not capable of withstanding further loadings.”

As for protecting child occupants, the forward-facing positioning of the 18-month old dummy in the test showed poor protection for the head and chest while the forward-facing positioning of the three-year old dummy offered marginal to adequate protection to the chest.

Does this mean buyers of the Suzuki Swift, launched locally in June, should be worried about buying it? Unless they bought it in India, then not at all.

What the result means to the ordinary car buyer is that how safe your car is depends on the region it was manufactured and sold in and tested for. That’s because in Japan,the JNCAP gave the Swift a full 5-star rating while in Europe, the Swift received a three-star rating from Euro NCAP but only because the vehicle tested only had seat belt reminders for the Safety Assist category and lacked other systems like Speed and Lane Departure Warnings while offering Autonomous Emergency Braking as an option.

For the Philippines, the organization that will be testing the fourth-generation Swift for the ASEAN region would be the ASEAN NCAP, and as of this time, it has yet to test the vehicle. Also, we can rest easy for now since Suzuki Philippines did confirm during the Swift’s launch in June that the hatchback is sourced from Suzuki’s Rayong plant in Thailand. The Philippine-market Suzuki Dzire though is sourced from India so that may be a different story altogether.

In any case, we’ll be watching out closely for the crash test results of the Suzuki Swift and Suzuki Dzire by the ASEAN NCAP. For now, check out the video below of Global NCAP’s crash tests of the Swift.