Fiat started off the right way but needs customer support!
In our country, cars are not used much for long or even medium distance
travelling. A 500km trip usually tends to be the longest journey people
consider by car. Whereas in most developed countries, that is a short
distance travelled for weekend getaways.
Since cars are not used much for intercity travelling (thanks to the
general condition of roads) and city driving is usually short trips
in dense traffic conditions, safety aids are not much sought after.
Thanks to legislation (not that cars have to meet any crash-test norms)
as well as increasing awareness, people are only now waking up to
the safety requirements of cars. Fiat was the first company to offer
ABS and air bags as options on its cars but lukewarm response from
the car buying public should not mean that they should shelve these
options. Instead they should try and make it attractive for people
to go in for these safety aids. So it is sad that these are not available
on the Adventure even as options although ideally I would like them
to have been part of the standard equipment on the Adventure.
That apart, the Adventure has a load of safety features including
a deformable bonnet, which folds in the event of an head-on impact
along with a front structure that allows for controlled deformation
and reinforced struts, a fire prevention system, anti intrusion side
impact bars in the doors, an energy absorbing steering wheel coupled
to a collapsible steering column, bumpers with high deformation potential
along with height adjustable front seat-belts, anti-submarine seats
and height adjustable front and rear head restraints and last but
not the least, a high mounted third stop lamp. Add to all those safety
features a bull bar which affords protection in dense city traffic
and two sets of fog lamps that the Adventure is fitted with.
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August 2002