Maruti Suzuki S-Presso has a 3-Star GNCAP rating!

Since MS launched S-Presso in Indian market in 2020 there has been much ridicule about this tiny little car because MS sent it for GNCAP testing and it came out with a 0 star rating.

Sadly people remember headlines very well, and MS has shown no effort in correcting this.

But interestingly, in 2022, the version of S-Presso that MS sells in African market, got 3 star GNCAP rating! Guess what, both the Indian version and the version that was sold in South Africa are manufactured in India, and both cars are structurally the same. So what’s going on here?

Ok, so the most basic thing about GNCAP testing you need to know about is that when a car gets tested, the manufacturer must send the base variant of the car for testing. Not the fully loaded top variant or any random mid variant. So in 2020 when S-Presso got tested, the base variant of S-Presso MS was selling back then only had one airbag, the driver side airbag, and no seatbelt pretensioners. And if you see the South African version’s crash report, those 2 things are the only different between the base variant that got tested in India, and the version that is sold in SA.

But here is the fun part, thankfully, indian govt guideline made dual airbag and seatbelt pretensioners mandatory even in base variant of cars in 2022. So All S-Presso models now come equipped with them. And even the top variant of S-Presso from 2020 was also equipped with them. So essentially if you bought the top variant of S-Presso since 2020, or any variant of it after 2022, it has a 3 Star GNCAP rating because they’re identical to the SA specific version that got tested in South Africa.

But of course, people remember headlines all too well. So even now, whenever there is a discussion about this car, people love to bring it up that it has 0 star rating, without knowing any details. And MS has done nothing to correct this. So, 🤷‍♀️.

There is some more discussion on TBHP.