Maruti’s newest hatchback, the Baleno ran into a Volkswagen Jetta and suffered severe deformity on the front fascia. The German sedan, on the other hand, besides a damaged rear bumber, went almost unscathed. The unfortunate incident took place in Perumbavoor, Kerala when the driver of the Jetta stepped hard on the brake paddle to avoid a collision with a motorcycle that took an abrupt turn without indication. The Baleno, probably driving close to the Jetta, could not stop in time as it rammed into the German sedan.
The impact was such that it caused the airbags of the Baleno to deploy. The passengers, however, walked out without a scratch as the crumple zone absorbed the force of the impact while the safety net, which includes ABS and airbags as standard across the range, even in the base trim, saved the occupants from any further injury.
The Volkswagen Jetta, on the other hand, was almost unaffected and the rear bumper took most of the impact. Even the boot door was miraculously saved from any damage. We are still having a difficult time in figuring out how did the Jetta manage to walk away from the crash almost unscathed. Seriously, are the Germans using some Wakanda sourced Vibranium to build their cars?
Surprisingly, the chap who posted the images on Facebook is the Assistant Sales Manager at Volkswagen – that’s what his profile mentions. That’s also one of the reasons why we are holding our horses and not making any comments about the Baleno’s build quality. What do you have to say about this Baleno – Jetta crash? Share your views with us through the comments section below.
Images courtesy: Sreejith Naduvilpatt
Hmm, that’s why it scored a miserable 3stars in eu ncap and the Jetta 5?
Idiots who think a car crumbling js good as it absorbs damage are idiots, the fron of a car should have a body frame to absorb damage and not crumple entirely, a crumbled front means the entire dashboard will also get pushed back in the front passengers face and even thd glass may break, in such a situation even an airbag wont save you, idiotz
I agree to Nandha below. When the car deforms, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It could have been designed to deform so that it absorbs the g forces and not the passenger. A crumpled car does look bad, but it might have been by design.
Crumble zone…hmmm are you sure maruti. I mean are you really really sure..what if the safety of your customer is compromise due to your compromise of body thickness to save fuel n get the milage you needed for the mass market. Will I be a returning customer..surely never ever forever
yes Maruti Baleno has a severe deformation on impact, which means most of the impact made up on crash have been taken by the front portion of the car ,mostly dissipated and not transferred in to the passenger cabin….one the other hand if there were people on the back seat of the vw they would have taken all the impact energy.and thrown around inside which could have resulted in serious injuries