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European cars are made for Autobhans and American cars are made to share roads with hummers, icy roads. Most traffic in India is very speed limited, there is n

European cars are made for Autobhans and American cars are made to share roads with hummers, icy roads. Most traffic in India is very speed limited, there is no snow or ice in most parts of India. Many of the safety concerns are perhaps overblown given the very different driving scenario. A bigger problem would be your actual driving skills, unless you take the national highways regularly travelling long distances.

howlgarnish 6y ago
But there are cows, people on the road, overloaded trucks with drivers hopped up on drugs, etc. I agree you're unlikely to die in a traffic accident (as a driver/passenger, at least) during the day in any of the perennially clogged metros, but the highways and expressways sprouting up are another story. I once took a cab from DEL to Gurgaon. The driver drove up an offramp of the (then) NH-8, along the shoulder against the flow of incoming traffic, and then exited via an onramp. And then they were surprised that I didn't tip them despite this efficient shortcut.
OJFord 6y ago
There's also that 'famous' story about a non-Indian manufacturer that under-tested horn cycles: scratching their heads wondering why so many were coming in with failed horns (or whatever specific piece), turns out they truly were getting used more than whatever number of activations they were spec'd to. (It may be apocryphal, but fun story/business lesson (think that's where I heard it) regardless. Edit if I find it.)
- bluGill 6y ago
  I know in my last trip to India at least one of my drivers had a button on the dash for the horn - presumably because the original had broke
  - ISL 6y ago
    At least half of the Ghanaian taxis we rode in had re-wired the horn to the high-beam stalk-pull. That way, one need not take hands off the wheel to actuate the horn (and I suspect the steering-wheel-center horn switch had broken).
rjsw 6y ago
You get a wide mix of vehicles in Europe too. I was once a passenger in a car going fairly fast on a two lane autobahn. A Trabant [1] in front started trying to overtake a truck at the same time that a Porsche 911 doing probably 250km/h was coming up behind us. Nobody hit anything else but it came fairly close. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant
thrwoer2343423 6y ago
What ?! Driving on undivided two-lane highways is one of scariest things one can do!

howlgarnish 6y ago

But there are cows, people on the road, overloaded trucks with drivers hopped up on drugs, etc. I agree you're unlikely to die in a traffic accident (as a driver/passenger, at least) during the day in any of the perennially clogged metros, but the highways and expressways sprouting up are another story. I once took a cab from DEL to Gurgaon. The driver drove up an offramp of the (then) NH-8, along the shoulder against the flow of incoming traffic, and then exited via an onramp. And then they were surprised that I didn't tip them despite this efficient shortcut.

OJFord 6y ago

There's also that 'famous' story about a non-Indian manufacturer that under-tested horn cycles: scratching their heads wondering why so many were coming in with failed horns (or whatever specific piece), turns out they truly were getting used more than whatever number of activations they were spec'd to. (It may be apocryphal, but fun story/business lesson (think that's where I heard it) regardless. Edit if I find it.)

bluGill 6y ago
I know in my last trip to India at least one of my drivers had a button on the dash for the horn - presumably because the original had broke
- ISL 6y ago
  At least half of the Ghanaian taxis we rode in had re-wired the horn to the high-beam stalk-pull. That way, one need not take hands off the wheel to actuate the horn (and I suspect the steering-wheel-center horn switch had broken).

rjsw 6y ago

You get a wide mix of vehicles in Europe too. I was once a passenger in a car going fairly fast on a two lane autobahn. A Trabant [1] in front started trying to overtake a truck at the same time that a Porsche 911 doing probably 250km/h was coming up behind us. Nobody hit anything else but it came fairly close. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant

thrwoer2343423 6y ago

What ?! Driving on undivided two-lane highways is one of scariest things one can do!