I have had a major accident some years back. The car I had then, a cuore, slipped when I tried to avoid a Hiace coming wrong way. I went into the green belt and the car overturned. I was very lucky to survive, and it was due to a somewhat stronger body in the cuore. Had it been a mehran, I wouldn't have survived. Since then, I have made my mind on one thing, I won't compromise on safety features. Since then, I have never bought a car without ABS, and lately, without at least front airbags. I could have bought a very good used Corolla or City or even Civic in 10 lac, but I have understood one thing, that some things are worth more than their price. I spent 5 lacs in the aftermath of that accident, on hospital bills and other stuff. I would rather spend a 100k on the damn airbags now. Most people won't. That is the typical thinking he is talking about. Once people buy these cheap cars and get into an accident, they blame the car companies for producing such cars, for which the blame is equally theirs, if not more. A company has to make profit, it will sell you a load of tin for a lot of money if you will buy it, but the buyer should be thinking about what is more important for him.
I am, for once, very happy with FAW in one thing that they didn't compromise on the safety features. It was the first 0-meter small car here in Pakistan which came with airbags and ABS. It has changed the trend, along with JDMs and now Toyota and Suzuki are also providing airbags. Otherwise probably they thought that people who drive small cars are not worth living. Airbags is not some cutting edge technology, it has been a standard feature in the international markets for about 2 decades now. We Pakistanis don't value our life and buy substandard products at high prices, and then complain when we go abroad and are not treated well. We have to respect ourselves to get respect from others.
We, as a people, want to remain stagnated, for the sake of conserving money, which is extremely short sighted. We don't strive to work harder to make our lives better. Had we tried to make our lives easier by spending some money, we would have had more money and better lives by now. Our industry is stagnated because we don't want to embrace newer technology and its benefits. Same case with every industry, and now Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are eating into our textile exports, solely because we didn't move as a target.
Change is something we should strive to bring, by demanding better things, and doing our part. Saving money saying that our people are poor is an eyewash. These same people buy a Mehran for 800k, which could have been a better car in lesser price had they embraced the better quality products earlier. As I said, short sighted thinking.
