Australia's peak motoring organisation, the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), has publicly slammed some of the worlds leading car manufacturers for withholding life saving vehicle safety technologies from the Australian public.

AAA Executive Director Mike Harris said the vital safety features, which were standard in vehicles manufactured and sold overseas, were sometimes not included in the same imported models on sale in Australia.

Mr Harris said the practice of not fitting safety features from the imported vehicles was known as de-specification - or "de-speccing".

"Australian motorists are missing out on these vital life-saving technologies which are available in the same models overseas - and that's not good enough," Mr Harris said.

"While some manufacturers do include these life-saving technologies, we look forward to seeing these included as standard safety features on all models."

AAA has issued a list of imported vehicles with and without stability control and side curtain air bags for consumers to refer to in deciding upon their vehicle purchase. There are some big name publicly shamed by the AAA comparison list.

The European versions of both the Toyota Yaris and Corolla offer stability control as an option. In Australia, however, it is currently not available on either model. In Europe, side curtain airbags are standard on both the Yaris and Corolla, whilst these are an optional extra in Australia.

The Honda Civic is another vehicle that seems to suffer from “de-speccing”. Stability control is fitted as standard equipment on the European model, whilst it is currently not available at all on the version sold in the Australian market.

Whilst its European counterpart features side curtain airbags as standard, the Australian model Holden Barina does not even make side curtain airbags or stability control available as an optional extra. Viewed in conjunction with its poor ANCAP safety rating of two stars, it seems clear that the currently Australian model Barina will long be remembered as a toaster with wheels.

So why does the practice of “de-speccing” occur?

I’m sure many within the industry would publicly suggest that “safety doesn’t sell” in Australia. Perhaps this is the case. Perhaps Australian car buyers aren’t as well informed as their European counterparts. Does this then mean that “de-speccing” occurs because the Australian public allows for it to happen?

Safety is frequently used as a positioning tool, and a means through which to differentiate variants within a model range. Sadly, vehicle safety is still regarded as a ‘luxury’ by many Australians, and this myth continues to be perpetuated by the motoring industry.

It seems that manufacturers cannot be relied upon to bring safety to the market place independently. Therefore, for a positive change to occur, it is up to Australian consumers to become better informed and more demanding in terms of the vehicles that we buy.

So this question goes out to all the Australians that may read this...

Are you happy that vehicle manufacturers appear to believe that we don’t deserve the same level of safety as our European counterparts?

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