cos we dont drive/cannot afford german cars.

Well, at least 2 airbags are mandatory now. Also cars in Germany AFAIK do not need to have ESC/ESP, however it is required to get 5 stars in EuroNCAP, and cars that have less than that usually won't get bought. I think there only have to be 2 airbags too, since the baseline Dacia models only have 2 and they get sold in Germany. I think it's not mandatory because the market makes manufacturers implement those features anyway. Daytime running lights are a must on newly introduced cars though, these lights must turn off/be dimmed when you turn on the headlights though.

Yeah, for 5 stars you need ESC. But you don't have to have 5 stars to sell a car in Germany. The Dacia's are all 3 stars, and they are sold (and bought). You see them everywhere. They are just so extremely cheap, and at least it's better than some very old banger. As soon as you move up to a Korean car though...

http://www.euroncap.com/latest.aspx
You can see that most cars are 5 stars, some 4. Very few 3. They all get sold. (Strangely enough the Jaguar XF performs pretty bad...).