Good points Andrew. But the sad fact is that only a few of us gear heads really care about proper driving. The rest of the motoring world is too ignorant to check their tire pressures a couple of times a month! We have a long, long way to go to get driver training where it needs to be.

 

The irony is amazing. For 15 years, automakers refused to put in airbags because they said that they were dangerous, could not be build to adequate tolerances to ensure that they went off in an accident but never went off accidently, and were too expensive for the safety benefit vs. seatbelts alone.

Consumer advocates screamed that automakers were allowing our kids to die to make more money, so the government required automakers to install airbags. What happened? The bags kill kids, the automakers get sued, and Ralph Nader is a millionaire.

 

Every car should have the safety of a Volvo, classiness of a Benz, sportiness of a Porsche, exotic-ness of a Ferrari, speed of a Lamborghini, reliability of a Honda, dent resistant door panels of a Saturn, the price of a Huyndai, and that foam stuff that fills up the cabin in the event of an accident like that car that Stallone crashed into the water fountain in "Demolition Man"

 

Hey guys, I just posted a new thread "kids/airbags put it in perspective". Please check it out and let me know what you think.

 

I just had my switch installed in Northern Virginia by Airbag/Service 703-691-0077 I hope this will help some people. My dealers body shop gave me the number for this company who does their airbag work. One thing they told me was before turning it on or off make sure your ignition is off so no code get set to turn on your srs light. To reset them is about $90.00. Hope this helps.

 

The link to the safety institute site showing the video of the airbag deployment sold me. I would rather have my daughter restrained properly (always) at a safe distance (easy 4 a small girl in our car) from an active airbag.

 

As much as my neice who's 17 months old would LOVE to ride me NO CAN DO... I even checked the manual this weekend while i was baby sitting to see if hopefully i could give her a ride (she loved the wind in her face) but NOPE! Not allowed... my bro would only allow her to be in the car if it had an 'off' switch.. his words when i first bought the car "Does it have a Off switch" Me: No Him: "OH well guess she can't ride in your car".. he's a firefighter so he knows what you can.. and CAN NOT do.

 

Honda really needs to address this issue & add the "off" switch to new models -- even the Vettes have them now!

 

This was a great thread, guys. I'm reviving it because I wanted to know a couple of things.

First, has anyone recently installed an airbag kill switch? Is it something I should definitely not attempt myself? I can handle oil changes and spark plugs, but not much more.

Also, I'm shopping around (having already made the decision), and I have the references below... Does anyone have more? If anyone's got something for me to research in New England, all the better... These are the data I've collected thus far:

http://www.airbagonoff.com/
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/airbags/
http://www.airbagswitches.com/
888-903-0004 or 817-337-4209. Airbag Options, Inc. located in Texas.
Northern Virginia by Airbag/Service 703-691-0077

Thanks in advance!

 

Check out this thread

Cautionary Tale

I fiinally got sensible solutions (http://www.airbagonoff.com) to reimburse for the screwed up installation. This was only after i disputed the charge on my credit card AND filed a complaint via the better business bureau. Took two months to get it resolved.

Richard