I just saw on the news that car manufactures will need side impact air bags by 2009. Does that include every car? If the Camaro has T-tops, how will that work, also what about the Targa top on the Vette, and convertibles.

 

Side impact air bags, when executed properly can turn a vehicles side impact ratings from poor to good (high rating).

I'm all for them. I'd like to survive a crash when some moron runs a red light and T-Bone's me.

You have an interesting point, though, as far as how it would apply to not only T-Tops, but also Targa roofs, like Corvette... and convertibles...

Perhaps some sort of alternate mounting location for the airbags, like the A or B pillars, the door panels themselves, or in the seats?

 

Side impact air bags come out of the seat, head currtain come out of the roof.

The C6 Vette has the side impact air bags. How will the Jeep wrangler air bags work, most people take the doors off on nice days.

Side air bags = for an extra $200 I'd spring for the option on my next pre 2009 new car.

 

Good point about the side ipact bags, and the head curtain bags.

When I made my statement about increasing the ratings from poor to good, I believe it is the curtain airbags. I may have referred to them incorrectly as side-impact bags.

 

Probably doesn't belong here but I just wish that "they" would put half as much effort into improving the idiot instead of idiot proofing the cars.

Pretty soon we'll be driving around cars that self-destruct on impact to create a bundle of balloons to protect us.

I wish I could recall which editorialist had stated that if we really want safer cars, we need to place a stiletti on every stearing wheel.

 

Back in 2000 just before I sold off my last 5.0 Mustang, I was in San Francisco one night when the light turned green for me and I hesitated a second before going because I zoned out. Just when I started to move, an old raised Ford pickup truck blasted through the intersection well over 50 mph. If I didn't hesitate, I'd either be dead or communicating via eyeblinks for the rest of my life.

I'm not saying side airbags would have saved me from something like that (he ran that light hella fast), but this is one of those things that can save you from the other morons and lowlife out there driving. Unlike alot of other safety equptment on cars that save you from yourself, and are made for people who buy vehicles with little common sense on how to drive them, this is something that actually protects you from someone else.

I think it's a great ides making some type of side protection standard.

It's even a better idea than the mandatory airbags we've had in cars for the past decade. Those airbags are redundant with seatbelt usage. On the other hand, the only thing keeping you from becoming a vegetable in a side impact is 4-6" of thin metal, and a door beam that can barely withstand a 10 mph blow.

 

Short of building the whole car out of soft foam, theres not much left that can be done to make cars safer...

I say the goal should now be to get some real driver training as part of getting a damn license, and have the OEMs try to make their ultra-safe cars not turn into a ball of scrap steel in a 15mph fender bender.

 

there is also a law that says all manufacturers have to sell only electric vehicles by a certain date. i think they extended that (from what i was told).
is this true?

 

Replace the word "only" with "a certian percentage" and that statement MIGHT be true.

 

Our California Air Resource Board (CARB) passed that mandate some time ago for our state, but is backtracking a bit now. Last I heard, there was some type of compromise.

Some eastern states follow California's emission laws so there are a few other states that had our mandate, but mantatory EV production isn't a national law.




Our state is pretty funny, Southern Cali is pro-automobile while the north as a group believe cars are the root of all evil (though there are huge car culture outposts in a few northern cities like San Jose, Fresno, and Santa Rosa). Most of the votes (and people) of California is in the south, while most of the area (and district representatives and state senators) are from north of LA.

As a result, we tend to elect very moderate & politically balenced Governors of both parties (even Ronald Reagan was a moderate Governor during his term!), yet our legislature (which is limited to 2 terms I believe) tend to be people who come with an agenda.

They either are so-called hardline conservatives from the central valley who haven't realized that they are outnumbered something like 15 to one so being an uncompromising "anti-everything" representative is a sure way to be marginalized, and that California will never be a "right wing" state. On the other side are the so-called "progressive" liberals from the north and the coast towns that tend to outnumber the moderate & politically mainstream south who figure that they "know better" than everyone else, and push policies that have wrecked our economy and created some pretty horrendous automotive laws.

Because of this Northern-Southern push-pull politics, California is a pretty schizophrenic state when it comes to cars. We have the most strict pollution laws & creator of the electric vehicle mandate and global warming paranoia. Yet we were also the state that pushed for repeal of the 55mph speed limit (our Highway Patrol no less!), created most of the car fads in the US, have the most cars per person in the world, and home to the majority of custom car shops in the US.

Certainlly not a dull, predictible, or boing state.

 

About 6 months before the first gtos were shipped to America it was a fairly hot topic 'would the gto get the monaro side air bags." Not for 04 of course, official reason being they didn't meet american standards. Anyway, Monaro has had them for a while lets hope they are an option for the 05 GTO.