Renault and passenger airbags

poppycat_3

I'm due to have a baby in 3 weeks and drive a 2 yr old Renault Laguna with around 300 airbags. Well, maybe not quite that many but it does have quite a few!

So the plan was to contact my Renault dealer to get the front passenger airbag disabled so that it would be safe for new baby to travel in the front. Now I know people will say that it is safer for the baby to be in the back anyway yadda yadda yadda but this is my 3rd child and my other 2 were perfectly safe in the front and I liked having them next to me, and as far as I'm concerned its safer to be able to glance to my left to check on baby than to be looking behind me when I should be watching the road. Anyway....

I phoned Renault only to be told that they will not under any circumstances disable the airbag. When I asked them why they said that if we had an accident and a passenger was injured due to the lack of an airbag then we might try and hold them responsible. That to me is ridiculous, if we make the choice to request that the airbag is disabled, we take that risk and we are responsible, not Renault. And there ARE Renaults that are fitted with a switch that makes it possible to disable the airbag yourself anyway. So what difference does it make?

So now I'm all annoyed about it, it's more about the principle than anything. It just seems like a really stupid rule to me.

IvanOpinion

Poppycat
We have brought this on ourselves by continually looking for ways to sue people. Renaults attitude is understandable because they have designed and sold a car to a particular specification - which is what you purchased. If they disabled an airbag and there was an accident you could claim that you did not understand the consequences of what was happening and you would win a case. Also what would happen if you sold the car on and forgot to mention that the airbag was disabled. I know some cars have a keyswitch that allows the passenger airbags to be disabled - I presume the Laguna does not ? ?

Its like the fool that bought one of those big American RV vans. He set the cruise control and went down the back of the van to make himself a cup of tea only for the van to crash because there was no driver. He sued, won $1.75million and a new van. With stupidity like this can you blame companies for not doing some things that appear to be quite basic in nature?

Alternatives are to get it done by a qualified mechanic - however make sure you re-enable it if you sell the car, or buy yourself a nice shiney new car.

Ivan

poppycat_3

Yes Ivan, I understand that it is all part and parcel of the compensation culture that is behind it all. I would have just thought that perhaps signing a disclaimer with Renault to show that the airbag has been disabled at our request and that we accept full liability would be straight forward enough to prevent any legal action later on.

The only point I hadn't thought of before was you mentioned selling the car and not informing the new owner, which is a good point.

But I still find it daft that our particular model doesn't have the function to allow us to do it ourselves and some others do. Would that not be the same principle if the owner of a car with that function disabled the airbag then had a crash, they could still claim that the manufacturer is liable because they built the car with that function and made it possible to disable the air bag!!! ???

Poppycat

:spam: eric

SaraSeahorse

If you have a switch to disable the bag yourself it is a different matter than asking them to do it for you. You may be of sound mind etc but I would have thought no respectable garage would do this for you. They may have some industry or manufacturer code of practice that says that they are not allowed to disable airbags.

You could sign a disclaimer but it could subsequently be shown to be not valid and then they would be accountable.

If you are hell bent on disabling part of your car safety system then buy a haynes manual or get one out the library and it may show you how to do it yourself.

I would not be so yada yada about car safety - yes you would prefer to have baby to see and check on but the front passenger car seat is the most vulnerable seat in a car - I believe pathologists refer to it as 'place de mort'.

SaraSeahorse

other reasons why they may not do it

if you have an air bag fitted does it not have to be in working order (I know there is no way to test this) for MOT? someone else may be able to answer this

if you carried a passenger and the air bag failed to operate as you had disabled then that may have implications too


disabling an airbag that should under normal circumstances be part of the vehicle may be considered modification to vehicle and maybe too you would need to declare to insurer

taxiphil

IvanOpinion wrote:

Its like the fool that bought one of those big American RV vans. He set the cruise control and went down the back of the van to make himself a cup of tea only for the van to crash because there was no driver. He sued, won $1.75million and a new van. With stupidity like this can you blame companies for not doing some things that appear to be quite basic in nature?

That's a famous urban myth that's been doing the rounds for years. It's an amusing story but completely untrue, I'm afraid.

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

SaraSeahorse

urban myth but sadly believable!