New cars are already unaffordable for many of us and another cash for clunkers program will drive us to bicycles.
I am privy to a study performed jointly by GM and the casualty insurance industry, which revealed the following:
The driver’s side seat belt, when buckled, increases the survivability of a front-end collision by 65%. When the driver’s side air bag is added, it provides another 5% survivability.
The passenger side seat belt afforded 85% increased survivability, with the air bag adding a statistical benefit close to zero. Note the reference here is to survivability and no claim was made as to reduced injury.
The study was presented when the government, already having mandated the driver’s side airbag, was attempting (and, of course, succeeded) in mandating the passenger side airbag.
The argument by the auto makers was that there was negligible benefit to the passenger inflatable restraint, and it was predicted that there may be other dangerous consequences, and of course, an extra five hundred dollars was added to the cost to produce.
The “other dangerous consequences” turned out to be the death of several under 80 pound children, and the fact that the passenger airbag many times breaks the windshield during a collision.
In short, you cannot buy a vehicle without the passenger air bag, but it has near-zero value to safety, especially when the cost and the safety negatives are factored in.
The other mandated plagues to the manufacturers include the oxygen sensors in the exhaust, which constantly go bad at a tremendous cost to the car makers (and ultimately to you), and the Tire Pressure Monitors, which cause more trouble than they save, because the air in your tires expands and contracts with temperature extremes, rendering the monitors valueless when compared to added cost by virtue of needless visits to the repair shop to turn the lights off.
Your vehicles would be several thousand dollars cheaper without these mandates of dubious value.