I personally know of a Mercedes airbag that deployed without cause. The car and driver wound up in a ditch as a result.

Ron
http://germanstar.net

I also read that Mercedes-Benz and BMW are the only two automakers without a history of accidental deployments. Even Volvo has had it's problems, which surprised me at first, then I remembered they are now owned by Ford.

When I was in the auto electronics biz, I got to see first hand each makers air-bag technology. And what a spectrum! Cheapo cars had one sensor, usually an accelerometer (word?) located under the seat, in the console, or under the dash. No occupancy sensors, etc. Mercedes and BMW both use multiple sensors, and the system monitors the seat occupancy, seatbelt usage, and type of impact. With most systems, if the threshold is exceeded, thr airbag goes off. And to avoid lawsuits, they set the thresholds very low. A bumper tap in a low speed collision will cause it to fire. Not in a Mercedes.

The one thing that we noticed on all systems was the very low voltage required to fire the bag. This is in case of electrical failure. All systems work like this, even MB's. Poking a non-SRS/ECM safe test light into an airbag wire will trigger the bag, as the light uses more than enough voltage. Heck, static on the line is enough to cause a deployment. Hence, the quality of the sensors and deployment decision ECM are VERY important. With cheap systems, they don't make a complex decision, and even a tiny voltage can cause a false deployment. A Mercedes system is different. Even if a sensor reads "demployment" the bag might not fire, depending on other factors. The threshold is raised if the seatbelts are in use. The bag might deploy in a rear-end collision, but waits until a secondary force thrusts the occupant toward the bag. Since it also uses redunant sensors, it has a mmuch better chance of detecting a false deployment signal.

In a Neon, the wiring of the bag system is crappy looking wire not any different from any other in the car. In an MB, it is in a robust harness, and the sensor harnesses look to be NASA quality.

Would I trust an airbag in a Subaru, Toyota or Honda? Today I would. In a Neon, Kia, or other low end junk-mobile? No. Beginning some time ago, the "big" Japanese makes starting using much better technology. The one I might be wary of is Mazda. I would always wonder if Ford had shipped the bag technology.

__________________
John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

http://img31.exs.cx/img31/4050/tophat6.gif

You crack me up BM

A close friend of mine is somewhat of an expert in the field of airbags on cars, I dabble with the other kind.

One of the biggest known failures of airbags that affects most the people on this forum is 1st generation airbags which were produced to apporx. 1990 the material is very rough and if your face moves across it, you will get a severe sand paper type affect.

My wife was in a 55 MPH title bout in her 92 Lexus GS300 and walked away with a few bruises form the seat belt. The drunk that hit her was not so lucky, she assumed room temp. and she was wearing a seatbelt.

http://www.safetyforum.com/airbags/

That's an interesting link, thanks. It's a teeny bit biased, thanks to it's sponsors, but still provides some really good info, some of which has been raised here, including,

Sensor quantity and quality.

Threshold of deployment

Better seat belts

Mercedes has been recognized on all three of these key areas. They make high quality sensors that use redundant systems and don't simply deploy a bag because one sensor has a malfunction. They have a higher threshold when belted, meaning no bag deployment when a curb is bumped or a minor bumper tap. They use a tensioning system in the seatbelts to ensure belt stretch does not allow an occupant to move as much. MB has been using those pretensioners for over 15 years, and many makers are just getting around to it now.

__________________
John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

http://img31.exs.cx/img31/4050/tophat6.gif

So, is the 18 years old sandpaper airbag going to deploy when needed??!!!

Seems like if car companies were really interested in saftey they would follow race car saftey technices, Iv'e seen NASCAR cars come apart in high speed contact with walls and other cars as if they were bombed and many times the drivers had no injury. I drove a 911S with a three point harness at speed and felt very sucure, it was not uncomfortable either......
William Rogers..................

The head airbag curtain worked well in the side impact but did not deploy fully in the pole test. Experts feared that in other situations it might not do its job.

Mercedes C-class 2001

http://www.euroncap.com/details.php3?id=merc_cclass_2001