For under 900k Altis, Civic or ???

**JJB** · January 16th, 2010 01:43 AM

Originally Posted by niky

It's also more dangerous if your wife or front passenger is a small person, as here in the Philippines, two-stage airbag sensors aren't mandatory (you'll have to ask at the casa if the Civic has a weight sensor in the front seat to deactivate the second stage of the airbag).

Seatbelts > Airbags anytime.

Sir niky, please enlighten us why a 2-stage sensor of a passenger airbag isn't fit for small people in case of accidents.

and i presume it's still best to have a seatbelt + airbag, right? rather than a seatbelt alone.

**tidus1203** · January 16th, 2010 08:30 AM

Basta airbags are overrated in the Philippines IMHO... Kasi hindi sya requirement sa cars natin kaya some people think na if you have it its like a holy grail in safety...

**niky** · January 16th, 2010 10:47 AM

Originally Posted by JJB

Sir niky, please enlighten us why a 2-stage sensor of a passenger airbag isn't fit for small people in case of accidents.

and i presume it's still best to have a seatbelt + airbag, right? rather than a seatbelt alone.

When I said it wasn't mandatory... that means that not all cars sold with airbags (in fact, not many... or even a tiny percentage) have two-stage airbags.

A two-stage airbag is better because it can be programmed to open slower or inflate to a smaller diameter to suit smaller occupants.

And considering your average female here is five-foot nothing... most women drivers and front passengers count as "small" compared to western women. (note: America's Next Top Model apparently considers 5'7" short! )

Thus... if a car has a front passenger airbag, and it's not two stage... it's potentially dangerous to a female passenger or a child under 5 feet, as it can open too fast and too high and potentially break their necks or suffocate them.

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It's kind of telling... that an airbag module weighs just a few hundred grams... but they're not mandatory on racecars. Why? Because they're only there to prevent injury. Not death. A proper seat-harness is 100 times more effective than an airbag.

Airbags have a small range of speeds over which they will prevent serious injury. If a crash is too strong, the airbag won't help. You'll be crushed as the safety structure gives way, airbag or not. If a crash is too slow, the seatbelts will suffice. And even if you have an airbag, if you're not wearing a seatbelt, you can die falling into the airbag.

Airbag + Seatbelt is better than Seatbelt alone. But it's not the be-all and end-all of automotive safety. The actual crash-integrity of the car is the over-riding choice. Which is why I'd rather buy an i10 without an airbag than a QQ with. And why I'd prefer an FD Civic without a front passenger bag than an older car... say... a Chevy Optra or a Nissan Sentra... with a zillion airbags.

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IMHO, only problem with the way the FD Civic drives is that the rear end doesn't feel as involved as it does in the older EK and EG models. If you push it to its limits, it's a very good-handling car (much faster on the track than the old one), but it feels quite inert compared to the benchmark EKs.