Despite the age of an E30 I feel incredibly safe in my 1988 325is. November 2007 I was hit on the passenger side by a guy in a 96 or 97 Ford Escort at approximately 35-40 mph when he decided it was a too much a bother for him to stop at the sign. Anyways the assailiant, all bystanders and I were all unharmed. My car needed a new passenger door after the incident which is more than could be said for the Ford; totalled since the front of the car completely folded like a cheap suit. The owner of the body shop laughed when I recounted this story to him and agreed to what I think has already been said here; these cars are built like tanks.
If you mean better than no restraint at all, then you're right. Otherwise, you're wrong. Wear your seat belts and you will have no need for an airbag. In fact, the odds are you'll be hurt worse by the bag exploding in your face or burning your hands & wrists. Or maybe you'll be lucky enough to have your arm across the wheel (where it doesn't belong) so you can break your nose with your forearm. Put your hands inside the wheel so your wrists can be broken when it goes off. One of the reasons I continue to drive the E28 is that almost none of them ever had airbags. Airbags blow - on a number of levels. What this discussion has virtually ignored is active safety. Concentrating on passive safety is like wearing blinders. It is assuming you will crash and, like looking at the wrong place in a corner, if you assume you'll crash, you probably will. OTOH, our club driving schools give you the tools to take advantage of any BMW's active safety features: handling and brakes. Yeah; you could surround yourself with airbags in a Chevy Aveo if you want. Then you can go ahead and crash feeling smugly 'safe'. I'd rather have the observation skills and the ability to drive around all the potential crash opportunities out there and, honestly, I have. There have been dozens of times that I was in a position where many, if not most, people would have crashed their cars because either their car didn't have the capability, or they didn't know how to use that capability, not to crash. But I didn't crash. Call them 'close calls' or "How the hell did you do that?" Training and experience will save you a lot more times than an airbag or a sturdy roof. Ah; and before you go speculating on my fertility or lack thereof, look closely at my avatar. There in the right seat (with no airbag staring her in the face) is my 10-y-o daughter, Claire, going through Turn Six at Road America with her dad.
Completely agreed. I can't stand that certain things are now mandatory in new cars, such as airbags. Leave it as an option; airbags aren't the primary concern. It's idiotic drivers, and yet people who fail to signal when pulling out or turning, and people who drive with their cell phones right next to a cop (and the cop not caring), it's people like these that are the problem, and quite honestly, should be taken out of the gene pool in my opinion. It especially boils my blood when I see people sitting three inches from the steering wheel. They're almost guaranteed to have some kind of serious injury if that airbag goes off. And don't get me started on those who drive with one hand at 12 on the wheel. There's no way in h*ll they'll be able to control the car should they have to swerve. As long as you the driver have the proper training, you can avoid almost any accident, with the exception of getting rear-ended by some idiot who wasn't paying attention, but getting rear ended usually doesn't end up in anything more than some whiplash. E30's feel like they're built solid and properly. But the real reason why I would take an E30 over any new car today is because of its maneuverability. I've avoided countless accidents all due to how well this car reacts to my inputs. I'll take my lower weight and great agility over an airbag any way. As long as I get to keep my seatbelts, of course.
E30 safety. . . and airbags Airbags, schmairbags. I maintain that Ralph Nader and that @#$$%! whose name I forget who shoved airbags down our throats thirty years ago should be jailed for manslaughter. They KNEW---they admit it!---that seat belts (and shoulder harnesses) were safer, but they didn't believe they would ever get over 20% compliance---so they pushed and pushed to mandate airbags, and now we can't get rid of the damn things. Worse, they have people believing that the airbag is a safety feature. Buckle up. If you're paranoid about it, use an aftermarket four-point harness. Stay where you're seated in an E30 and you will survive an amazing array of incidents. Tank indeed. It's DOA for Bambi, however.
AMEN!!!! When I was a wee tike in the late 70s I rode on a pillow in between the front seats of my parents 67 200D. I survived, the car survived too!! GR
I agree that airbags do much more harm than good. If only legislators (and the Naders of the world) spent half as much time and energy promoting better/safer driving skills among the driving population, the number of accidents might fall and the (flawed) logic behind airbags would lose its steam and perhaps we would be free of them finally. Such a turn of events could also convince BMW to finally produce a sub 3,000 pound car that really does feel like a latter day E30.
