quattro-digest V4 #1226 -Reply

[JONATHAN COLE <COLE.JONATHAN@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV>]

--> note that Mercedes-Benz, whose stickers also said
10 years at first, now goes with 15 years, including
for those cars with the 10 year stickers.... 


MSV96@aol.com wrote:
Subject: Re: Audi recalls 900,000 cars!! (airbags)

In a message dated 10/14/97 "Sean Ford"
<sean@nwh.org> writes:

> The back of my passenger visor recommends that
my airbag be replaced in >
August of 2001  (10 years from the date of
manufacture). I seem to recall
> that the reason for replacing the airbag after 10
years has to do with the 
> breakdown of the airbag material. Does anyone
know if this is true? I'd
like to > think that this airbag recall is going to buy
me another 6 years of
avoiding
> what I expect will be a very expensive airbag
operation (dealerships say, 
> "cha-ching!").

Ah yes...that "cha-ching" sound AutoWeek and other
enthusiast mags warned us
all of back in the '80's which clued me in that I
didn't want an airbag
equipped car forced upon me. Let's look at resale
values of 10 year old Audis
and compare those numbers to the projected cost of
replacing the bags-o-wind
shall we? I can envision many "totaled" cars in the
future merely because the
cost of airbag replacement exceeds the value of the
car...don't believe me? I
just paid $2950.00 for a 10 year old Audi that cost
over 30k new. While that
was less than half of (retail) KBB, were it to need a
bunch-o-bags-o-wind
replaced...ummm, well, you get the picture. Not a
pretty one either. My .02
(more) worth on a very touchy subject...if you can
get the bags replaced
under recall...BE SURE you get an extension in
writing from AOA for that 10
year replacement period...it will pay off in the future.