buddman

Hello everyone. First post. I have just found this forum and been reading various posts for the past few hours. It?s really excellent. Like many of you, my company car is up for renewal and I am planning to ditch my Audi and get a 520d.

Based on company allowance, I?ve opted for SE in black with beige cloth interior, HI-Fi stereo, sunroof, Xenons in Visibility package, de chrome, tinted windscreen, rear and side sun blinds, and rear airbags. Planning to put the order in this week.

The blinds and rear airbags were on account of my 2-year-old son. There seems to be some controversy on the rear air bags with respect to children, and I?ve read many of your posts. Am I correct to assume that if I have the car for the next 3 years, my son will be in a car seat the whole time and I can safely assume that he will not be resting on the doors, thus avoiding this rear airbag safety issue?

I read that some of you recommend putting the child sear in the middle of the rear of the car. I had a 520 on demo for a few days this week and I?m not sure this is possible. The centre of the seat has a bit of a hump, so a car seat would not sit flat. Also, are there only isofix attachments for the left or the right sides, and not the centre?

Should I just not get rear airbags? I am always reluctant to not choose safety options when they are available.

Can I get you thoughts on the rear air back assuming the child is in a car seat, and not leaning on the doors, and secondly, the practical ability to put a car seat in the centre of the back seats?

As a minor additional question, I notice in the brochure that since I?ve chosen a beige interior, the sunblinds are beige rather than black. Does these look daft from the outside?

Thanks - Buddman

BaranE

You should get them if there is a accident no matter what they'll help btw what about Nav, comfort seats HUD and dynamic drive(with AS)

buddman

All good options but beyond the company budget!

Rudy

As you probably read in my other posts on this subject, I believe that as long as the child isn't resting on the door, there isn't a significant risk with the rear airbags. My thoughts are that the airbag is more likely to help in just about every other scenario so I have mine activated. My kids aren't in my car that often (that's what the minivan is for) and when they are, they're not usually sleeping, etc.

Other times (again, not too often) there may be an adult riding in the back -- I wouldn't want to jeapordize the safety of any adults if there was an impact and the bags were deactivated.

So, to summarize, I say get the bags, activate them, and just make sure your kids are properly restrained and not leaning on the door.

Also, I agree that the middle position of the rear seat doesn't support a car seat or booster very well because of the hump.

chris.y

Hello, and welcome to the forum!

On this issue, while I respect Rudy's opinion (and have read many of his posts on this subject), I have decided to deactivate my rear airbags. My small kids are back there much more often than adult passengers. Sometimes they're in the car for 1-2 hours. My 4 year old daughter is now in a booster seat instead of a car seat, which means that she has a lot of freedom to lean back and forth and is no longer protected from the side like she would have been in a baby/toddler car seat.

I think it's possible to tell the kids not to lean on the doors, but that's just another thing I didn't want to have to worry about.

Rudy

Clearly there is no right or wrong answer here. Each individual has to weigh all these factors to come up with a decision that they're comfortable with. I'd probably agree with chris.y if I didn't want to worry about keeping them off of doors, etc. but for me, it hasn't been a problem. I've had rear airbags in my last three 5-series cars and I can think of only one time when my kid fell asleep and started to lean toward the door. I simply nudged him away from the door and everything was fine.

One other thing to keep in mind is that these rear bags are not very large and don't inflate with as much force as the front bags. As the child gets older/larger, I feel that there is less and less risk of them being injured from the deployment (as long as their head isn't resting directly on the door.)

ScottishBimmer

Hang on! Is putting a child seat in the rear of the car with airbags a good idea? Wont the airbags hurtle the child seat into the middle of the car? IMHO it is as dangerous as putting a child seat in the front with an airbag as the child seat is easily pushed by the airbag. Just a thought.

Rudy

The side airbags in the doors do not inflate out very far. They won't hurtle anything unless something is making contact with the door.

Here's a quote from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's (IIHS) airbag FAQ:

Here's a link to the entire airbag FAQ:
http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/airbags.html

Also, in support of my opinion on leaving the bags activated, here's another quote from the IIHS FAQ:

It seems that we should be worrying about whether or not our kids are leaning against the doors...

Also, according to the Buying a Safer Car document (linked in above quote) it seems that the 5-series has successfully completed the voluntary "Side-Impact Out of Position Tests" that the NTSA has prescibed for manufacturers to follow.

buddman

Regarding a childs ability to lean about in a booster seat, at least here in the UK, BMW packages the rear airbags with seatbelt pre-tensioners. I was hoping that the pre-tensioners would lock the kid into the booster seat a bit more to prevent this wandering about

Thoughts

Rudy

Timestamp bump due to significant edit of my last post...