jsal

When ordering my 2004, since my kids were small, I was advised not to get them or to have them disabled. Actually I do recall my salesman saying the rear airbags where disabled initially.

Also, with the ability to enable/disable, I would make sure anytime you have software upgrades that they do not get enabled unless you want them to.

Rudy

As I said in the thread I linked to earlier, my opinion differs from many of the posters here. Although it's clear that rear airbags can harm children, the point that seems to be missed is that they can only harm children if they are leaning/sleeping up against them.

If the child is properly restrained and not sleeping against the door, the airbags are safe for them. I opted to have mine activated because the back seats of my car get used by both adults and children. When the children sit there, they are properly restrained and are never up against the doors. That's something I make sure of.

I felt if I had the bags deactivated, I'd be sacrificing the safety of both adults and properly restrained children so I felt it was the better decision to have them activated. I am quite diligent to make sure that no child is in a dangerous position in case of an airbag deployment.

Obviously, there is a risk associated with either decision -- activated or deactivated...

pinguhk

in my car I have airbag and isofix too.

ImolaRedM

I'm not sure about this. Not to mention, a properly installed infant or rear/forward seat will put a lot of pressure on the rear seat even without a child in it. Booster seats would be another story but there are other dangers with airbags with this age group. If you have rear door air bags get them turned off at the dealer before installing rear child seats if you're worried.

cobradav

I did not check to see if any of the threads that Rudy posted had this info but thought it might be appropriate here:

SI B 72 24 06
Safety Restraint Systems October 2006
Technical Service

This Service Information bulletin supersedes S.M. B72 206 03 dated November 2003.

SUBJECT
Rear Side Airbags Come Activated

MODEL
E60 (5 Series) from start of production

E83 (X3) from start of production

E65, E66 (7 Series) since September 2003

E53 (X5) since October 2003

E46 (3 Series) since September/October 2003

SITUATION
New vehicles with option code 261 (rear seat side-impact airbag) have rear side airbags activated.

CAUSE
Vehicles with option code 261 (rear seat side-impact airbag) will no longer be shipped with deactivated rear side airbags.

PROCEDURE
The rear side airbags do not need to be activated any longer before delivery.

For customers requesting deactivated rear side airbags the procedure in SI B72 03 99 is unchanged.

The SI will be updated to address this topic.