airbags - brochure not that clear

[jcb]

in teh A4 brochure it is not clear on how many airbags the car has !!! it doesnt actually say anywhere that it has driver a passenger front airbags !!! i know it does but hter is kind of an assuption made there !!
it does say forn side airbags and i know rear side airbags are a cost option. does it have curtain airbags ?

to be honest there is not real seciton on safety in the brochure which is odd - its always been a fialing of audi in my eyes. the A6 brochure is the same. look at other manufacturers and they have whole sections explaining the safety features of the car. infact if you dont know what esp is there is not explanation !! poor show audi !

[two_paracetamol]

It does have curtain airbags. You can see them working in the videos on the Euro NCAP website if you like. The car scored 5 stars for occupant protection and the videos will appeal to crash test dummies everywhere!!!

[jcb]

thats really odd how they dont publisise this in the brochure. i was looking at another manufacturer's brochure and they have pics of all the sirbags and lots of info about safety. in my A6 brochure it list sideguard head protection in the spec list but the A4 brochure doesnt. I thought it was odd that it didnt apear to have them !!

wondering whether to spend £250 on rear side airbags now ?

[B6Andy101]

I've speced them. Its one of those things that for £250 quid you might really regret if the worst happens. :yikes:

[jcb]

I was wondering if there was any research to show if they are better / worse in an accident for small kids in the back in kiddie seats ?

[ryan427]

Went through the same dilema myself. Read conflicting advice on the internet. Common sense says "why wouldn't you want an additional safety feature". Read another report which said that side rear airbags are only effective if the occupants are correctly restrained, if not they can cause more injury.

Not sure about your situation, but trying to get my three year old to sit properly in the back and not lean against the door, especially when she's tired is a bit of a struggle.

For safety's sake, I chose not to fit side rear airbags !

Just for clarity, she sits in a proper child seat that uses an adult seat belt to restrain her so she has quite a lot of freedom of movement.

The randomness of any accident could make this a damned if you do, damned if you don't type of decision.

Ryan

[tomtom20]

Remember these days, the car only deploys the airbags it feels are needed depending on the angle of the accident and speed. Having a head on will mean the side airbags don't deploy, but have a side on that is more focused to the front and you will get front and side deploy.

If you think about it, most accidents are going to be rear ends, front off or nearside and side impacts as a car is at a junction say (I am being very simplistic here) So I would presume that in most cases, it is the front of the car and the front passenger side area that would get hit more than the rear passenger door area in such accidents.

The inclusion of rear side airbags therefore is a good option, but one that I would not deem personally I need. I think they are of the 'curtain airbag' type which helps the head in a side impact from whatever is crashing into the side of the vehicle. The biggest boon in resent years was the side impact beams in the doors which cover a far wider part of the body.

Well that is my 2 pennies worth and opinions.

[BMWBig6]

I posed a similar question about the rear side airbags on AW a few weeks back. Here is a link to that discussion:

http://forums.audiworld.com/a4b8/msgs/7841.phtml

I eventually decided to not equip my car with the rear side airbags (even though it's a cheap option). My dealer discourages this option for those who plan to transport little children in child seats.

[jcb]

the problem is that the so called professionals who advise you talk a load of BS !! we recently bought two kiddies seats from halfords and the guy who sold them (who told us that he has been on all the training) said we must ruch to audi and get them to de-activate the side curtain airbags as they could harm the kids of they went off. what a load of Boll**ks !!

tomtom20 - i dont entirely agree with your view. if you look at the crash test videos on the euro NCAP website you can quiet clearly see the side airbags deploying during a full frontal impact . Also i believe the rear airbags are not the curtain type as these are fitted as standard. the rear airnags are mounted in the wings of the rear seat, just like the front side airbags are.

[browellm]

Everything I have heard, including BMW's own literature, suggests NOT to get rear side airbags if you transport kids in dedicated car seats.

[Foringo]

I noticed in the owner's handbook for my A4 that the 'airbag' icon is shown on the B post....mine doesn't have an icon there but it's on the A post instead. I don't know why this is but assume that it must have curtain airbags?

In my opinion Audi advertising brochures are really quite poor....just compare literature supplied by other manufacturer's such as Mercedes...even Citroen for heaven's sake! There are loads of features on my car that aren't mentioned either at all or in enough detail to be useful....in fact just enough to confuse. It's hard to know exactly what you are buying without reference to 3rd party reviews and (excellant) forums such as this. Strange, you would think that the Audi marketing guys would pick up on all of its features to sell the car.