The 2013 Dodge Dart

[wawa1992]

Originally Posted by GnomadAK

"Even if the Dart is a great car (which it isn't, it's going to have major reliability issues, I see a Neon II here) I would still never sit behind that driver deathbag. Seriously, Dodge, make the &#^$ing airbag smaller. Maybe Dodge should start buying airbags from other companies. GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, VW, Hyundai, Kia... all have this driver airbag thing down by now."

Ahem... "The Dart gets top five-star results in both frontal and side impact--even in the new side pole test--from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). And the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has rated the Dart 'good' in all of its test categories--and a Top Safety Pick. The company notes that the car's frame uses 68 percent high-strength steels in several different grades."

Here's a close up view. That driver airbag in the Dart is not fully inflated, it hasn't assumed its rounded inflated shape yet. I used a 2005 Honda Odyssey - the later years of this generation of Odyssey were a Top Safety Pick, using the same frontal crash test - as a comparison. Notice the Odyssey's airbag, at maximum extent, will not touch the sensitive face. The chest - with its protective rib cage - can take airbag impact a lot better than the face can. The Dart's airbag is quite significantly deformed around the face, with fabric as deep as the mid-cheek, indicating the inflating bag would have still had 2-3 inches to go had the face not been in the way.

The airbag is not supposed to hit the face while inflated. It's supposed to fully inflate and then the head "fall" into the inflated airbag. At no point should there be contact between the head and airbag until it has attained its fully inflated, circle-shaped, rounded configuration. It should look like an inflated pancake when the head first hits it.

If the image don't show, here it is in a link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmyyy...in/photostream