Airbag deactivation device - Porsche rip-off?
Discussion
I will be fitting a front baby seat to my GT3 (with the fixed back Recaros) and investigated the airbag deactivation device. Here's the cost according to AFN in Guildford:
Deactivation device: about 75 plus vat
Labour to fit it (half an hour): about 93 plus vat (WHAT?!!!)
Booster seat: about 88 plus vat (another WHAT?!!!)
Given that the deactivation device only works with Porsche's own seats (they need to connect to the seatbelt appendage protruding out of the bottom of the baby seat), this is a cool way for Porsche to make ridiculous amounts of money.
Does anyone know if the red seat belt protruding out of the bottom can simply be cut off (I have another Porsche baby seat) and connected to the deactivation device, allowing me to use a normal booster seat instead of a Porsche own brand (which IMO are rubbish anyway).
Labour charge is about the cost of a good (though medium grade) City lawyer. Outrageous.
Deactivation device: about 75 plus vat
Labour to fit it (half an hour): about 93 plus vat (WHAT?!!!)
Booster seat: about 88 plus vat (another WHAT?!!!)
Given that the deactivation device only works with Porsche's own seats (they need to connect to the seatbelt appendage protruding out of the bottom of the baby seat), this is a cool way for Porsche to make ridiculous amounts of money.
Does anyone know if the red seat belt protruding out of the bottom can simply be cut off (I have another Porsche baby seat) and connected to the deactivation device, allowing me to use a normal booster seat instead of a Porsche own brand (which IMO are rubbish anyway).
Labour charge is about the cost of a good (though medium grade) City lawyer. Outrageous.
Personaly, I think that passenger airbags are a right rip off.
You really should be able to get a sizeable discount to delete them, as it does indeed save considerabe money to the manufacturer.
The concept of paying for something and then paying again to stop it working is just wrong.
Having been involved in a good deal of crash worthiness, restraint and seat development, a passenger bag really doesn't do much to help, providing the occupant is sitting a decent way back to start with.
Case in point - do race cars have expensive balloons?
You really should be able to get a sizeable discount to delete them, as it does indeed save considerabe money to the manufacturer.
The concept of paying for something and then paying again to stop it working is just wrong.
Having been involved in a good deal of crash worthiness, restraint and seat development, a passenger bag really doesn't do much to help, providing the occupant is sitting a decent way back to start with.
Case in point - do race cars have expensive balloons?
Harris_I said:
I will be fitting a front baby seat to my GT3 (with the fixed back Recaros) and investigated the airbag deactivation device. Here's the cost according to AFN in Guildford:
Deactivation device: about 75 plus vat
Labour to fit it (half an hour): about 93 plus vat (WHAT?!!!)
Booster seat: about 88 plus vat (another WHAT?!!!)
Given that the deactivation device only works with Porsche's own seats (they need to connect to the seatbelt appendage protruding out of the bottom of the baby seat), this is a cool way for Porsche to make ridiculous amounts of money.
Does anyone know if the red seat belt protruding out of the bottom can simply be cut off (I have another Porsche baby seat) and connected to the deactivation device, allowing me to use a normal booster seat instead of a Porsche own brand (which IMO are rubbish anyway).
Labour charge is about the cost of a good (though medium grade) City lawyer. Outrageous.
tightwad, anybody that would buy a Gt3 and then harp on about £70 for a kiddie seat has an odd set of priorities
Bennno
bennno said:
tightwad, anybody that would buy a Gt3 and then harp on about £70 for a kiddie seat has an odd set of priorities
Bennno
I would have a gripe more about buying a car that's supposed to be the pinnacle of automotive engineering, but needs an additional part in order to make it safe.
Bennno[/quote]
I would have a gripe more about buying a car that's supposed to be the pinnacle of automotive engineering, but needs an additional part in order to make it safe.[/quote]
Pinnacle of motoring, not comfy old leather arm chair......
I think the same, it's a small cost, and the OPC obviuosly reckon on a GT owner having enough of the folding.
K.
agent006 said:
tightwad, anybody that would buy a Gt3 and then harp on about £70 for a kiddie seat has an odd set of priorities
Bennno
I would have a gripe more about buying a car that's supposed to be the pinnacle of automotive engineering, but needs an additional part in order to make it safe.
its not a part to make it safe its a switchable air bag deactivation device. Its quite cheap, BMW charge £500 to disable the air bag and mercedes whom have inteligent auto sensing functionality - charge £200 for a suitable seat.
Worth checking the seat in the gt3 buckets as it might not fit.
Bennno
Harris_I said:
Does anyone know if the red seat belt protruding out of the bottom can simply be cut off.
If you're talking about the seatbelt type thingy dangling out of a Prince seat then I suspect than you can just attach the strap and buckle to another seat. How else does the car know the bag is deactivated? Airbag must be deactivated by some kind of sensor in the female half of the buckle or detecting pulling up of the bar that it's attached to. Should mean it would be safe to attach to another seat/booster as it's not carrying load.
Wouldn't like to test it though
I know Prince car seats look a bit shit compared with the all singing/dancing seats you can buy for a saloon. However the principal function of any child seat is to prevent kids flying out of the car under sudden decleration. I suspect in most accidents they're as safe as anything else.
You probably need some kind of velcro patch on the back of your childs head to prevent repeated trauma following acceleration in a GT3
If you think seat belt deactivators are a rip off then see what they charge for the seat belt extensions for that extra 3" of belt needed to fit the Prince seats in the back of a 993.
>> Edited by oddman on Saturday 24th July 22:25
I had the device fitted to my GT3, then moved it to my Cab. Any seatbelt clip (male) operates it; I took the one off the front strap of our Porsche baby seat and use it to deactivate the bag when madam is installed in her (much more comfortable) non-Porsche baby seat.
A useful fringe benefit is that you can use the same clip to turn off the annoying seatbelt warning beep (by plugging it into your own seatbelt) when tooling around the paddock or reversing.
You know it's working because an airbag warning light flashes up on the dash for a minute or so when you start the car with the disabling clip in place.
A useful fringe benefit is that you can use the same clip to turn off the annoying seatbelt warning beep (by plugging it into your own seatbelt) when tooling around the paddock or reversing.
You know it's working because an airbag warning light flashes up on the dash for a minute or so when you start the car with the disabling clip in place.
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