Air Bags

You look fat in that. Of course I'll be late. Your baby reminds me of Gollum's uncle. This is what the 2013 Subaru BRZ might say if it could talk. The all-new, rear-wheel-drive sports car starts at $26,265, and boy is it honest - perhaps more so than any other car on the market today, save for its mechanical twin, the Scion FR-S. The two were jointly developed by Subaru and Scion's parent company, Toyota, with both assembled by Subaru in Japan. The question about the BRZ is, can you handle the honesty?

"The Avengers," as you may have heard, is the biggest thing to happen to America since World War II but, you know, louder and more troubling. At the end of the matinee I witnessed, audience members actually cheered, believing what they'd just seen was some sort of documentary. Manhattan had been saved, which is almost always a cause for celebration, though I met this one New Yorker the other day at the rent-a-car place: swaggery young Italian guy, you know the type. The New Yorker said he didn't like L.A. because "ders nuttin' to do hair," which translates roughly into "there is nothing to do here.

In 2008, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a study examining fatal accidents in which a car's air bag should have deployed but didn't. The most common reason wasn't poor manufacturing by automakers. It was that the air bag was simply missing, never replaced after a previous crash. The numbers weren't large, averaging 51 accidents a year nationwide over the five years studied. But that doesn't mean there's no cause for concern. Who knows how many more cars are on the road without air bags?

The gig: Rosemary Shahan is the founder and president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS). The Sacramento organization has been the driver of some of the most important advances in auto-related safety and financial protection regulation on the books today. Shahan, 62, championed the nation's first lemon law in California, which has since been copied in every state. She was a major force behind the federal air bag mandate and laws protecting military service members from abusive car loans.

Recently we have heard government officials testify that air bags save many more people than they kill. I've not heard, however, an answer to the following question. Do air bags indeed save more people who are also belted with lap and shoulder harnesses? Most of what seems to have been said concerns saving unbelted drivers and passengers. If indeed air bags are not saving people who are adequately belted, then should we not stress education about seat belts instead of creating expensive "smart" air bags?

One important fact was missing in your Jan. 8 articles on air bags ("Green Light for Air Bags" and "Accidental Air Bag Inflation Unlikely"). Once the bags have been activated, they cannot be reused. They must be replaced at a cost of about $150 each, plus installation, and it is unsafe to drive the car until the bags are replaced. DAVID WALKER Laguna Hills

Americans have taken air bags to their bosoms. Also to their heads and other upper-body parts that were once the first to bash against steering wheels and windshields in front-end crashes. A study for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that there are 28% fewer fatalities in cars equipped with air bags. There's also a 29% reduction in injuries and a 24% drop in hospital time.

Sometimes you just gotta wonder. Federal regulators have been calling on the auto industry for years to help reduce accidents by installing rearview cameras on vehicles. Yet an official rule requiring such technology on new cars and trucks keeps getting postponed. In January, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Congress he expected his department to issue the requirement by Feb. 29. Now he says it probably won't come until the end of the year. "Further study and data analysis -- including of a wider range of vehicles and drivers -- is important to ensure the most protective and efficient rule possible," LaHood said.

Kia Motors America will recall almost 150,000 older Optima sedans and Rondo crossover vehicles because of a defect that could prevent the driver's side air bag from deploying in a collision, the company said. The South Korean automaker said the recall covers 2006 to 2008 Optimas and Rondos from the 2007 and 2008 model years. The company no longer sells the Rondo. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the clock-spring assembly used in the air-bag system can become damaged over time and prevent the air bag from deploying.

Imagine this nightmarish possibility: Al Qaeda terrorists cause thousands of motorists racing down a freeway during the morning commute to suddenly lose their brakes, leading to chaos, death and destruction. Implausible? Maybe not, some experts warn. As cars and trucks have become laden with brainy devices to control such features as air bags and crash-avoidance systems, the vehicles have become increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks, according to recent studies by university researchers and security companies.

Honda Motor Co. plans to recall 273,000 Honda and Acura vehicles because of an air bag problem that can kill drivers. It also will inspect an additional 603,000 vehicles to see whether the same defective parts were used in repairing autos that have been in accidents. Honda said it doesn't know how many of those vehicles might have been repaired with the defective parts. In the recalled vehicles, from the 2001 through 2003 model years, the driver's side air bag can deploy with too much force in an accident, causing a metal inflator casing — the part that holds and channels explosive propellant — to rupture.

When Hussein Khafaji opened his Chrysler showroom here three years ago, the American cars had a tough time competing in a market flooded with cheap Korean, Iranian and Chinese imports. But people still fondly remembered the Chryslers last sold decades ago: Iraqis called the model the Abu Alaiwi, after the salesman who had brought it to Baghdad in the 1960s. Khafaji had more than nostalgia on his side, however. His ace in the hole was the name he came up with for his 300C series several months later: "the Obama.

In 2008, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a study examining fatal accidents in which a car's air bag should have deployed but didn't. The most common reason wasn't poor manufacturing by automakers. It was that the air bag was simply missing, never replaced after a previous crash. The numbers weren't large, averaging 51 accidents a year nationwide over the five years studied. But that doesn't mean there's no cause for concern. Who knows how many more cars are on the road without air bags?

If you’re into tricky maneuvers and soft landings, give Mountain High  a try this weekend. The Wrightwood ski resort , about 90 minutes from Los Angeles, is testing out a giant air bag in its terrain park, with hopes of purchasing one next season. Jumps using the air bag cost extra: $5 for two jumps, $10 for five jumps, $25 for 15 jumps. You can split the jumps across both weekend days. For instance, if you bought five jumps, you could use two Saturday and the remaining three Sunday.

The Supreme Court reversed course and ruled that the nation's automakers can be sued for failing to install the most-effective safety equipment in their vehicles. The unanimous decision Wednesday clears the way for a California man to sue Mazda Motor Corp. because his family's 1993 minivan did not have a lap and shoulder belt in a middle rear seat. His wife, Thanh Williamson, was sitting in that rear seat wearing just a lap belt when their car was struck head-on on a Utah highway.