New cruiser ute no airbags

Rolande,

That was the problem with my work - they decided not to get the 105 Cruisers as there was no ABS. We went to Nissans but not sure what we'll do when the 4.2T/D finishes production - there were too many complaints about the 3 litre Patrol, hence the 4.2 was used.

I was hoping we'd go to four door troopies - no chance if they don't come out with ABS/Airbags - all part of Occ Health & Safety.

Toyota were contacted - they replied if we wanted ABS & Airbags - buy the GXL!!!

Those meatheads! It will be an OH&S requirement on all light work vehicles in the immediate future. I believe BHP Billiton has it as site rules already and is moving to Hilux's for this reason.

Inbuilt obsolesence perhaps?

No doubt the bean counters have done the sums on those who do & don't need airbags. The biggest inlfuence I'd suggest would have been the cost of a total redesign of the dashboard & front end. It would of been difficult to modify the chassis design to be solid enough to mount a PTO winch on yet crumple like a coke can to set the airbags off without building a complete new car from the ground up.
Personally I look for 4x4's without airbags, ABS, Traction control, Hill desent & seat belt pretentioners & it's surprising to see how many people who do buy cars with these fitted look for a way to turn them off when going serious driving to avoid them opperating when they don't want them to.
I suppose it all comes down to how much cotton wool people need to wrap themselves in to feel safe ;-)
Cheers craig................

Mmmmmm. Very disappointing. I was looking forward to the new ute as my next touring vehicle. I take safety seriously, so consider dual airbags as almost mandatory for a new vehicle these days.

It has nothing to do with research into how the vehicles are used and everything to do with design and construction cost. They plan on sucking every last $ out of the current design. So they miss a few hundred (or few thousand) sales. Means nothing to them in the big scheme of things.

With Nissan dropping the 4.2 and Toyota not providing basic safety equipment, it will be an interesting choice when the time comes.

I thought all vehicles on "Oz" roads had to have at least a driver's airbag??

No? Yes?

Bilbo

I looked on the Toyota website and the 70 series has the following advandced safety features:

Side door anti-intrusion beams

Unfortunately you can't trust other drivers like you trust your LandCruiser. That's why all 78 Series side doors come standard with anti-intrusion beams. All doors contain beams which help protect you and your passengers if you're struck from the side by another vehicle.

Energy absorbing steering column

The 78 Series is designed with driver safety in mind. If you hit something head-on, the steering column is engineered to compress on impact, absorbing much of the force of the collision, and making you much safer.

Door ajar warning

Bumpy road or not, when you're concentrating on the driving, the last thing you want to worry about is whether the kids shut all the doors properly. The 78 Series comes standard with door ajar warning, so you know when they haven't, and you can make it happen.

Looks like it's 40 years ahead of its time, or is that behind. The spin doctors worked overtime on this one.

Wonder what they have to do in Europe ?

Seen some amaziing differences, in vehicles when we were over there in 2003.
Stuff that those Car Company's deny exhist, or can't be done, are done there.
They simply are not allowed to sell them there.

Makes you wonder dosen't it ?

Cheers all
Bucky

Not being a Toyo fan I am seriously looking for a replacement for my Patrol in about 5 to 10 years time. I am most delighted with this news because the V8 troopy/ute has certain appeal to me. I guess if no industry is buying these due to safety cocerns then there will be a fine price.

Kind regards

First, let me say that I do believe in airbags.
I attended a talk on airbags last week and was a bit shocked at the statistics of injuries caused by airbags. An airbag was set off on a test rig for us to observe. The detonator (yes detonator) was electrically fired by battery. They operate in a few milliseconds so other then a very loud bang, a small cloud of smoke and a horrible smell we saw nothing as it was so fast. There are holes in the back of the bags to allow for deflation as a body hits them, this made me think about roll-overs. After one roll the air bag would be deflated and useless. Anyone got any experience of a rollover accident where the airbag inflated ? If so I would like to hear if the bag did any good after the first role.

At the demo a person told me about an accident he was involved in in his Prado where he had a relatively small hit at the front but his rear side windows were blown out with explosive inflation of the airbags. The passenger air bag explodes upwards out of the dash and the dash cover broke the windscreen. If a passenger had hands on the dash (brace for impact) then they would probably have lost there fingers !