Hey, I've been reading a lot of car reviews, including the 1989 Maxima, and it got me thinking: Why did cars stop having automatic seatbelts? I really like mine because I'm a dumbass and don't normally put my seatbelt on in cars (absent minded?) and in my car, I don't have to. It seems like they're a pretty good invention, but you never see them on any cars from the mid 90's on.. does anyone know why? Also, which is faster, a 1994 se or a 1995 se? That is, VE, or the first VQs? I noticed they're both 190 hp..

 

my autoseatbelts almost killed me today when I leaned in my window and closed the door.....damn auto belts, but yeah they were an interesting innovation!

but 95-99 SEs have 190hp and 200ft(205??) of torque while the 92-94 SEs had 190hp and 190ft of torque...the 4th gen autos tend to be a few milliseconds faster than the VE autos, I think its a throwup between the 5spds though...

 

They stopped makin them because people would think it was safe enough to have just the auto belt and no lap belt! When I totaled my max I had just the auto belt on and I came out of it with just glass in my eye.

 

Ouch! Yes, I must say, I don't wear my lapbelt still.. up to this instant at least.

 

one reason they discontinued the auto seatbelts is because people would think they had enough protection wiht just the auto shoulder belt

there were many cases though of people not wearing the lapbelt, getting in an accident and get decapitated

 

Back in the late 80s, early 90's, the Fed Govvamint req'd all mfg's to have some form of "passive restraint system" for at least the driver and, later, for the front passenger. This meant that drivers were protected passively, that is, whether or not they took any "active" role in their own protection.

At that time, air bags were still pretty rare/pricey/unknown, so many mfg's took the step of the auto-belts.

Two things happened to change that: air bags became less pricey and less of an "unknown" for both the mfg's and the buying public and studies indicated that shoulder belts only (such as with auto-belts) were less than optimum in a crash, as compared with lap & shoulder combos, or even lap belts alone and that many folks would get in their cars, have the auto-belts cinch up, and think they were protected and not bother with the lap belts. This didn't really satisfy the Gov's spirit of the law: passive protection.

Eventually, the cars pretty much evolved to what we have now: dual airbags and non-automatic seatbelts.

I think that about summarizes it.....

Kirk

 

I think that about summarizes it.....

Kirk [/B][/QUOTE]

Uhhh, yeah, I don't think it's physically possible to add to that..

 

Isn't that what happened to Nikki Taylor? I remember seeing photos of the car she was riding in ('93 GXE), and it didn't look that bad. She nearly died of internal injuries, though...

 

It was the way the car got hit!! The seatbelts had little or nothing to do with the incident.

DA-MAX: The 95-96 5 speed 4th gens are faster than the 3rd gen 5 speeds. Although it's not by much I still recommend the 93 or 94 SE VE Maxes. Better quality!!

 

I thought I saw a photo of the car kissing a telephone pole...