[shakestheclown]

I think you are overestimating the time costs of an older, reliable car. I've got a 2003 Honda Civic 200k miles that I've had since it had 13k miles. I'd say it goes to the shop overnight once every 12-18 months for a major issue or something I don't want to deal with, goes to Valvoline for 15 minutes every 3 months or so, drop off at tire store for 2 hrs twice a year, and I maintain things like brakes, spark plugs, radiator fan probably twice a year total 2 hours at a time.

And for tools, you don't need much more than the very basics for most jobs that I would want to deal with.

Now if your car of choice is a 69 chevelle or a Fiero then it's going to be a different story.

[perl4ever]

I can't get it out of my head that I read once that airbags were designed to last ten years. Driving a fifteen year old car seems like having an unexploded munition in my face. At what point is it likely to not work in an accident or to kill you when it does go off? I don't believe it's legal to replace an old steering wheel with a non-airbag one, so there really is no solution that I'm aware of.

I have a 30 year old car, but it doesn't have an airbag.

[shakestheclown]

Looks like there were some concerns with mid-90s and earlier airbags only having a 15 year life, but modern bags are designed to last the life of the vehicle: https://www.edmunds.com/car-safety/do-car-airbags-expire.htm...

The good news about the Takata recall is that 50 million airbags out there either have already been replaced (including mine) or are able to be replaced under the recall.

[perl4ever]

The life of a typical vehicle is 15 years, so saying modern air bags are designed to last the life of a vehicle rather than 15 years doesn't make a falsifiable claim.

The Takata recalls indicate that what specific claims are made about airbag performance are not always accurate, and environmental circumstances and time factor into that.

[shakestheclown]

I don't believe cars are designed for a 15 year span, despite the average lifespan. A number of those are going to reach an early demise due to accidents and improper maintenance. Many of the parts are designed to last 50+ years.

Takata detonated 27,000 airbags and the highest failure rate vehicles had a failure rate of 2.16%. Those were at that time 12-14 year old vehicles with a faulty airbag detonator and still only 2% failure.

Either way, having no airbag in your car is demonstrably less safe than even a faulty, old Takata airbag.

My main point about the Takata recall though was that there are now 50 million used cars out there that have a new airbag system. So you can find a used car covered by the recall and check to see if the airbag has been replaced and if not then get it replaced for free, and then you have the best of both worlds: new airbag and relatively cheap, used car.