[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.