My 07' 997 got "tboned" last week by another car going about 45mph. My driver door crunched in as far as the first third of the driver seat yet the airbag did not deploy. I called Porsche N. America and told them the car is not safe and asked them to replace the car. They have been nice so far and have dispatched an engineer to come inspect the car next week. Has anyone else had any experience with this?

 

Damn, were you in the car? Hope all is well. It does sound that if the door went into the cab of the car as far as you say, the bag should have deployed; it sounds like PCNA might have you taken care of, espically if they are sending an engineer... hmmm that just sux really

 

Glad you're OK - tough way to find out if the safety devices work (or don't)> Hope you don't have a modified ECU - they might try to wiggle out from this

 

I was rear ended last August and I was hit at about 20 - 30 mph, I could only imagine the impact of 45 mph. What hit you? I was hit by a garbage truck. Needless to say I no longer have that car.

I hope you are OK.

 

tromero - I'm sorry to hear about that. If you have photos of your car, would you mind posting them? I'm curious to see the structural integrity of our cars upon side impact. (I assume you didn't have aftermarket seats that would cause the side airbags to deactivate.)

 

I'm okay, but had the other driver been driving something larger than a saturn coupe that would have been the end of me for sure. I can tell you all that the driver door glass shattered in my face, it was as if someone took a handful of broken auto glass and threw it in your face as hard as they could. All in all, the car held up pretty well considering the circumstances. It does suck because the car was always spotless and now there are bits of broken glass everywhere which I will never fully get out and the carpets are all dusty in places I can't reach. I don't even want the car anymore. The way I see it, Porsche has no choice but to replace the car. If my car was defective, I surely wouldn't trust it again no matter who tells me it's okay, if it is an engineering defect affected all the cars, then they have a huge problem. I do indeed have pictures and will be posting them.

 

I hope I did this right.

 

Wow! It held up very nicely! Any more news from porsche?

 

The car holds up quite well. I saw a Cooper S hit a around this speed (I assumed), it was totaled - side and curtain airbags came out and the whole frame is bent ! Luck you - you must been doing many good deeds in the past to survive such an accident !!

 

The impact appears to be rather low. Considering that you're relatively okay, I'm not sure if the side airbag would have made a difference in that impact.
Here is one of many medical abstracts on the topic:
Lateral impact injuries with side airbag deployments—A descriptive study

Narayan Yoganandan, a, , Frank A. Pintara, Jiangyue Zhanga and Thomas A. Gennarellia
aDepartment of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, VA Medical Center, Milwaukee, WI, United States
Received 26 September 2005; revised 13 April 2006; accepted 24 May 2006. Available online 14 August 2006.


Abstract

The present study was designed to provide descriptive data on side impact injuries in vehicles equipped with side airbags using the United States National Automotive Sampling System (NASS). The database was queried with the constraint that all vehicles must adhere to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards FMVSS 214, injured occupants be in the front outboard seats with no rollovers or ejections, and side impacts airbags be deployed in lateral crashes. Out of the 7812 crashes in the 1997–2004 weighted NASS files, AIS ≥ 2 level injuries occurred to 5071 occupants. There were 3828 cases of torso-only airbags, 955 cases of torso–head bag combination, and 288 inflatable tubular structure/curtain systems. Side airbags were not attributed to be the cause of head or chest injury to any occupant at this level of severity. The predominance of torso-only airbags followed by torso–head airbag combination reflected vehicle model years and changing technology. Head and chest injuries were coupled for the vast majority of occupants with injuries to more than one body region. Comparing literature data for side impacts without side airbag deployments, the presence of a side airbag decreased AIS = 2 head, chest, and extremity injuries when examining raw data incidence rates. Although this is the first study to adopt strict inclusion–exclusion criteria for side crashes with side airbag deployments, future studies are needed to assess side airbag efficacy using datasets such as matched-pair occupants in side impacts.

 

Huh? Abstract is right. Can you summarize?
If nothing else, I wonder if the side airbags had deployed if it would have shielded the driver from the flying glass from the side window?

 

that is what the curtain isdesigned for, do our cars have the curtain?

 

The engineer from P. of N. America will see the car Tuesday. A decision should follow shortly after. Has anyone had any dealings with P. North America so I might get an idea what the liklihood will be that they replace the car?

 

You are right, I'm sure hardtop 997 has curtain airbag. Do convertibles have them ?

 

My guess is it will be a "fix it" not "replace it". We'll all be anxious to hear how you come out on this. Good luck.