The Student Room Group

Examples of good cars without DPF or Airbags?

I want my next car to be a banger, by choice. I don't like the regulations that are coming, like speed limiters & black boxes by 2022 or even the regulations we have now, DPF or Airbags or E-call which tracks your locations and calls the police if you have a crash. I would rather my car went as fast as I like, crash into a pole if I want to and drive off, pollute the air with a reliable diesel engine and be free to run the potential risk of losing my front teeth on the steering wheel or straining my neck from whiplash rather than the certain risk of dislocating my wrists and having an airbag punch me in the face at 200mph.

What sort of car would I be looking to get? ABS and Traction are fine, as long as you can switch them off.
(edited 4 years ago)

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Old 90s Mercedes-Benz cars or JDM cars imported from Japan from the 90s.
Reply 2
Original post by cookingwithgas
I want my next car to be a banger, by choice. I don't like the regulations that are coming, like speed limiters by 2022 or even the regulations we have now, DPF or Airbags or E-call which tracks your locations and calls the police if you have a crash. I would rather my car went as fast as I like, crash into a pole if I want to and drive off, pollute the air with a reliable diesel engine and be free to run the potential risk of losing my front teeth on the steering wheel or straining my neck from whiplash rather than the certain risk of dislocating my wrists and having an airbag punch me in the face at 200mph.

What sort of car would I be looking to get? ABS and Traction are fine, as long as you can switch them off.

You don't want... *checks notes*... airbags?????
Would you prefer a car without seatbelts too?

I think it would be extremely difficult to find a reliable diesel with no airbags at a reasonable price. Due to the age and rubber perishing and steel rusting.

Finding a cheap reliable diesel with airbags and no DPF is easy. Just go for pre 2005 cars.
Reply 4
Original post by cookingwithgas
I want my next car to be a banger, by choice. I don't like the regulations that are coming, like speed limiters by 2022 or even the regulations we have now, DPF or Airbags or E-call which tracks your locations and calls the police if you have a crash. I would rather my car went as fast as I like, crash into a pole if I want to and drive off, pollute the air with a reliable diesel engine and be free to run the potential risk of losing my front teeth on the steering wheel or straining my neck from whiplash rather than the certain risk of dislocating my wrists and having an airbag punch me in the face at 200mph.

What sort of car would I be looking to get? ABS and Traction are fine, as long as you can switch them off.


you sound like the best candidate for driver's safety test department of Volvo.
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by IWMTom
You don't want... *checks notes*... airbags?????


Nope, why do I want something that will punch me in the face at 200mph? Its uncertain that I'll be injured without airbags, but certain that I'll sustain injuries to my face, hands, wrists and chest.

I would rather take the chance that I could be completely uninjured, than the chance I will certainly be injured.
With the damage you're looking to cause yourself and others, I'd suggest driving a nuclear bomb? Opinions?
Reply 7
Original post by cookingwithgas
Nope, why do I want something that will punch me in the face at 200mph? Its uncertain that I'll be injured without airbags, but certain that I'll sustain injuries to my face, hands, wrists and chest.

I would rather take the chance that I could be completely uninjured, than the chance I will certainly be injured.

Here's hoping you're not driving on UK roads!
Original post by IWMTom
Here's hoping you're not driving on UK roads!

Mph, talk of speed limits, regulations. Good English. Probably UK roads.
Reply 9
Original post by iforgotmylogin
Mph, talk of speed limits, regulations. Good English. Probably UK roads.

Coming soon to a ditch near you... the OP.
Original post by cookingwithgas
Nope, why do I want something that will punch me in the face at 200mph? Its uncertain that I'll be injured without airbags, but certain that I'll sustain injuries to my face, hands, wrists and chest.

I would rather take the chance that I could be completely uninjured, than the chance I will certainly be injured.

You are really going half-measures with this approach. By driving without a seatbelt there is a good chance you will be thrown clear of any crash, thus avoiding any secondary impacts. That'll really show the nanny state what for.
No DPF, fair enough. I try to avoid them myself because of the costs involved when they go wrong (especially on the older cars I like). Avoiding airbags is idiotic though. Airbags allow you to walk away from an accident that would otherwise cripple or kill you.

All the fun diesels come after the introduction of airbags unfortunately. There are some good diesels pre airbags but they're not particularly quick. You might be able to find a very early mk3 golf with the fully mechanical TD engine (pre TDI) with no airbags, but 90bhp was what you got. You could probably crank the mechanical fuel pump up a bit to give it a bit more go but 100-105bhp would probably be your absolute limit. Even later mk3s are getting hard to find now, let alone early ones, and all the later ones had at least dual airbags. You can pick up an older Audi C5 A6 or B5.5 Passat with a PD130 TDI and map it up to near 200bhp and have a fun, quick, luxo-barge without having to worry about DPFs, but they'll all have four or more airbags.
(edited 4 years ago)
Buy my dad's defender, it's L reg and has no air bags, no rear seatbelts, no ABS, no DPF and you might even like... no steering lock!
Still a few Morris Minors about with no seat belts and flappy turn signals - They don't go very fast but they do have weak brakes and a rock hard steering wheel so tooth loss (at the least) is virtually assured
Original post by Admit-One
You are really going half-measures with this approach. By driving without a seatbelt there is a good chance you will be thrown clear of any crash, thus avoiding any secondary impacts. That'll really show the nanny state what for.

The reality was that before seatbelts were fitted only a very few were thrown from the vehicle... and most of those that did was because they were also driving cars without roofs on too, the most common thing was any front seat occupants hit their own windscreen or dashboard causing severe injuries or death and the rear seat occupants either being thrown into those in front or again through to hit the front windscreen.
Original post by Anonnorth
The reality was that before seatbelts were fitted only a very few were thrown from the vehicle... and most of those that did was because they were also driving cars without roofs on too, the most common thing was any front seat occupants hit their own windscreen or dashboard causing severe injuries or death and the rear seat occupants either being thrown into those in front or again through to hit the front windscreen.

Ahh, you've not been to LiveLeak yet then. There are countless videos of car crashes from developing countries where seatbelts aren't really a thing, where the cars get into a barrel roll and the occupants are ejected like rag dolls and either flung high up into the air, or thrown straight into the ground before the vehicle then rolls over them. And there's a video on YouTube of crashes on the Nürburgring from the 70's and the number of ejections is almost hilarious.
Reply 16
You do know you can remove airbags in a car?
Reply 17
Original post by iMZee
You do know you can remove airbags in a car?

Insurers won't cover it.
Reply 18
Original post by IWMTom
Insurers won't cover it.

Ah, for some reason thought this use case would be for track use in which many cars have some if not all airbags removed.
Original post by Admit-One
You are really going half-measures with this approach. By driving without a seatbelt there is a good chance you will be thrown clear of any crash, thus avoiding any secondary impacts. That'll really show the nanny state what for.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4349845/

look at that again and tell me you feel so much safer with airbags.

in fact, one of the reason why I started looking into airbags after a random conversion with one of the neighbours. she had to have reconstructive facial surgery after a car crash where the doctors said her injuries were solely attributed to being hit full force in the face with an airbag. she was wearing a seatbelt as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4ekbB5EzZM&feature=youtu.be&t=79

look at that again, at least Mazda is honest. airbags designed to punch people in the face.

I don't know about you, but I need to be quite close to the wheel to drive, there's no way I will be hitting an already inflated airbag that's starting to deflate. the airbag is going to inflate at 200mph straight into my face.

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