I was involved in a head on accident 2 day ago my wife and i were in the car and the front end of my cobalt sustain serious fron t end damage and the airbags didn't deploy is this normal
It doesn't sound normal but it depends on the impact speed. I don't recall exactly what the speed needs to be for the airbags to deploy. Ask a service writer at the dealer. The Cobalt as you probably know is top rated at 5-star frontal.
Found this for you "Harold20" on Wikipedia. Might help a bit.
Air bags are typically designed to deploy in frontal and near-frontal collisions, which are comparable to hitting a solid barrier at approximately 13-23 km/h (8-14 mph). Roughly speaking, a 23 km/h (14 mph) barrier collision is equivalent to striking a parked car of similar size across the full front of each vehicle at about 45 km/h (28 mph). This is because the parked car absorbs some of the energy of the crash, and is pushed by the striking vehicle. Unlike crash tests into barriers, real-world crashes typically occur at angles, and the crash forces usually are not evenly distributed across the front of the vehicle. Consequently, the relative speed between a striking and struck vehicle required to deploy the air bag in a real-world crash can be much higher than an equivalent barrier crash.
Because air bag sensors measure deceleration, vehicle speed and damage are not good indicators of whether an air bag should have deployed. Occasionally, air bags can deploy due to the vehicle's undercarriage violently striking a low object protruding above the roadway surface. Despite the lack of visible front-end damage, high deceleration forces may occur in this type of crash, resulting in the deployment of the air bag.
i own three cobalts all 07's recently my youngest son was in a crash that resulted in totaling his car, he was not a fault and the impact was on the passenger side. he was stopped and a lincoln navigator hit him. no airbags deployed even the curtain airbags. yesterday my oldest son was driving in the rain in his cobalt when he started hydroplaning and he car rolled also resulting in a total loss, no airbags deployed on his car either. what are the pupose of these airbags if they never deploy!!!!
My daughter was in a front end accident this summer. She hit a concrete wall driving 70 mph. It was a head on collision and the bags did not deploy. GM said that the airbags performed as they were supposed to. I would not suggest anyone buy a Cobalt and suggest that GM step up and admit they have a problem.
Comments
Air bags are typically designed to deploy in frontal and near-frontal collisions, which are comparable to hitting a solid barrier at approximately 13-23 km/h (8-14 mph). Roughly speaking, a 23 km/h (14 mph) barrier collision is equivalent to striking a parked car of similar size across the full front of each vehicle at about 45 km/h (28 mph). This is because the parked car absorbs some of the energy of the crash, and is pushed by the striking vehicle. Unlike crash tests into barriers, real-world crashes typically occur at angles, and the crash forces usually are not evenly distributed across the front of the vehicle. Consequently, the relative speed between a striking and struck vehicle required to deploy the air bag in a real-world crash can be much higher than an equivalent barrier crash.
Because air bag sensors measure deceleration, vehicle speed and damage are not good indicators of whether an air bag should have deployed. Occasionally, air bags can deploy due to the vehicle's undercarriage violently striking a low object protruding above the roadway surface. Despite the lack of visible front-end damage, high deceleration forces may occur in this type of crash, resulting in the deployment of the air bag.