I see the queue is growing-
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business/companies/airbag-recall-tally-climbs-past-660000-in-australia-as-more-suspect-cars-added/story-fnkjkh00-1227381876863?sv=82c5bb2651aeeeade8e8334c9f78c5daand in particular-
“Airbags are not a discretionary item of equipment and cannot be simply turned off and on again. The mechanism is technically sophisticated and forms an important part of the vehicle’s engineering.”
I discovered that with our Suzy SX4 when the airbag warning light came on due to the missus dumping a heavy box of books on the passenger seat and I googled for some enlightenment. The upshot was there's a micro sensor pad in the seat and it's linked to the exploding inertia reel seatbelt actuator and the airbags. With all the dash, side seat and head curtain airbags nowadays a minor/false bump setoff is extremely expensive and hence the added sophistication a lot like infra red plus movement with burglar alarm sensing. In the airbag case the occupant weight must leave the seat at the same time the seatbelt is jerked and at the right level the airbags deploy. All tied to the ECU and error light and codes if something goes awry. Well my net search showed some owners having to cough up $1500 to replace a seat sensor pad if that was the problem and- Yikes!
Off to the autoelec with it and he plugs in the tester and pronounces there's a number of error codes gone down here mate (sweat, sweat) but there's a low battery one too so howsabout we start with a new battery first and reflash it? Yep and that fixed it but I'd had a crash course in why it aint so easy to wave the magic wand over this enormous air bag problem. As they say-
"Legal experts say motorists have little choice but to endure the painstaking wait for the replacements, and they can’t sue the car companies unless someone dies or is seriously injured from the defective airbags."
In the meantime if you want to sell or trade-in one of the models, the Dealers won't want to take the risk with them in today''s litigation environment, so where will that leave the private market?