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Renault Clio: French brand defends curtain airbags omission

RENAULT CLIO
By Jez Spinks |
FIND DEALS

French car maker Renault has defended its decision to omit curtain airbags from its new-generation Renault Clio city car, arguing that independent testing has proven it is one of the safest models in its class.

The fourth-generation Renault Clio was launched in Florence, Italy, this week, ahead of its Australian release in the third quarter of 2013.

The French five-door hatch is equipped with dual front airbags and side/thorax airbags that protect the front occupants, but the Clio misses out on the curtain airbags that drop down to also protect those in the rear.

Many city cars are now offering at least six airbags.

Renault admits cost was a factor in the decision but says it didn’t save money but instead focused its safety investment in other areas.

“In a car you can put in everything and sometimes you have to make decisions [on how much you spend],” said Renault’s communications manager, Christophe Deville.

“The occupancy rate of cars in the segment is that most are in the front seats.

“So either we could have curtain airbags or we could invest in sensors [in the B-pillar] and be sure the sensing was much quicker for side impacts. They need to trigger very quickly in order to save front seat driver or passenger.

“You could technically put in six or eight airbags. Every car maker makes these choices. There are some who have put money into knee airbags.

“Passive safety is done by avoiding submarining and putting effort into seatbelt pretensioners.

“The number of airbags is not always a guarantee [of safety]. We don’t believe airbags are the only solution.”

Deville says its market research reveals customers consider safety as a basic requirement of a new vehicle but that there has never been specific demand for a particular type or number of airbags.

“The best way to make [customers] feel safe about a car is by Euro NCAP testing, or Korean NCAP, etc.”

The Renault Clio scored the maximum five-star rating for adult occupancy protection in testing by European independent crash-test body NCAP.

Adult Occupancy Protection was rated at 88 per cent for the new Clio and Child Occupancy Protection, which includes assessing the impact of a side collision on a baby or child in a forward-facing child seat, scored 89 per cent, the highest score in the city car – or ‘supermini’ – segment.

Read CarAdvice’s review of the new Renault Clio.

  • O123

    just goes to show that the number of airbags doesn’t mean everything

  • Andrew Sherwood

    Completely agree with the view its not just about the number of airbags in a car. Cars these days are having up to 10-12 airbags but its not making a significant difference over those which have only 8 airbags. The car itself needs to be structurally sound and if it isn’t airbags won’t make up for the inadequacy of the car’s safety. But curtain airbags are important in a side impact crash and can act as a shield when a car bonnet enters through the side doors. Renault will reverse this pretty soon as it is a bad decision.

    Also just heard on 3AW radio CarAdvice getting a nice plug regarding the new Ford Ranger around 8:45am today. There was just one line about what CarAdvice thought about the ranger compared to others in the class. Well done team for getting on commercial radio advertising!

  • DanM

    So when Renault do it with a world market, high volume small car, it’s a minor story which is ultimately justifiable but when Ford does the same thing with the Australian only, low volume Falcon, it’s a national travesty and a disgrace which is plastered on all the automotive blogs and rags and universally condemned.

    Appalling hypocricy.

  • ABCDEFG

    Anyone watched the Fifth Gear’s Renault Espace vs Renault Espace head on crash? The airbags in the newer Espace didn’t deploy. Not good enough!

  • trololololol

    “scored 89 per cent, the highest score in the city car – or ‘supermini’ – segment”…so whats the problem then???

    • JooberJCW

      it probably could have score 90+ % if it had curtain airbags.

      The moral to this article is that even though you may have the safest car already within the segment, you should still try to do everything to best protect the occupants. 

      If Karma strikes, one day a person gets into a side crash accident in a clio, gets brain damage and the media will over-vilify renault.

    • Noel

      Also car salespeople selling against the Clio will have field day, “Did you realise Mr/Mrs car buyer, the Clio doesn’t have side airbags, one of the major advances in side impact passenger protection.  The Clio is the only car doing this, it shows how cheaply they’ve built the car” and it’s all over…….people’s decisions sadly are rarely based on anything to do with the real world.

  • Santoshrajkumar

    Renault’s PR personnel must be indulging in a lot more smokos. Good.