“Women in abnormal seating positions.”

Is this the ‘head in lap’ position Ferrari drivers buy thier cars for! I thought the center console was the problem here ! (even with the paddle shifter)

Hahahaha
Oh man I want a Ferrari

Maybe the NHTSA saw the movies of that swedish meatball who cracked up his Enzo at 200MPH and barely had a scratch on him…

Why should a Ferrari be an exception to the rule?

Because I doubt a child has ever been carried in a Ferrari, maybe conceived in one but that’s about it.

You don’t spend $200,000 and not know what you’re getting yourself into.

If there’s an exemption for that, why can’t they give one to Land Rover and bring the awesome Defender 110 back to the states?!!!!

Hmm…logic seems to be severely lacking in the U.S. Government for auto-related rules. Let’s see who in the U.S. Government will have a Ferrari parked in front of his driveway…I bet that’s the “gift” they received for giving Ferrari a break.

“You don’t spend $200,000 and not know what you’re getting yourself into.’

True then there’s the guy who recently died in his Carerra GT on a track…and his widow is suing everyone under the sun.

She won’t win though, her case won’t stand. I mean it’s an awful tragedy but you do know what you’re getting into in buying one of those.

“Women in abnormal seating positions.�

HAHAHAHA
Ferrari as a private company should have a policy not to sell to women who sit in abnormal positions.
Yellow warning stickers in the car should also say:
“women who operate this vehicle in abnormal seating positions may result in serious injury or death.”

What a relief! My wife just loves to drive with her head out the window and her feet on the dashboard. Additionally, my 10-year-old son drives all the time. I was considering getting an F430 for a family car until I heard that the airbags were unsafe. Now I suppose I’ll have to settle for a Gallardo. Stupid Ferrari.

“Because I doubt a child has ever been carried in a Ferrari, maybe conceived in one but that’s about it.”

That’s falty logic. If Ferrari can get an exception, then why have standards at all? The point is they apply to EVERYONE. I don’t care how “cool” an overpriced Italian car is, it shouldn’t be exempt to the law, the same way trucks and SUV’s should be exempt from strict emmision and mileage laws.

ALL other manufacturers are required to protect occupants from being harmed in UNBELTED positions, and they must not walk away from a crash event with fatal injuries. Seems like that is MORE inportant on a car that goes 200mph than a grocery getter. In todays litigiuous society, manufacturers, unfortuantely, have to plan for every idiot who breaks the law by not wearing a seatbelt, or worse, allowing thier child to drive unbelted. They actually test unbelted CHILDREN!!!!! So that idiots who leave children unbelted are covered. Oh, unless your Ferrari. What a bunch of BULL ****. Just shows how our government seems to constantly make rules to penalize domestic makers and let foreign makers slide. POOR FERRARI. They might actually have to redesign another IP for all 200 cars they sell. Cry me a river. The rest of the manufactueres are biting their nails hoping they dont misinterpret the rules, or build out of spec on thier 200,000 plus unit volume. You know what I say? TOUGH **** FERRARI. REDO you IP, and make your elite RICH fastass customers pay another $6000 on the over-exorbinant sticker to cover the development like the rest of the manufacturers have to……. what’s next?

Some women and children in abnormal seating positions? Why not men as well and only some? I guess its like flying on an airplane when your pregnant, Ferrari should have a warning sticker or something, “Do Not Sit Abnormally”, typing that out just makes me laugh. I’ve always supported that if your too stupid or unable to do something correctly, you shouldn’t be allowed to do it incorrectly or abnormally, aha ha ha. Kudos to Ferrari though for sticking to their guns, take that government regulations, they are just another bunch of generic cars.

**aren’t

why are children in these cars to begin with? Don’t you have to be a certain age and heigt to sit in the front seats because of the airbag liablitly?

Abnormal seating positions are not the standard by the way, and the riskier a ride, the more occupants should follow procedure. like another poster said you should “know what your getting into.”

The defender doesn’t the same kind of slack Ferrari gets because there are more than two seats. Remember, the Elise/Exige were also exemptions to some safety standards but again a two-seater with the purpose to be drivien like a racecar. Occupants are expected to follow safety laws…

ah, since this is for the passenger side…they could just fix the passenger seat in a position that gets around the problem, with perhaps a “dealer-installed” (read: blocking-pin removal) fix that carries the warning that it may make the seat dangerous to women and children sitting in abnormal positions, right?

And I don’t think anyone with fatal injuries is walking away from anything. that’s why they’re called FATAL, regardless of the car manufacturer, Sca.

I wonder how safe you can ultimately make a car in fifty years without nearly all designs resembling oblong bubbles with rounded edges…

Cars manufactured in Europe and Asia have been very similar to American domestic cars for years. The airbag mandate kicked in about six years earlier over here.

Emissions certification notwithstanding, many specialty cars never sold in the USA have been hellish to get legally imported simply because a bumper didn’t pass a 5mph crash test. Take a Porsche 959 and compare it to a US Porsche Turbo of similar vintage and you won’t find THAT much difference in the front bumper designs.

Nissan Skyline GT-R enthusiasts probably have one of the most infamous ongoing battles with the US Dept. of Transportation and EPA in trying to get a pretty good Japanese sportscar in their garages. This mainly has to do with many early GT-R’s lacking standard driver and passenger airbags and having a large intercooler wedged into the front bumper. The emissions issue is a no brainer: never designed to meet USA emissions, however one can make the car applicable…. but the government must certify EVERY car legally brought in. This is expensive and at the moment, the only company officially allowed to modify the cars has gone bankrupt.

That’s one isolated example. Enthusiasts and rich buyers of Ferarris know what they are getting into, as previously mentioned. Even if you had every possible modern safety technology installed on these cars, they are downright dangerous in the hands of an unskilled and overly ambitious driver.

I don’t think it is entirely fair to pick on Ferarri just because they have been successful, sell their cars in ultra low volume, and have a habit of selling cars to ridiculously well off people.

Lotus Cars just barely gets by the government rules selling their Elise in limited numbers. The Elise is a wonderfully well balanced, lightweight racing car for the road. It’s priced between $40k-$55k… well within reach of enthusiasts who WANT that car for how it drives and looks and KNOW what they are getting into.

Did I forget to mention that the Elise has no airbags? Thanks to some generous laxing of the rules on the part of the Dept of Transportation, you too can buy one of these fine little sports cars if you choose to.

#19: Fully agreed!

I live in LA, I am British and I find the whole debate rather ridiculous. There is far too much red tape with cars over here. I am glad the government relaxed its stance, I am sure half of these measures just increase the costs of cars and yet not actually to save more lives. If they wanted to save lives cell phone use while driving in the US would be totally taboo – on every road I look I see some idiot using a cell phone while driving. Statistics prove driving while using a cell reduces peoples ability to drive down to the level of a drunken driver! You wont catch many people in Britian driving while using a cell phone, it illegal and really seen as bad!

I actually think half of the measures in place such as position of airbags in a Ferrari (!) are designed as a way to keep control of vehicle imports, so cheaper cars cannot flood in from foreign markets.

Regarding the airbags, if people are so stupid as to not wear a seat belt when driving around then they should be the ones put in jail, they certainly shouldnt be able to fight a law action suit because THEY where the stupid ones in the first place!!!