I have a 2005 ES that has airbags that deploy from the side of the seats. I now have 3 young children in the backseat (1x Capsule & 2x Carseats). I love my car and would be happy to keep it until it dies, but...... My husband is very concerned that if we were in a crash, the airbags would do more damage to the kids than they would prevent. Does anyone have any knowledge in this area. Many Thanx

I have a 2005 ES that has airbags that deploy from the side of the seats. I now have 3 young children in the backseat (1x Capsule & 2x Carseats). I love my car and would be happy to keep it until it dies, but...... My husband is very concerned that if we were in a crash, the airbags would do more damage to the kids than they would prevent. Does anyone have any knowledge in this area. Many Thanx

From the sides of the front seats only. I can't see how this would be an issue for rear passengers, the only element I can see affecting rear passengers is the initial charge from deployment which, in the scheme of things is very unlikely to affect them, aside from scare them. The airbag isn't facing in their direction, not will it deploy to dimensions that it will be in contact with them

Example of a side airbag when fully deployed (not a Magna though):

http://www.auto-searchphilippines.com/images/Picanto_Airbags.jpg

No airbags in back seat, as above picture. Good reason to make sure the little ones are in age appropriate seats, with restraints used correctly.

Yeap no issues for rear passengers.

We have an Hyundai i40 as our other car. It has 9 airbags, including rear seat mounted airbags. These are fine with kids. The real issue is front airbags for young children less than about 12. This is why the safety experts recommend you keep the kids in the back as long as possible, preferably until they approach adult size (mid teens). This is often not practical of course and all kids grow at different rates. Mine are quite small for their ages so they will likely be stuck in the back until mid teens.

Don't worry about the Magna's airbags with your kids. The later models (TL and TW) fare MUCH better in crash tests.

Steve