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You have my total sympathy. A lot of similarities here. '95 940 wagon. Low speeed accident. Wife driving. Physical scratching and bruising. SRS system deployment (always a full deployment of both air bags and both seat belt pyrotechnic tensioners). Passenger air bag took out the windshield. No bumper damage with the car ahead. Car declared a write off. Unhappy Volvo owner.
Yes, Volvo did extend the air bag inspection interval from 10 years to 15 years. Note that it's an inspection interval, not a replacement interval -who could justify the expense of a full replacement on an older car? Yes, the SRS system can fully deploy in a low speed frontal accident, even a rear-ender, with little or no damage involving the vehicle ahead. It's a matter of inertia and direction, not speed that determines the deployment -rear-ending a car ahead, or being rear-ended or over even T-boned does not necessarily cause a deployment (protection is for frontal and off-frontal impact of a certain magnitude). Yes, the windshield will break. Yes, the car will likely be declared a write off by the insurance company.
1995 940 wagons, and 945T's in particular, were the last of the great Volvo 4-cyl RWD breed and are fairly rare -I've noticed only a few others in my travels. I presume yours was otherwise in fairly good shape. It is a crime in my mind to see one taken off the road just because of an SRS deployment. From your description, I do not consider the air bags faulty in any way. Desirable or otherwise, they behaved as designed with your overall safety in mind. It's a shame the system wasn't the new and improved one ('96 960/V90 on I believe) where the crash sensors were intelligent enough to release a partial deployment when a passenger wasn't present or in the event of a low speed situation. That may have prevented a deployment altogether or at least it might have saved the windshield, not to mention the physical scratches and bruising.
On the bright side, after in-depth discussions with the insurer, I convinced them to change their mind and the car was repaired. The statistics should tell them they're financially better off having policies on Volvo's rather than many other machines where a major accident means major bodily injury claims (their biggest fear). And last but not least, other than being a more nervous driver, my wife has totally recovered.
I'm going to e-mail you off-line about our experience (be patient, it may take a few days). There may be other factors in your story I'm not aware of, but I may be able help you save your beast.
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Dave -940's, prev 740/240/140/120 Never overestimate what little I know.
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