That sucks. GM's response would have been different if they knew you had representation from either your own attorney or through your insurance company. Been there, done that. I would had at the very least turned it over to my insurance from the onset. I'd get moving on one of those paths now.

 

Sorry to see this out come.

But that is what insurance is for.

The revenge factor is great with the Lawyer but in the end only the lawyer wins in cases like this. GM pays, You pay and the Lawyer collects.

I would also liked to see the black box readings. I see people here Autocross and even one guy road race on fire and no air bag. I would have felt it was a bad sensor unless you really took that curve with one hell of a lot of G's.

 

If you look at the video, right before he burst into flames, it was cresting a hill at WOT he lifted off a little and poof.

I'm with you on the bad sensor, otherwise there was an angled embankment attached to that curve and somebody went 2-wheelin then poof airbags. .02

I'm still not quite sure how I feel about the "black box", although it does have a way of keeping people honest, especially in instances where there are fatalities involved. the automakers will say its for our saftey, but honestly, it seems more like a cya move on the automakers part. I might be paranoid here but I wouldn't be suprised if your car will one day print out your speeding ticket in realtime while your stomping it. Hell, my car emails me with all its pertinent information once a month. Cool and all but a little scary too.

Any chance you could post a picture of said corner? before I can call BS one way or the other

 

Post a photo of the corner or link us to a google map of it.

 

Sad to day but the speed reporting has been discussed by the goverment as plans for the OBD III had included a wireless connection that could be used to report speed and emissions failures.

The really even more sad part is while companies get blames for stiffing the customer it happens even more with customers stiffing the companys.

In the words of Dr Gregory House People Lie! I hear it and see it daily. With many people it is out fault and they refused to back down. We record the calls and have even got the point we play them back with what they said. At that points it turns to a retreat or That is not what I ment to say.

Responsibility is a fleeting thing today on all levels. Companys to customer, Parents to kids. Politicians to the people that elected them. Everyone lies.

I suspect too that there may have been conditions on this corners that may have help the sensor hit the G limit. The corner it's self may have not been the only factor to help it hit the G limit. Angle and hight can also come into play. It may have been the perfect corner? Hard to tell with out seeing where it was and how it is.

But then it could just be a bad sensor. I really don't see it being s systems issue as too many of us would have already had this issue. It had to be the corner or the sensor.

I just wish they would hand over the findings as it would make clear what all was involved.

The scary part is how they want to tax you by mile driven. They have already looked into this in Oregon. They can do it now if they want to. Keep this in mind the next time a Politican does not want to cut spending on a bunch of garbage programs and charge you more to pay for them. Everyone Lies.

 

Here is a quick video of the route / recap of what I did that day. (the first left)

Apologies for the view, I rigged up my mobile phone to my GPS mount as I wanted to see my entry speed and hand movement.

Entry speed is a bit slower than the HHR (its my Odyssey minivan, duh!) plus I have to say I'm a little gunshy after the incident.

I've taken this corner, every work day, to and from work for the past 3 years, I've drifted around it in my old 545i and my 95 Buick Roadmaster. The 545i had head curtain airbags, never set those off....

The only thing that I remember vividly before the airbag deployment was that the HHR was understeering like a pig right before I came to the corner entry, so I was braking hard and scrubbing alot of speed to get the thing to turn in.

I've been in a rollover accident before and have been in a vehicle on less than 4 wheels (I was in automotive development with quite a bit of testing for the first 10 years of my career), and there is no way the HHR was anywhere close to rollover.

The only thing that I can figure was the change of the road angle caused the car to think it was going to go, but as I mentioned earlier, the car should not be designed with this low of a threshold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY7iuJ_tR0E

Thanks for all of the advice folks. I've passed it on to State Farm, they advised that they might not cover the actual air bags, but will cover all of the other collateral damage to the interior... and the hits just keep coming.

 

I note it looks like it pitches up when you turn in. You also said you were at a higher speed and braking hard. I just wonder if you just had hit a spot where all three motions were enough G load to set it off.

It may have just been one of those perfect storm things where the up pitch and braking with the side load just met at the wrong spot.

From the looks of the road I have taken corners like that with no issue many times.

I still think it was just something in you SS like a sensor that is at issue. Lets face it we all here have done things like this and much worse and we do not have a epidemtic of Air Bag deployments.

What is the deal with State Farm not replacing the air bags? That to me is even worse than GM not covering the bags. That is like having a fender bender and they said they would cover the hood but not the bumper.

 

Supposedly, they have seen 3 issues like this recently. Mine being the 3rd.

On the first 2, he stated that the decision makers determined that the airbags were not covered as they were the cause of the damage. Not sure how that works.

It is not final yet, he said there is still a chance that they will cover.

 

What I see is, a crap call on GM's part. Granted, you weren't driving exactly like you were when it actually happened, but I find it hard to believe that because of THAT that your air bags would go off. I have taken some turns like that in mine, and had no ill effects.. Don't let them get this..

 

In other words they are laying the bags off on you or GM. Nice! You would have been better off hitting the bumper on a tree or pole hard enough to leave a mark and make them fix it and the bags.

Even three is not an empidemic in the big picture of all the HHRS out there. If you have seen the video's of the many rentals being used off road or the other crap I have seen you would see they just don't go off for no reason.

I still think it may have been a run on bad sensors or part in the system. That would be difficult to prove. Might want to keep the sensors when they replace them. You never know when they may do a recall later on.

Keep all the paper work too as if they recall and you can show the cost they will refund you. My buddies Quad 4 had one of the bad head gaskets and he had it fixed before the recall. GM paid him in full for it after the recall.

The shame of this all comes down to our legal system as many companies any more can't take care of issues like this as it can set a legal precedent that could get them into trouble even on issues or conditions they had nothing to do with. This law suit happy society needs tort reform. It may not fit it all but at lest the siren chasers would go away.

Safety equipment has to be fool proof but the fact is nothing is to to man made issues and conditions it is used.

This is why most racing safety equiment has no warranty. I see it all the time in my line of work. The sad part is many people get claims that should not be settled as it is cheaper for the companies to pay than fight. Then in cases like yours you should get covered and then don't because it could be used against them later on. It really is not what the cost is to fix your HHR but the cost of a case later that this could be used against them that may or may not be legit.

The honest guy is the one that always get the short end in this fight. Fine world we live in.