I believe this is not true. http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/stat.../1975_Cadillac_Brochure/1975 Cadillac-25.html
Mercedes has been saying this for years, if it weren't true then someone (especially big mouth Cadillac) would have challenged this by now. It appears that it was a German who invented the idea, but there is a disconnect in there between him the next guy and GM. It appears the GM application didn't work too well and was only offered for short time and then they backed away from it. Enter Mercedes in 1981 with the W126 as a series production car, i.e. no hiccups its widely available on all models, not just a select few as on the Caddys and Buicks years before. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbag M
GM had driver's airbag for one or two years, the air bag option cost about as much as the car itself so little to no cars had them. "First fully operational driver airbag", so not sure what the GM airbag did. Front passenger air bag was MB.
Yes, like some have said above it was used by MB as a proper safety restraint and NOT as a replacement for seatbelts like GM. I guess my grandfathers were probably some of the first few(besides kleptocrat dictators) in West Africa(if not all of Africa) in 1988 to have a car with dual airbags as three of their W126s(560SEL[2], 500SE/L[3])had passenger side dash fascias that weren't adorned in wood like other ones. I had always thought MB offered them from September 1985 upon facelift and not even as late as this. Stuttgart was obviously on a roll as Porsche offered them on the 944S that same year.
That must be why it was suspected in a few deaths back then. Silly GM, had the idea right, but executed it poorly as they do most things. M
Pic above was from a W221. Here's a W126 pic with passenger side airbag deployed. http://translate.google.com/transla...e-beifahrer-airbag-bei-mercedes-benz/&act=url
