I really can't understand the US car safety regulations. You're actually far more likely to die in an accident if you're not wearing a seatbelt and an airbag goes off than if there's no airbag at all. Why the hell they don't make seatbelts the law I really don't know.
And it's not just a case of sticking in new airbags.
*New mechanism need to be made to fire the things
*New wiring needs to be added
*Sensors have to be installed
*Trim has to be modified to include sensors
*The correct electronics have to be produced
*Everything has to be tested (which will no doubt include another full crash test)
*New moulds, machine tools and machining routines need to be made for all the new parts
*Everything then has to be certified
*New brochures have to be made!
It would probably take at the very least 6 months to fully do this and would probably involve:
*Engineering Design Dept
*Styling Dept
*Electronics Dept
*Testing Dept
*Legal Dept
*Marketing Dept
So you can see where all the money goes....and for small companies like Bugatti, Lotus, Ferrari etc with small car ranges that have little in common it's VERY low return for the investment....and remember 10% of ?900,000 is ?90,000! That's a hell of a price rise even at that level. It may be enough to put some people off.
For more mass produced cars it's a lot easier. Take VW for example. The Polo, Golf, Golf Plus, Jetta, Passat all have the same fundamental steering wheel so the cost is spread over the whole range...and lets face it...crash testing a ?12,000 Golf doesn't really compare to a Veyron. Cost price of a Golf probably ?5,000....cost price of a Veyron....quite possibly as much as ?500,000. There's a lot of high investment machining and costly materials in that thing!