[Greenkirby21]

The Reacaro with airbags are not sold in the US because I believe the US regulations are different than Europe. I believe they are much more $$$$ to get certified. If I remember correctly, every different part number needs to be crash tested.

My reasoning is that I believe Recaro doesn't want to pay for crash testing the airbag models because only a small # of users that purchase recaros would get airbags. For the amount that crash testing costs, I doubt they would recover that in sales. If you think about it, it makes sense. If you go to the track (which is the majority of people that buy aftermarket recaro), then you get the seats because they are lightweight and airbag isn't a concern.

That is why the Recaro models with airbags are sold via OEM (i.e MINI, mercedes, etc), because the manufacturer pays for the crash testing.

For example, BMW released the prior BMW performance seats which are just recaro sportster cs with airbag + heating.

Since recaro paid for their own testing of the non-bmw seats, the recaro sportster without airbag are completely road legal since they meet DOT requirements.

Since BMW did not pay for the BMW performance seats with airbag to be crash tested, then they are technically illegal seats.

I say technically, because to me it makes no sense how the same seat without the airbag is legal, while the seat with the airbag is not. Does that mean that having an airbag is dangerous? :P. If you see on the recaro website, they even talk about how the seat is much safer with the airbag and overpasses what the european regulations require.

I think the airbag ordeal is because they (the US DOT) don't want people buying aftermarket airbags from china that explode in your face.. which is a good concern. But I don't think recaro would do that!