air bag lite on!

[mytoy986]

After a rather spirited drive along the north shore of Long Island last sunday, my AIR BAG lite came on!!!! I drive a 1998 Boxster with 74900 miles on it. Being the Dealer savvy person that I am (27 years as a dealership parts manager) I promptly called my local Porsche dealer. I was informed that as I was driving a 1998, I was out of warranty (I kinda expected that). I was also informed that it would be about $200.00 to hook up to the local "Scanner" to find the problem. (again, no surprises here.) Then the service adviser "advised" me that there was an updated passenger side seat belt that probably would solve my problem! It seems the pre-tensioner in the passenger side seat belt was probably the cause of my light. In addition I should expect approx $750.00 to replace the belt in order to solve the problem!

OK correct me if I'm wrong here.

1) working for a Japanese car line, I have always been told that ANYTHING safety related, such as air bags and seat belts are covered. Regardless of mileage and year! unless we are talking ancient! (who need a law suit)

2) If a part is UPDATED, it's usually to correct a known problem!

So I called Porsche North America to plead my case, and was shot down like a Japanese Zero ar Midway!

Should I "write the letter" to Porsche explaining my situation, and point out that if my wife goes throught the windshield because the "non-updated" seat belt didn't work, I will probably become a majority share holder, or just lay down my hard earned cash and get it fixed!

I NEED INPUT!