I have been somewhat obsessed with auto safety since the early 90s.
In 1979, there were many safe cars out there. Mercedes and Volvo also heavily advertised safety. Mercedes boasted that all interior panels were softly padded and the interior had flat controls/knobs for added safety. If I were to buy a brand new car in 1979, the only cars I would be hesitant of for safety would be the small cars like the Pinto, Chevette and the small cars in general, but by the mid 80s, even many small cars had become much safer.
To many peoples amazement crumple zones were pioneered by Mercedes back in the 1950s... Volvo was in there as well. An early example of the crumple zone concept was used on a 1959 Mercedes-Benz sedan. Although not always heavily advertised, they could be found on some American cars from the early 70s. I remember even my old 1984 Honda Accord had crumple zones. They can be seen on some cars... little "notches" in the frame rails and fenders, etc. Varies from car to car. Crumple zones do not automatically make a car safe. If a car does not have a strong and well-designed safety cage, the crumple zones are worthless.
Back in 1944, Volvo introduced the first safety cage, but it was patented by Mercedes Benz before Volvo. Strange.
Mercedes also was a pioneer in the energy absorbing steering columns, as was GM. Padded dash panels were seen as early as the very late 40s/early 50s in cars like Chrysler and Cadillac, but Tucker was the pioneer of this safety feature!
The first airbags (and they were dual airbags) were installed in General Motors cars an an option from 1974-1976. It was a rare option and installed on only about 10,000 cars during those years. They were optional on the 1974-76 Cadillac DeVilles/Fleetwoods/Eldorados - Buick Electras/LeSabres/Rivieras - and Oldsmobile Ninety-Eights/Eighty-Eights/Toronados. They were not optional in the Pontiacs or Chevrolets those years, but Chevrolet did install them on 1000 1973 Chevrolet Impala sedans for testing. Oddly, they were installed with Oldsmobile instrument panels. By 1977, the option faded away... as no one cared about airbags!
In 1984, airbags made another appearance, this time in Mercedes cars as an option for 1984-1985 on the 190s and S-Class models and by 1986 a driverside airbag became standard on ALL Mercedes cars and a passenger side airbag became optional on the S-Class sedans beginning in 1989. BMW added a standard driver airbag starting in 1988 and by 1990, many cars added driverside airbags, as a safety standard came in effect for some sort of automatic crash protection. Mercedes also offered anti-lock brakes optional on the USA models as early as 1984 - standard in 1986. The first cars with anti-lock brakes to most peoples amazement were first optional on the 1970 Lincolns and Chrysler Imperials by the mid 70s. Ford called them "Sure-track" braking systems on their cars and Chrysler called them "Sure-brake".
Anti-lock braking systems were first developed for aircraft in 1929. (This was to my amazement).
Chrysler Corporation, introduced an all-wheel antilock brake system called "Sure Brake" on the 1971 Imperial. It was available for a few years after that. GM corporation introduced the "Track-master" rear-wheel ABS as an option on their rear-wheel drive Cadillac models in 1971. As mentioned, Ford also offered a system called "Sure Trak" on the 1970 Lincoln Continental Mark III and the Ford LTD Country Squire station wagon.
Some companies went with airbags, while others went with motorized shoulder belts (remember the Honda Accord and Toyota Cressida and Ford Escort) or the dreadful door-mounted seat belts (remember the Lumina, Cavalier, Cutlass Supreme, Metro, Regal, Century, etc, etc, (the list is endless and this seemed to be mainly a GM thing). By 1996, most had added airbags and even dual airbags.
THEN, it seems like the IIHS started testing cars in these off-set crash tests. Many cars were performing dreadfully in these tests (collapsing passenger cages). This sent many automakers scurring to make more structurally sound cars.
More info - back in 1986, all new cars sold were required to have a center "3rd" brake light and 1989 cars added rear shoulder belts, but some cars such as Mercedes, Volvo, BMW, Jaguar, Toyota Cressida and even the Honda Accord had them much earlier. In fact, rear shoulder belts were optional in cars as far back as the 1969 General Motors cars as an option.
In 1967 a law was passed where all 68' "new cars" had to have shoulder belts, hazard flashers, energy absorbing instrument panels and steering columns, side marker lights, etc. GM was a year early on many of these and had them on the 67' cars (energy absorbing instrument panels, etc). 1969 required head restraints to be installed on cars.
Check this link for more info!
Automobile safety - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I have rambled on enough about this... hopefully I have shed some light on the history of auto safety.
I for one am glad they are so much safer now.
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