Ford to Offer Air Bags on 2 Models as $815 Option

Ford Motor will offer a driver’s side air bag next March on its Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz compact cars as an $815 option, company Chairman Donald Petersen said Monday.

It would be the first offering of air bags to the general public by a U.S. auto maker in a decade.

General Motors offered air bags protecting the driver and two front-seat passengers as a $300 option on 1974, 1975 and 1976 model big cars, and GM had the capacity to equip 100,000 cars a year. However, only about 10,000 were sold, and the idea was dropped.

Mercedes-Benz, which has been offering a driver’s side air bag as an option in its expensive luxury cars, said last week that it would make the item standard equipment.

Petersen said Ford will build about 1,000 air bag-equipped cars a month and expects to sell them all. However, Ford will lose money on the air bags even if they are a sellout, he said.

There were no indications that the Ford and Mercedes moves were a trend. For Ford’s part, 1,000 cars a month represents far less than 1% of its total U.S. car production.

Ford has no immediate plans to expand the program, Petersen said, and he reiterated the U.S. auto makers’ position opposing mandatory air bags and favoring mandatory seat-belt laws. Fifteen states have such laws.

Nevertheless, Petersen had some good things to say about air bags, itself a sharp departure from the industry’s longtime stance.

The federal government and insurance companies have purchased 7,400 air bag-equipped Tempos and Topazes. About 200 have been involved in accidents and, in 20 cases, the impact was violent enough to cause the air bags to deploy and surround the driver, Petersen said.

In none of the accidents did the Ford bags open when they shouldn’t have, he said. Ford doesn’t know if any lives were saved, but “we certainly believe (the drivers) were saved at least very serious injury,” Petersen said.

One driver’s car collided with a trailer truck carrying a load of propane, he said, “and all she had were bruised knees.”

Petersen didn’t identify the woman. However, the July 6 issue of a newsletter published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety carried an article about an employee of Travelers Insurance’s Westport, Conn., office, Melanie Stephenson, 22, who had such an accident while driving a Tempo around a blind curve in the rain June 18.

GM’s air bags were sold below cost at about $300 and were dropped when 1977 model cars came out, spokesman Stan Hall said. However, only GM was offering them, and big cars weren’t selling well because of the aftershocks of the Arab oil embargo, distorting the amount of demand for air bags.

GM issued a statement following Ford’s move saying it was “studying the possibility” of making air bags available again as an option.

The Transportation Department has required car makers to begin phasing in either air bags or automatic seat belts by the 1987 model year. Petersen said the Ford air bags will count toward the company’s 10% quota.

The president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Brian O’Neill, praised Ford, saying: “‘We couldn’t ask for a more welcome announcement than this. It emphasizes once again that safety belts and air bags aren’t alternative crash protection; we need both. When other manufacturers follow Ford and equip their cars with air bags, we can look forward to fewer crash deaths and injuries.”

“This is good news for both the public and the insurance companies,” said Clifford Whitcomb, president of Prudential Property & Casualty Insurance. “We are certain that it will significantly reduce deaths and serious injuries from automobile crashes.”

Prudential has a discount available on premiums that cover injuries to drivers and passengers if air bags are installed.