Ford to Make Dual Air Bags Standard on All Models : Automobiles: The company is the first to plan driver and passenger bags for all of its cars.

Ford Motor Co. will make front-seat air bags for the driver and passenger standard on all of its cars by the mid-1990s, Ford Vice Chairman Harold Poling said Sunday.

In the 1990 model year, Ford offers the safety devices, coupled with manually operated seat belts, as standard equipment on the driver sides of about 1 million, or about half, of its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury cars. Passenger-side air bags are offered now on a limited number of Lincolns.

Earlier, Ford said it planned to install front-seat air bags for drivers and passengers on most, but not all, of its cars by the mid-’90s.

Chrysler Corp. offers driver-side air bags on all of its North American-made cars and General Motors Corp. has them as standard equipment on about 15%, or 500,000, of its cars. GM has said it plans to more than double that number in the 1991 model year to about 1.3 million cars.

The federal government required that cars made after Sept. 1, 1989, be equipped with either the combination of a driver-side air bag and manually operated seat belt for front-seat riders, or automatic seat belts on both sides. By 1993, auto makers must supply so-called passive restraint systems, whether they’re air bags or automatic belts, for front-seat riders.

In the weeks before the 1990 model year began, each of the Big Three auto makers announced price increases of up to 5% over 1989 models. Each said the principal reason was the installation of air bags.

Price effects of equipping a fleet the size of Ford’s with driver- and passenger-side air bags were unclear. Poling said that by the mid-’90s, he expected driver- and passenger-side air bags would cost about $400 to $600 per car, about half current air-bag prices.

Overall, air bags are more expensive for car makers to install than automatic seat belts, though cost comparisons vary by model.

The comments by Poling, who takes over as Ford’s chairman March 1 when current Chairman Donald Petersen retires, came at the opening dinner of the four-day Automotive News World Congress.

Poling also said at a news conference before his speech that Ford may increase its 25% stake in Mazda Motor Corp. of Japan.

“If the opportunity occurred over time to increase our equity position with Mazda, we would look at it favorably,” Poling said.

However, Poling said he doubted that Ford would be involved in any major acquisition in the near future. During the past four months, Ford has acquired Jaguar PLC of England and the Associates Corp., a financing company. Combined, Ford is spending $5.85 billion on the two organizations.

In his speech, Poling said the European auto market shows more potential for growth during the 1990s than does the North American market.