Minivan Safety Answers Often Bad, Study Says : Autos: A consumer group says 80% of salespeople give wrong or evasive responsives.

Most salespeople are giving wrong or misleading information to consumers who ask about the safety of minivans, a Los Angeles consumer interest group said Thursday.

The nonprofit California Public Interest Research Group said a statewide survey it conducted found that nearly 80% of salespeople who were questioned about minivan safety gave incorrect or evasive answers when asked if minivans meet the same safety standards as passenger cars.

At a news conference Thursday, a CalPIRG official called on Gov. George Deukmejian to sign a bill that would require safety labeling on all minivans sold or leased in California, urged manufacturers to make minivans safer and asked dealers to make sure that salespeople are giving consumers accurate safety information.

“Over the last few years, minivans have become incredibly popular . . . yet the safety standards have not kept pace with the popularity of these vehicles,” said Jeffrey Francis, CalPIRG’s consumer program director.

“Without accurate safety information, consumers are playing Russian roulette with the lives of their families,” he said.

Minivans are technically classified as “multipurpose vehicles” and therefore are not required by the government to include six safety features that are standard in passenger cars: a reinforced roof, reinforcement bars in side doors, rear-seat shoulder belts, passive restraints, a high center-mounted brake light and front-seat headrests.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is requiring auto makers to include these features, but that process won’t be completed until September, 1997, at the earliest.

For their part, auto makers say, minivans are already safe vehicles and some meet at least some of the six passenger car safety standards.

“It is absolutely safe to say that the minivan is absolutely a safe vehicle,” said Tom Houston, a spokesman for Chrysler, which launched the minivan craze in late 1984.

However, a spokesman for Assemblyman Johan Klehs (D-Alameda), author of the minivan bill, said staff members were unable to get solid evidence from any manufacturer that their minivans meet car safety standards. The bill, which was passed late last month by the Legislature, would require a label on every minivan sold or leased in California, saying whether the vehicle meets the same side door and roof reinforcement tests as passenger cars.

If the bill is signed, California would become the first state to require this, CalPIRG’s Francis said.

“Chrysler Corp., like all the rest of the auto makers, spends a huge amount of money training salespeople to sell the product,” Houston said. “Unfortunately, there is a huge turnover in the business, and some people may not be as up on the product as they should be.”

General Motors spokeswoman Toni Simonetti said she hadn’t seen the CalPIRG survey and could not comment on it. But, she added, “it’s not fair to say that trucks (and minivans) are not as safe as cars. We think our vehicles have excellent field performance.”

The Chrysler and GM representatives said their minivans already meet some of the passenger car standards and will meet all of them in a few years.

The CalPIRG survey of salespeople was conducted by telephone between July 31 and Aug. 2 at 74 dealerships selected randomly in six geographic areas of California. CalPIRG’s surveyors, who posed as customers, asked the salespeople several questions about minivan safety.

When asked, “Do minivans have to meet the same safety standards as cars? ,” 67.1% of the salespeople erroneously answered yes, and 11% gave evasive answers. A total of 17.8% said no, and 4.1% said they didn’t know. In the Los Angeles area, 20 of 27 salespeople gave wrong or evasive answers. In the San Diego area, 17 of 19 salespeople gave wrong or evasive answers.

“It is not clear whether salespeople are intentionally misleading consumers or not,” the CalPIRG report stated. “In any case, it is clear they are not providing this vital information to consumers, even when they are specifically asked for it.”