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What Prompted Better Car Safety?

By Lawrence Reaves

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Published: 23Jan2012
Word count: 510
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Factually, today's cars, when driven correctly, are the safest they have ever been. But is that because vehicle manufacturers have been intent on making safer vehicles for us all, or was it because of something else?
You may like to think that vehicle manufacturers care passionately about the people that buy their cars, but in reality that wasn't necessarily at the top of their agenda. You may remember the days when you went to choose a new car and found that to get anti-lock brakes you had to pay extra. If you wanted airbags, it was an optional extra. In other words, to make the car you wanted safer, you had to pay extra.

Regrettably, the buying public often decided that other optional extras were more interesting. Maybe they preferred to have climate control, rather than regular air conditioning, or the latest in in-car entertainment; brakes were brakes after all.
Vehicle manufacturers, as with any other company, are ultimately there to return a profit. Designing items that improved safety came below designing items that they knew would sell their cars. It would seem that it was only when there were several successful litigation cases that manufacturers started to take note.

Manufacturers faced heavy financial penalties for failing to improve car safety, when they knew the technology was available to do so and that many of the safety features in today's cars were not that expensive to install as a standard item.
Additionally, in the past, cars would leave the production line with the manufacturer fully aware that there was a mechanical issue. In some instances it was never addressed, because the cost to remedy the problem and to recall those cars affected would damage profitability. Even today, despite several successful court cases, there are still examples of vehicle manufacturers taking considerable time to recall calls, often denying there was anything wrong.

It is clear that profits came before improvements in car safety, but today things have changed dramatically. Any new design of car has all its safety features tested, often by independent organizations. A few years ago you would never see a car manufacturer's TV advertisement that was promoting how safe their car is; today manufacturers compete to produce safer and safer cars. The buying public has realized that car safety is essential. They take note of reports that test various cars safety features against each other.

In fact you wouldn't consider buying a car that didn't have anti-lock brakes, or airbags front, rear and sides; in fact you can't buy a car today that doesn't have these safety items automatically installed on every car, whatever the size and price.
It is a sad reflection on vehicle manufacturers that it took heavy financial penalties imposed through the court system to get improvements in car safety. However, the results have been good for the buying public and you can be sure that manufacturers now invest heavily in car safety with new safety features being added all the time.

Lawrence Reaves writes about Used Ford Engines and Used Ford Transmissions for Woodfins.com

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