While watching some old commercials from April 1994, I came across an ad comparing the '94 Ford Tempo and '94 Chevy Cavalier where it said that "Tempo's available with an air bag. Chevy's not."
I immediately thought, "That's true, but weren't there several cars in the same class - small cars - that had dual bags standard by this time? And didn't most '94 compacts at least give you a driver bag standard, including Ford's own '94 Escort?" This got me curious: how many of the 1994 compact cars had dual air bags standard? Just a driver air bag? No air bags? And what was the timeline for air bag introduction among compact cars?
This post covers the timeline for air bag fitment of compact cars between 1989 and 1998. Luxury compact cars are not included; this is the standard compact market, exemplified by vehicles such as the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Dodge Neon, Chevy Cavalier, etc. Since this market segment is so competitive, there is a large number of models. 18 models (not including badge-engineered variants, vehicles that are largely similar but sold under different name plates) were compared. The dates were chosen to represent a span of time that encompassed the introduction of air bags in all small cars; 1989 was the last year that no car had a driver air bag standard, and 1998 was the first year that dual air bags were federally mandated. Between these years, the small car class would make the leap from one vehicle with an optional (and, at $815, expensive) air bag to dual air bags standard class-wide.
I immediately thought, "That's true, but weren't there several cars in the same class - small cars - that had dual bags standard by this time? And didn't most '94 compacts at least give you a driver bag standard, including Ford's own '94 Escort?" This got me curious: how many of the 1994 compact cars had dual air bags standard? Just a driver air bag? No air bags? And what was the timeline for air bag introduction among compact cars?
This post covers the timeline for air bag fitment of compact cars between 1989 and 1998. Luxury compact cars are not included; this is the standard compact market, exemplified by vehicles such as the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Dodge Neon, Chevy Cavalier, etc. Since this market segment is so competitive, there is a large number of models. 18 models (not including badge-engineered variants, vehicles that are largely similar but sold under different name plates) were compared. The dates were chosen to represent a span of time that encompassed the introduction of air bags in all small cars; 1989 was the last year that no car had a driver air bag standard, and 1998 was the first year that dual air bags were federally mandated. Between these years, the small car class would make the leap from one vehicle with an optional (and, at $815, expensive) air bag to dual air bags standard class-wide.
See it larger at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmyyyy1992/28140644694/in/datetaken-public/
Correction, August 28, 2019: The 1993 Honda Civic has a standard driver airbag and an optional passenger airbag. The chart shows it as having a driver airbag only.
BY THE MODEL YEAR (Note: AB - air bag)
1989 (13 cars) - 12 w/no AB, 1 w/opt. driver AB,
1990 (14 cars) - 11 w/no AB, 1 w/opt. driver AB, 2 w/std. driver AB
1991 (16 cars) - 12 w/no AB, 1 w/opt. driver AB, 3 w/std. driver AB
1992 (17 cars) - 11 w/no AB, 2 w/opt. driver AB, 4 w/std. driver AB
1993 (17 cars) - 8 w/ no AB, 2 w/opt. driver AB, 6 w/std. driver AB, 1 w/std. driver and opt. passenger AB
1994 (17 cars) - 3 w/no AB, 2 w/opt driver AB, 7 w/std. driver AB, 5 w/std. dual AB
1995 (17 cars) - 1 w/no AB, 3 w/std. driver AB, 13 w/std. dual AB
1996 (17 cars) - 1 w/std. driver AB, 16 w/std. dual AB
1997 (16 cars) - 16 w/ std. dual AB
1998 (16 cars) - ditto
The first time a consumer could get a small car with an air bag was 1985, with the Ford Tempo, if you were willing to put up with limited option choices and cough up $815 (that's equivalent to $1,826 today), and while sales were decent, government buyers and fleets made up a large portion.
If you didn't want a Tempo, you had to wait until the 1990 model year to get a driver air bag. Chrysler Corporation made a noble decision to include driver air bags as standard on all of their US-built cars (read: over 90% of the vehicles they sold) starting in the 1990 model year, and the Dodge Shadow and Plymouth Sundance were beneficiaries of this policy. Isuzu introduced its Stylus late in the '90 model year, and it also came with a standard driver air bag.
For 1991, the Chevrolet Corsica/Beretta made a driver air bag standard. The Saturn S-Series and Hyundai Elantra were introduced without air bags.
The 1992 model year saw the Honda Civic get a driver air bag standard, and the Saturn S-Series made one optional beginning in the spring of 1992. The Mazda MX-3 bowed without an air bag.
More vehicles added driver air bags in 1993: the Toyota Corolla and the new Subaru Impreza, which replaced the Loyale. The Saturn S-Series made its driver air bag standard equipment, and the Nissan Sentra now had an optional driver air bag (standard on the top-end GXE trim). The Honda Civic became the first car in the class to offer a passenger air bag; it was optional on the high-line EX trim. For the first time, small cars that offered air bags outnumbered those that didn't.
Air bags continued their rapid spread with small cars in 1994. The Pontiac Grand Am, Ford Escort, Mitsubishi Mirage and Hyundai Elantra all made driver air bags standard this year. Passenger air bags were introduced to the Toyota Corolla and Subaru Impreza, while the Honda Civic made dual air bags standard. The Mazda MX-3 and Volkswagen Jetta/Golf jumped straight from no air bags in '93 to standard dual air bags in '94. Only three vehicles - the Chevrolet Cavalier, Mazda Protege, and the new Kia Sephia didn't offer air bags this year. 12 out of 17 cars had at least one bag standard.
In 1995, most small cars made dual air bags standard in one fell swoop. Two of the three air bag holdouts in '94 - the Chevrolet Cavalier and Mazda Protege - included dual air bags standard with their '95 models. The Saturn S-Series, Ford Escort, and Mitsubishi Mirage added a passenger air bag, while the Dodge Shadow was replaced with the Neon, which like most '95 small cars, had dual air bags standard. Dual air bags were suddenly the norm - only the Chevrolet Corsica/Beretta, Pontiac Grand Am, Hyundai Elantra soldiered on with just a driver air bag, while the Kia Sephia still didn't have an air bag.
For 1996, the Pontiac Grand Am and Hyundai Elantra added a passenger air bag, while the Kia Sephia finally got an air bag (two of them, actually). This left the Chevrolet Corsica/Beretta alone with just one air bag.
The Chevrolet Beretta/Corsica were dropped after 1996, meaning that all 1997 small cars had standard dual air bags.
Nice list, but the Honda Civic had an optional passenger airbag starting in the fall of 1992, on 1993 EX trim level. The Corolla was redesigned around November 1992 a std. driver's airbag, but waited until MY1994 for the passenger airbag as std.
ReplyDeleteIn late 1992, the Accord SE sedan, in the CB7 generation's last year, got a std passenger airbag (nvm tooling and R&D expenses) to one up the Civic EX option.
Neon appeared in January 1994, not so much 1995.
Updated. Your post, corroborated with some research, shows that the 1993 Civic did have an optional passenger airbag on the EX trim level. As such, it would be considered "standard driver airbag, optional passenger airbag", as would the 1993 Accord.
DeleteIn all of my lists, "optional" means that you could get the listed airbag on that model and year, but that it wasn't standard on all models. That could mean anything to optional on a particular trim level or range of trim levels to optional on all models to standard on some trim levels and optional on others.
As for the years, this list is labeled by model years. Although the Neon was first sold in January 1994 (and went into production in November 1993!), it was first sold as a 1995 model year vehicle.
I always found that odd about the Accord too. (I drive a 2011 Accord myself, and I was born during the '93 model year). I wonder if the gained sales recouped their costs, or would they have been better off just waiting for the 1994 redesign to offer any passenger airbag?
Then again, most of the R&D and tooling costs would have been to put the driver airbag in the Accord for 1992; engineering wise, it's easier to go from no airbag to a driver airbag than from a driver airbag to dual airbags. That's why I suspect some vehicles jumped straight to dual airbags. The CB7 already had been equipped with the airbag sensors, control module, etc to fit the driver airbag.
Ha, I think I know you from YouTube.
DeleteTrue about the Neon, as per the chart it’s much neater to categorize by model year.
I think that the 1992 model year Accord was supposed to offer dual airbags like the 1992 Taurus, but possibly they reneged and changed their mind.
It was still pretty expensive to offer dual airbags in the early 90s, so a lot of cars skipped it until a redesign for mid-90s. Adding a second one in the last year was weird, because they were already finished with the 1994 model by then.
The 1992 Acura Vigor introduced in June 1991, got them as standard in late 1992 for 93, whereas only std offering on SE sedan.
Although longitudinal, the Vigor was CB7 related, only came with drivers side only its first year.
Not sure why Honda waited, but it happens. IIRC the 1991 Accord Wagon was the first Honda-badged car in USA. with a drivers airbag in November 1990.
The 1993 Civic EX was the first compact in the world to even offer a passenger airbag in autumn 1992, as not even BMW, Volvo, or Mercedes-Benz did anywhere globally.
Unfortunate how that has been lost to history and underrated, as it’s an achievement cars costing 4-6x more couldn’t even boast of in late 1992.
Hi Jimmy, I am so sorry I didn’t reply sooner. This is JLR113. You’re doing the lord’s work here and I thank you for it.
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