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Side Airbag Timeline: All Vehicles

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IIHS has already done this so... here's the link!

Side Airbag and Stability Control Timeline

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The Volvo 240: How Safe is it Today?

A video of a 1982 Volvo 240 NHTSA crash test; the 240 was the best-performing vehicle NHTSA ever tested at that time. Mention the Volvo 240, and words like "tank", "indestructible", and "safe" get thrown around a lot. Anecdotes of the 240 saving lives are everywhere, backed up by data showing that the 240 had the lowest fatality rate of any vehicle during the '80s and '90s. The 240 was tested by NHTSA in 1982, and it was the best performer . It went up against the crash barrier again in '85 , and once again, aced the test. Not surprisingly, many still think it's a safe car by modern standards . While it is true that the 240 was well ahead of its time on safety, the fact remains that the 240 design came out in 1974. While Volvo did make improvements to the 240's safety throughout its 19-year production run (1974-1993) - such as improved seat belts starting in 1981 and a driver airbag in 1990 - it was still on largely the same 1970s...

Airbag Timeline: Pickup Trucks, 1993-1999

NOTE: the full size trucks on this list are the standard half-ton versions. Pickup trucks were late to get air bags, relative to cars; the first pickup to get an air bag, the Dodge Ram, went on sale in fall 1993 as a '94 model. In that same 1994 model year, Dodge also equipped their Dakota midsize truck with a standard driver air bag. The Ford F-150 (the best selling vehicle in America) as well as the Toyota T-100 also got a driver air bag standard starting with the '94 models. 1995 was the most common model year to make the switch. 5 of 12 models had their first driver air bag this year. General Motors equipped both their full-size and compact (Chevy S10/GMC Sonoma) trucks with standard driver air bags this year. The Ford Ranger and similar Mazda B-Series also came standard with a driver air bag. Later in the model year (March 1995) Toyota replaced its Pickup with the all-new Tacoma. which came standard with a driver air bag. Since Toyota produced both the Pickup and...

Airbag Timeline: Large Luxury Cars, 1983-1995

NOTE: As with all of my Airbag Timeline posts, this applies to the USA market. Foreign markets' airbag availability may vary. Luxury cars tend to get safety features first, with those features trickling down to cheaper cars over time. Airbags are a prime example of this. While most vehicles would wait until the 1990-1994 period to get their first airbag, the first airbag^ would make an appearance as an option on some 1984 Mercedes vehicles. By the end of the 1980s, you could even get a passenger airbag on some luxury vehicles! These 19 vehicles represent large luxury sedans and coupes; sports cars and exotic cars are not included in this group. Airbag availability in luxury cars kicked off in 1984, with Mercedes-Benz offering optional driver airbags in some S-Class and SL-Class vehicles. 1985 saw airbag availability spread to the Mercedes E-Class, as well as some BMW 7-Series models. For 1986, Mercedes-Benz made a driver airbag standard on all of their US-market vehicles...

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