Less than a year ago, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall called on the automakers to establish child safety-seat inspection stations at their dealerships.
Hall’s reasoning was simple: “Children aren’t restrained in six of every 10 auto fatalities, and child seats aren’t installed properly in eight of every 10 cars. In the ’90s, 15,000 children under the age of 10 died in auto crashes.”
Hall was speaking at a Chicago Auto Show press conference, where DaimlerChrysler announced a nationwide $10 million program to inspect 800,000 child seats annually at its dealerships.
Hall called on the competition to join DaimlerChrysler–quickly.
DaimlerChrysler said it has set up inspection stations at 400 of its dealerships now and will have them at 1,000 stores by year-end, and owners of any make or model vehicle–not just DaimlerChrysler–are welcome.
“Never thought one company would answer the call so quickly,” Hall said.
Sue Cischke, senior vice president of regulatory affairs and passenger-car operations for DaimlerChrysler, said common problems surfaced at all inspections in pilot programs last year: The seat wasn’t correct for the child’s age or weight; the seat belt wasn’t properly fastened on the seat; the seat was placed in the path of an air bag; and children were put in forward-facing seats before they reached age 1, before their heads and necks were fully developed.
Another problem is with child seats purchased at garage sales.
“We check to see if the seat has been damaged, has been in an accident or has been recalled. You can’t do that at a garage sale,” Cischke said.
Cischke said each participating DaimlerChrysler dealer has been asked to train two workers to administer the inspections so they can be performed a minimum of four hours per week.
When should you have an inspection?
Each time you change the seat in the car, she said, from rear-facing to front-facing to booster. If in doubt, have it inspected.
Why 2 Z?: Jerry Hirshberg, president of Nissan Design, said two prototype Z-car coupes have been built, one by designers in Japan, the other by U.S. stylists, and the two are very far apart.
“Before this summer a decision has to be made on which car we go with,” he said. “But whichever it is, we have moved away from the retro design we had on the early concepts. We figured it’s a new century so why not move away from retro. So the Z car will not be a (Volkswagen) Beetle or a (Ford) Thunderbird.”
Nissan was supposed to unveil the Z coupe at the New York Auto Show in April, but Hirshberg said it will introduce the redesigned 2001 Infiniti Q45 sedan and leave the Z at home.
“Also, we figured that rather than spend the time and money on coming up with a new concept because the car will have a different design than the old concept shown the last couple of years, we’ll spend the time and money on getting the car to market sooner in mid-2001 as a 2002 model,” Hirshberg said.
Hirshberg said the Z car will be offered in coupe and convertible versions.
“We designed both at the same time, but the coupe will come out first, the convertible months later,” he said.
Toyota’s truckin’: Why did Toyota bring out a full-size Tundra pickup when U.S. automakers dominate that market segment?
Easy. Because the U.S. automakers dominate that segment.
In the 1999 calendar year, Tundra was responsible for Toyota picking up 2 points of market share in the truck segment. The arrival of the Sequoia sport-utility vehicle this fall that’s built off the Tundra, will contribute to truck sales, too, as will a compact 2001 Tacoma four-door Crew Cab coming out in October.
“Our mix was at 38 to 39 percent trucks in 1999 and the aim is 50 percent for 2000 because that’s where the market is,” said Don Esmond, Toyota general manager.
Toyota will unveil two more trucks. The redesigned 2001 compact RAV4 sport-ute will be introduced at the New York Auto Show in April along with a new sport-ute due to arrive in January, the Toyota Highlander, a lower-priced version of the Lexus RX300. It should arrive at about the same time as the Buick Rendezvous, a lower-priced rival to the $35,000 RX300.
Matter of age: For what it’s worth, Esmond said the average age of a Tacoma 4×4 pickup buyer is 36, yet the average age of a Tacoma 4×2 buyer is 42.
Sales pickup: Toyota isn’t alone in the push toward trucks.
“We sold 700,000 vehicles in the U.S. last year but want to be a million-vehicle player in three years,” said Jed Connelly, Nissan general manager.
A redesigned compact Frontier pickup arrives this fall and an optional 210-horsepower, supercharged V-6 will be added a few months later. Nissan forecasts a 10 percent increase in Frontier sales to 100,000 units, 10,000 supercharged. But a full-size pickup would help Nissan even more toward its million-vehicle goal.
“Our sales mix was 42 percent trucks in 1999. We need to be in the same 50 percent truck range as the other automakers in order to compete,” Connelly said.
“One of our priorities is a large pickup, and no one (at headquarters in Japan) has said no to us yet. Since we’re at zero in full-size trucks now, anything we do would have upside potential. We’ll know about a full-size truck in three to six months. Our hopes are high. It would take three years to get one. If we get a full-size truck, you can be assured we’d get a full-size sport-utility in the same time frame,” he said.
2WD and AWD: The Mazda Nextourer at the auto show was a front-wheel-drive concept, but insiders say all-wheel-drive is planned for the production version, which is about three years away. Nextourer is about the size of a 626, but some say it could be the next-generation Millenia. Neat touch: push-button control to fold the rear seats when loading the cargo hold.
Ute movement: Daewoo of South Korea brings the Korando sport-utility to market this summer as a 2001 model in two-door hardtop or two-door convertible versions. Daewoo Vice President Bill Tucker said a four-door “is a couple of years away.” Korando will start at about $20,000.
Fun for all: It’s not just consumers who appreciate all the trucks and truck derivatives and hybrids coming to market.
“Designers haven’t had a lot to do with innovative trucks in 30 to 40 years. They love it,” said Rick Wagoner, president of General Motors.
Many concepts at this year’s auto show had a truck or sport-ute flavor for the automakers to determine how far they can go and still interest consumers.
“In the last few years we’ve developed lots of concepts. Some succeeded, some didn’t. If all succeeded it would mean we weren’t pushing enough. You do concepts for two reasons: to get public reaction to what you plan to do and to warn the public what you might do,” Wagoner said.
What’s next for SVT?: President Jim O’Connor says Ford has no plans to build an SVT (Special Vehicle Team) performance edition of the 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Trac pickup derivative of the Ford Explorer sport-ute.
Ford offers an SVT Mustang Cobra and Contour in the car lineup and an SVT Lightning version of the F-150 full-size pickup.
“We’re looking at other vehicles for SVT models and hope to have one in 2001 but I won’t say if it’s a car or a truck,” O’Connor said.
Fad alert: So everyone wants a truck and the automakers are busy trying to come up with new and novel offerings to meet the demand. But, reminds Jim Holden, president of DaimlerChrysler, consumers can be fickle.
“How many remember that 15 years ago we were all running out of trucks to get into front-wheel-drive cars,” he noted.
Fortune telling: And what type of trucks should be built?
“In 1989, extended-cab pickups accounted for 5 percent of all truck sales. Today they are at 70 percent. Try to read the market five years ahead of time and you could be sorry,” said Chevy general manager Kurt Ritter.
