Category: Automobiles

Choices

“American auto buyers, who had about 100 models available to buy in the 1950s and 1960s, now have more than 1,400 choices.”
Source: Columnist Tom Walsh in the Detroit Free Press.

Like a rock

Nationwide, and in such locales as Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Washington the most stolen vehicle is a Toyota Camry. It’s the Honda Accord in Denver; same in Oregon.

In New Mexico it’s the Ford F-150; in Arizona it’s the Chevy Silverado. Our thieves are tough.

The first Dodge…

was completed on this date in 1914. When asked why the Dodge Brothers wanted to build their own car, John Dodge replied, “Just think of all the Ford owners who will someday want an automobile.”

Some background from This Day in Automotive History from the History Channel:

John and Horace, who began their business career as bicycle manufacturers in 1897, first entered the automotive industry as auto parts manufacturers in 1901. They built engines for Ransom Olds and Henry Ford among others, and in 1910 the Dodge Brothers Company was the largest parts-manufacturing firm in the United States. In 1914, the intrepid brothers founded the new Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company, and began work on their first complete automobile at their Hamtramck [Michigan] factory. Dodge vehicles became known for their quality and sturdiness, and by 1919, the Dodge brothers were among the richest men in America. In early 1920, just as he was completing work on his 110-room mansion on the Grosse Point waterfront in Michigan, John fell ill from respiratory problems and died. Horace, who also suffered from chronic lung problems, died from pneumonia in December of the same year. The company was later sold to a New York bank and in 1928 the Chrysler Corporation bought the Dodge name, its factories, and the large network of Dodge car dealers.

NewMexiKen applied for a job at Dodge Main in Hamtramck in 1965 or 1966, but ended up in an electrical equipment factory nearby — ITE Bulldog. Dodge Main was the original Dodge factory, ultimately demolished in 1980. Though I heard that work at Dodge Main was particularly tough and dirty I always thought it would have been cool to build cars, even if only for a summer. Or, more likely, especially if only for a summer.

Wrong Turn

Lengthy 2001 New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell on the evolution of air bags and the continuing importance of seat belts.

“Every two miles, the average driver makes four hundred observations, forty decisions, and one mistake. Once every five hundred miles, one of those mistakes leads to a near collision, and once every sixty-one thousand miles one of those mistakes leads to a crash.”

“Daniel Simons, a professor of psychology at Harvard, has done a more dramatic set of experiments, following on the same idea. He and a colleague, Christopher Chabris, recently made a video of two teams of basketball players, one team in white shirts and the other in black, each player in constant motion as two basketballs are passed back and forth. Observers were asked to count the number of passes completed by the members of the white team. After about forty-five seconds of passes, a woman in a gorilla suit walks into the middle of the group, stands in front of the camera, beats her chest vigorously, and then walks away. “Fifty per cent of the people missed the gorilla,” Simons says. “We got the most striking reactions. We’d ask people, ‘Did you see anyone walking across the screen?’ They’d say no. Anything at all? No. Eventually, we’d ask them, ‘Did you notice the gorilla?’ And they’d say, ‘The what?’…Talking on a cell phone and trying to drive, for instance, is not unlike trying to count passes in a basketball game and simultaneously keep track of wandering animals.”

Why?

Consumer Reports says that the following car manufacturers have power window switches that are potentially dangerous: Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, GMC, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Chrysler and Dodge. Pushing down on the switch raises the window, which means a kid with his head out the window could be leaning on the switch. At least 25 children died during the past decade from injuries involving power windows.

These car manufacturers have switches that require you to pull up, and thus are considerably safer: Acura, Audi, BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo. (Mazda, Isuzu and Saturn have both.)

Understandably this is a small problem and one should never leave kids in the car with the keys, but why aren’t American companies as careful as the foreign manufacturers?

Each year an estimated 284,000 distracted drivers are involved in serious crashes

Drivers under 20 were especially likely to be distracted by tuning the radio or changing CDs, while young adults (ages 20 – 29) seemed to be more distracted by other passengers. Drivers over 65 were more distracted by objects or events happening outside the vehicle. Most of the distracted drivers were male (63 percent), in part because as a group males drive more than females and are more likely to be involved in serious crashes.

Approximately one-third of subjects used a cell phone while driving. Forty percent engaged in reading or writing.

Child passengers were about four times, and infants about eight times, more likely to cause distraction than adult passengers.

University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center Study