Dodge Marketing New Ram on Safety?
Sorting through the press releases that cross my e-transom on an hourly basis is one of those giddy-producing boredom deals. "Thor Announces Preliminary Sales for Quarter, 12 Months; Backlog." Who knew the Norse god was accountable to stockholders? "Electric Car Night Adds a Jolt to Walter P. Chrysler Museum Series." For that you got paid? But when the most recent 2009 Dodge Ram press release arrived, I was genuinely surprised to see its focus: safety. Yes, in addition to the usual list of 33 standard (and I mean that literally) safety features (airbags! seat belt reminder! auto-reverse sunroof!), Ram buyers can enjoy (if that's the right word) standard Four-wheel Anti-lock Brake System (ABS) and Electronic Stability Program (ESP) with Hill Start Assist (HSA) and Trailer Sway Control (TSC). OK, thanks for that. But who decided to market the new mucho macho Ram as the Volvo station wagon of full-sized pickups? To be fair– nope. That's all I got.
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I googled "ram dashboard collapse". Here is what I found (Google will sometimes give multiple page listings for a single site if the search criteria is on it, so I condensed it): Video: 2001 Dodge Ram Dashboards Collapsing, Cracking, Dealerships Won't Fix - Consumerist | Stang Runner. Video: 2001 Dodge Ram Dashboards Collapsing, Cracking, Dealerships ... consumerist.com/consumer/video/2001-dodge-ram-dashboards-collapsing-cracking-dealerships-wont-fix-259413.php - Similar pages Is your 2001 dodge ram dash falling apart..... - Motor Trend ... Dodge Ram Owners Report Dashboards Collapsing, Cracking : ORLANDO, Fla. -- Several owners of 2001 Dodge Rams are reporting that the dashboards on their ... forums.motortrend.com/70/6921489/pickups-suvs/is-your-2001-dodge-ram-dash-falling-apart/index.html - 79k - Cached - Similar pages On Your Side: Dashboard Dangers / - Augusta News, Weather, Sports ... Jul 16, 2007 ... Plus they had not heard of any problems with the Ram Dashboard. I feel it is a safty concern ... Mine is about to collapse in the middle. ... www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/8536697.html - 94k - Cached - Similar pages 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 cracked dashboard -- [ CarComplaints.com ] You're worried about cracks in your 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 dashboard? ..... www.carcomplaints.com/Dodge/Ram_1500/2001/accessories-interior/cracked_dashboard.shtml - 145k - Cached - Similar pages Orlando Sentinel - WKMG delivers on collapsing-dashboard story ... May 2, 2007 ... WKMG delivers on collapsing-dashboard story, but is the station ... an eye-opening investigation into problems with the 2001 Dodge Ram. ... blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2007/05/wkmg_delivers_o.html ---------- OK call me stupid, but, it looks to me this was a problem with the 2001 models, which according to Wikipedia is the last year of the 1994-2001 generation. Not only are talking about 7, almost 8 years ago, the 2009 is T-W-O generations removed. If I go buy a Camry today, will the engine sludge? I doubt it. If memory serves me they fixed the sludge problem. I would think the same applies to the Ram or I would have found more recent model years.
You know a company is in trouble when it starts to use safety as a selling point - normally they dont give a damn about the passengers as long as they move plenty units
That is too broad a statement. The truth is that some companies (and individuals) have championed safety and at other times fought it or ignored it. You could write a column about this but it would take at least two parts. Sometimes companies pushed safety because they believed in it. Other times because they wanted to market it. There are a lot of stories I could tell. Lee Iaccoca pushed saftey while an up and comer at Ford (he tried to demonstrate the new padded dash at Ford by dropping raw eggs on it while perched on a step ladder) - it didn't go over too well. Later at Chrysler he opposed air bags at first - he was worried about false deployments and the lawsuits that would follow. When the engineers convinced him that it was a non-issue, he got behind it. Another interesting tidbit - he was all for the ignition interlock. This would prevent a car from starting if you didn't have your seatbelt on. His take on it was we have all kinds of regulations about wearing helmuts on cycles, etc. so how was this any different? After this proposal worked it's way thru congress and NHTSA it became just a buzzer that would not go off if you didn't buckle. Drivers circumvented this by buckling the seatbelt behind them. So it became in effect neutered. The public complained about them so much that the automakers changed it to a buzzer that would sound for a certain amount of time and then go off. Then the sound became a pleasant chime. Well, that's gonna make you buckle up, isn't it? And all those saftey groups and folks like Nader who clamored for "passive" safety devices (meaning it does not require active participation from the driver or passengers - remember the automatic seatbelts in the door?) to protect us? Well they lobbied congress to have airbags that would be powerful enough to stop a 150 lb occupant who was not buckled in from hitting the dash. Result? Children and small adults were being killed by airbags. The engineers tried to tell the regulators this was not a good idea. When you look at the history of auto safety and the tangled web between automakers, government and the safety lobby it's a miracle that cars are as safe as they are today.