"Lohan-Proof" Your German-Market Volvo For 850
Around the world, drunk driving is a deadly problem without an easy solution. After all, the link between driving under the influence and generally screwing up your life (and the lives of others) has been conclusively proven, and yet the problem continues. What to do? Volvo’s answer: buy a Volvo and spend €850 (plus up to €90 for installation) on “Alcoguard,” a dealer-installed optional breathalyzer ignition interlock. With this system in place, drivers must blow into an interlock, proving that they are beneath the legal blood-alcohol-content limit before the vehicle will start.
Similar systems are used as probation terms for repeat DUI offenders in several US states, where they have been effective yet controversial. But, as Sebastian Renz puts it in a column in the latest print edition of Auto Motor und Sport
Nobody consciously drives drunk. And anyone who might drive drunk isn’t going to buy this device
Needless to say, we couldn’t agree more. And we applaud Volvo’s decision thus far to not waste money trying to market this pointless feature on US-market Volvos. On the other hand, maybe they are missing an opportunity: like all pointless vehicle options, this one might actually do quite well in the Los Angeles area.
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Pointless? Fleet buyers love alcolocks. Lawmakers loves alcolocks. Other than cost there is no good reason they shouldnt be mandated on all new cars.
So what does this thing do that a rubber bulb won't get around?
Starting with LEOS... http://www.pulledover.com/Missouri-DWI-News/labels/Law%20Enforcement%20Officers%20Charged%20with%20DWI.html There's a different standard that applies, at least until you kill FOUR innocent civilians. Even then, 'the law' is there for you, far more than any normal citizen...
Some fleet buyers are already buying cars with Alcolock. Example from Denmark: Wall Street Journal April 10 2010: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052702304703104575174242543577012.html "Even under the new rules, drivers of Carlsberg's 600 beer trucks, vans and cars can still drink up to three bottles of brew daily. But now company vehicles come equipped with an Alcolock, a device drivers must blow into before turning on the ignition. If the device detects excessive alcohol, the vehicle won't start. Mr. Christiansen says the Alcolocks are fine, so long as the company doesn't take away the suds. "A driver usually has one beer on his lunch break, another after his shift and maybe he gives the third one away," says the 40-year-old, who quit driving a truck two years ago to be a union rep."