Honda-Acura.net - View Single Post - Proposed senate bill would add crash data to vehicle price stickers

May 19, 2005 | 10:34 AM

#1

MrFatbooty

Wannabe yuppie

Joined: Dec 2000

Posts: 25,918

Likes: 0

From: Madison, WI

Proposed senate bill would add crash data to vehicle price stickers

If a U.S. Senate-passed bill becomes law, crash-test ratings of new vehicles will become mandatory information on new-vehicle "Monroney" stickers, along with manufacturers' suggested retail price and fuel economy averages. Crash-test and rollover ratings now are compiled and published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Manufacturers use favorable results in their vehicle advertising. But shoppers checking out vehicle safety rankings find little help in showrooms, and most rely on Consumer Reports Magazine or the NHTSA's website for data on crash resistance or rollover propensity.

The Senate bill now under consideration must go to the U.S. House of Representatives for a conference procedure. President Bush has spoken of vetoing the measure because of its cost, but there is no opposition from the auto industry because of the crash ratings clause. The bill would dole out not only funds to the states for new and improved roads, but it would also allocate $6 million to NHTSA to clear a backlog in ordering vehicles for the crash tests and rollovers it regularly performs. Currently, most vehicles receive four or five stars, out of a maximum five, for frontal impact, side impact and rollover resistance. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) study has criticized the rankings as indicating "little differentiation" from a consumer point of view.

Last year, NHTSA spent $7.7 million to conduct 85 crash tests and 36 rollover tests. The chief champion of adding crash data to the "Monroneys" (MSRP), named after former U.S. Senator Mike Monroney of Oklahoma, who sponsored the price-sticker mandate in the late 1950s, is Senator Mike DeWine, (R) Ohio.

http://www.thecarconnection.com/Indu...173.A8632.html

Reply

0