Fleets eh ? but now standard .
gps ? saltelite vehicle locating ?
@ken green
Its standard on all new car and light duty trucks and they have been standard for a while. Even the stripped down base models.
Air bag ?
( still thinking about the fleet use first…then standard later. )
third brake light ?
Turning signals were an option that I believe started with GM cars back in the 1930s. As I remember, the Buick had an insignia on the trunk that said “Buick” on one side and “Eight” on the other. The “Buick” lit up when a left turn was signaled and the “Eight” lit up when the right turn was signaled. Turning signals weren’t standard–neither my 1947 Pontiac nor my 1948 Dodge had the option.
A second guess would be back up lights. As late as 1965, back up lights were an option. I had them installed on my 1965 Rambler.
The option I am thinking of cost at least 180 dollars when it was introduced. We are talking the early-mid 1970’s
Oh, 70s.
The1990 tv show threw a curve.
@ken green
yep, Airbags!
In 1973 Gm made 1000 chevys equipped with dual front airbags, the first 1000 were mostly sold to fleets. Then from 74-76 they made about 10,000 cars equipped with them,
I was watching seinfeld, and the episode where kramer adopts a highway and turns it from 4 lanes to 2, he is shown driving his impala and it has the optional ACRS Air Cusion Restraint System.
The thing is, ford and gm were the first to offer airbags, then they fought hard against them.
An interesting excerpt on airbags,
"Both Ford and General Motors began inflatable restraint experimentation in the late '50s based on John Hetrick’s 1953 patent.
Ford had planned on introducing air bag equipped vehicles for the 1971 model year. The program was shelved at the end of 1969 due to insurmountable problems.
Both GM and Ford were stymid by two tall technical hurdles: accurately and reliably sensing the need for crash protection and inflating the air bag in roughly 40 milliseconds.
1973- General Motors manufactures 1,000 Chevrolets equipped with experimental air bags and provides them to fleet customers for testing. Infant, unrestrained on the passenger seat of one of the experimental Chevrolets, is killed when a passenger bag deploys in a wreck. GM considers that the first air bag fatality.
1974-1976 GM offers air bags as a option on select GM vehicles. At the time, the optional air bag system cost $180- $300 in 1974 dollars.
The 1974 Oldsmobile Toronado is considered the first production GM vehicle to offer a air bag system as a option.
GM had set up production to allow 100,000 air bag units to be produced each year. In reality, GM only sold 10,321 air bag equipped vehicles over a three year period.
GM owned AC Electronics provided the accelerometers used in these early air bag systems. They originally had been designed and developed for the Boeing 747 inertial navigation system.
At the time, GM’s first generation air bags were the most sophisticated electro-mechanical system engineered for an automobile.To facilitate detailed crash data and analysis of the events after a major collision, GM’s electronic- monitoring system was fitted with a set of sensors to record and quantify the crash sequence. Basically, the air bag crash data was being recorded back in 1974.
7 years after GM withdrew its optional air bag, Mercedes Benz offered an air bag equipped vehicle."
intermittent wipers ?
How about a driver’s side air bag?
Airbag?
@wheresrick remember a used car dealer offering cordless cigarette lighter! Real guess cng option like my 00 ford pick up truck.
A luggage rack that works as a luggage rack.
@WheresRick How about optional airbags? Offered in 1973 to government fleets and in 1975 on GM large cars.
@Barkydog: “remember a used car dealer offering cordless cigarette lighter!” – oh, so it came with a Bic? Aren’t all car lighters cordless–you push them in to heat up, but then, no cord…
@Mustangman: My dad’s 1974 Olds Toronado had airbags. I think they inflated with CO2, at least on the passenger side.
I remember going to the 1974 World’s Fair and visiting the GM pavilion (I was 11 at the time). During a packed demonstration I and 2 others were called out of the audience to sit in the front seat of an Oldsmobile station wagon. The emcee described the car being on a trip and a mishap occurring and then suddenly airbags deployed in the Olds right in front of our faces! Thankfully that’s the only personal experience thus far that I’ve had with airbags.
Right you are @oblivion. One other maybe a 72 Monte Carlo a swivel driver seat for easy entrance and exit.
Yes it was gm’s airbags, i put a snippet about them in a earlier post on page 11.
My Uncle had a Lincoln Continental in the seventies that had some kind of sensor that turned the windshield wipers on when it rained. as I remember, it also had those auto dimming headlights. He also had a 1940’s or 50’s something Big Mercedes 4 door convertible, supposedly 1 of only 80 made. the rest of the family called it his Hitler staff car.
Reminds me of a funny story. Had a 68 cougar xr7, and there was a left foot pedal to actuate the windshield wipers and spray clean. I kidded my friend, voice actuated I said, then said clean windshield, whoosh of cleaner and wipers in motion, though it was just me hitting the extra left foot pedal.