GM WILL ADD SAFETY ITEMS TO ALL VEHICLES!

By Dale Jewett---Automotive News / January 31, 200

DETROIT -- General Motors will make two safety-oriented technologies, OnStar and stability control, standard on vehicles sold in the United States and Canada by 2010.

GM North America President Gary Cowger was scheduled to inform dealers on Sunday, Jan. 30, at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in New Orleans.

Plans call for the OnStar telecommunications service to be standard on all GM vehicles by 2007. One year of OnStar's Safe and Sound service plan will be included in the vehicle price. OnStar becomes standard on GM's mid-sized and full-sized SUVs ordered after Tuesday, Feb. 1. For the 2005 model year, GM says OnStar is standard on 32 models and available as an option on 25 others. StabiliTrak takes longer Adding stability control, which GM brands as StabiliTrak, to the entire lineup will take longer.

The technology, which uses steering wheel and yaw sensors to measure vehicle direction, must be calibrated for each vehicle line. All of GM's trucks and SUVs will be fitted with StabiliTrak by 2007. The StabiliTrak and OnStar effort covers all of GM's traditional brands in North America as well as the Saab brand. Some commercial vehicles will be excluded from the plan.

Making stability control standard means all GM vehicles also will be equipped with antilock brakes and traction control. GM made antilock brakes standard on many vehicles in the early 1990s. But GM switched to making the technology an extra-cost option on most entry-level vehicles later in the decade as a way to lower base prices.

Swayed by data GM was motivated to make the move with stability control by data from the government and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, says Mark LaNeve, North America vice president of marketing and advertising. The data show that vehicles equipped with the technology are involved in fewer crashes.

Safety advocates have been pushing automakers to increase the use of stability control, particularly for trucks and SUVs. Because those vehicles have a higher center of gravity, they are more likely to roll over in a crash. StabiliTrak is offered on about 20 percent of GM's vehicle line, notes Terry Connolly, director of GM's safety engineering center.

That includes all the automaker's full-sized SUVs. StabiliTrak was introduced on the 1997 Cadillac Seville. One factor in the time it will take to spread stability control throughout GM's lineup is the ability of suppliers to provide enough components, Connolly says. Some pieces, such as the brake hydraulic modulator, need to be assembled in "clean room" conditions.