Seat Belts

Seat belts remain one of the most important safety features in your vehicle. In the event of a crash, seat belts are designed to keep you inside the vehicle and reduce the risk of you hitting the steering wheel, dashboard, or windshield. We recommend that new buyers sit in a vehicle, buckle up their seat belts, and check the fit. Check the Available Features chart for each vehicle at for the availability of additional seat belt features such as adjustable upper belt anchorages, seat belt pretensioners, energy management features, integrated seat belt systems, seat belt extenders, and innovative belt reminder systems.

Innovative Belt Reminder Systems

The purpose of a seat belt reminder is to remind vehicle occupants to wear their seat belts. The Federal standard requires all vehicles to have a four- to eight-second reminder for the driver. This reminder appears as a dashboard warning light (often designed as a person in a seat belt) that also makes a sound. Some manufacturers have voluntarily installed innovative systems that go beyond the Federal standard and provide additional warnings when occupants are not using seat belts. These systems have visual and/or audio warnings to remind drivers to buckle up; a system to warn rear seat passengers is not yet available. In addition, some of these systems also sense how fast the vehicle is traveling, and increases the frequency of the warning..

Frontal Air Bags

Depending on the severity of the crash, frontal air bags inflate to prevent occupants from hitting the steering wheel, dashboard, and windshield. Frontal air bags for both drivers and passengers have been standard equipment in all vehicles since 1998.
Frontal air bags do not eliminate the need for seat belts and typically do not offer protection in rollovers, side-impact, or rear-end crashes. Air bag effectiveness depends upon the proper use of seat belts, which help keep you in place should a collision occur. Occupants who are unbelted or out-of-position can end up being seriously injured or killed if they are too close to the air bag when it deploys.

Advanced (Frontal) Air Bag Systems

Advanced air bag systems are the next-generation frontal air bag system designed to further reduce the likelihood of serious injury or death to occupants, whether adults or children, who may be too close to the air bag when it deploys. Most advanced air bag systems use sensors that automatically detect the severity of the crash, the occupant’s size, seat belt use, and/or seating position, and deploy the appropriate level of power to the driver’s and passenger’s frontal air bags.
You will need to talk with the dealer or review the owner’s manual to learn more about the specific features and sensor technologies in use as part of the advanced air bag system.
Reduce the risk of injury from any frontal air bag by observing the following:

• Buckle your seat belt.
• Keep about 10 inches or more between your chest and the air bag cover.
• Never place a rear-facing infant seat in front of an air bag, even a reduced-power or advanced air bag, unless the air bag on-off switch is in the OFF position.
• Place children age 13 and under in the back seat, and make sure they are properly restrained, either in seat belts or child safety seats that are appropriate for their size, weight, and age.

On-Off Switches

An on-off switch can deactivate the driver’s or passenger’s air bag. Almost all vehicles without rear seats or with small rear seats, such as pickups and sports cars, now include a passenger-side on-off switch as standard equipment.

If you own a vehicle without an on-off switch and have a demonstrated need to have one installed by a dealer or repair facility, you may do so if you meet one of the following conditions:

• You must transport a child age 13 or under, including an infant riding in rear-facing infant seat, in the front passenger seat.
• You have a medical condition where the air bag poses a special risk that outweighs the risk of hitting your head, neck, or chest in a rash if the air bag is turned off.
• You cannot change your customary driving position and keep 10 inches between the center of the steering wheel and the center of your chest.
  

Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)

It is advisable to check the pressure in all your tires, including the spare, at least once a month because a tire doesn’t have to be punctured by a foreign object, such as a nail, to lose air. All tires will naturally lose some air over time. In fact, under inflation is a leading cause of tire failure.
The Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) uses a dashboard warning light to alert the driver when one or more of a vehicle’s tires is significantly under inflated – a leading cause of tire failure. A tire is considered significantly under inflated when its pressure is 25% below the vehicle manufacturer’s recommended tire inflation pressure.

Consider Vehicle Weight

All other things being equal, a heavier vehicle will generally better protect you in a crash. This is particularly the case in two-vehicle crashes. NHTSA research historically has shown that occupants in passenger cars are at a greater risk of being fatally injured when struck in the front or the side by a heavier and higher-riding light truck (such as a pickup) or SUV. Improved energy absorbing front ends and safety technologies such as head-protecting side-impact air bags can help lower this risk to vehicle occupants.