Lifeguard (automobile safety)

Lifeguard was the name of a 1956 safety package marketed by the Ford Motor Company.

Spurred by Robert McNamara, the Cornell University crash research program and the first year of Ford's own crash testing in 1955, the Lifeguard package included: According to some[who?

], the buying public was unresponsive to the Lifeguard package, prompting Henry Ford II to say: McNamara is selling safety, but Chevrolet is selling cars.

[citation needed] However, Ralph Nader and Joan Claybrook dispute this, claiming that the package was extremely popular.

[8] In 1957, Ford updated the Lifeguard safety package with a new frame that bowed out to provide greater coverage of the passengers,[9] rear child-proof door locks,[10] a front hinged hood to protect against the hood flying up in the wind, and recessed knobs.