Quote:
Originally Posted by Penguin
Interesting. I think truck did have some looser regulations that passenger vehicles, e.g., my 1992 Ford Explorer doesn't have air bags, but I believe passenger vehicles (cars) had to have them in 1992.
Anyone know if the locking steering wheel was a legal requirement, or just an industry standard to reduce insurance premiums?
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Federal Safety Standard in the US, likely cloned by other jurisdictions. Came in around 1970 as I recall (not sure of the exact date). It applies to light trucks the same as to cars. It is a safety standard, designed for theft protection; the thinking was that stolen vehicles were often crashed and involved in accidents with other vehicles. Later on the automatic transmission interlock (put it in park to remove the key) was added to the same standard.
This may not be true on all vehicles, but all of my vehicles had an ignition off position before you got to the lock position. The lock relates to being able to remove the key, not turning the vehicle off. There has always been a risk that turning off the key, a driver would go an additional click and lock the steering wheel, but they are designed as two separate indents in my experience.
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