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From: cb@hlwpc.UUCP (Carl Blesch)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: U.S. auto head restraint designs
Message-ID: <414@hlwpc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 26-Oct-84 13:45:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: hlwpc.414
Posted: Fri Oct 26 13:45:36 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 27-Oct-84 04:38:11 EDT
References: <538@watdcsu.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 21

>My question is: Why did GM/Ford/Chrysler/AMC design their headrests
>this way?  Did they save costs?  Did they want to preserve the
>aesthetic lines (!) of the bench seat?  Were they in a rush and didn't
>want to worry too much about it?  Gives you something to think about,
>doesn't it (especially about the domestic automakers' concern for
>safety...)?

As someone who was spared a serious whiplash injury two years ago
by one of those well-designed foreign headrests, I use my headrest as
religiously as my seatbelt.

What concerns me about the domestic design is when the friction-held 
center post is going to start slipping.  I need to put the headrest
UP everytime I drive my Chevy; my wife needs to put it DOWN;
and my three-year-old son loves to push it up and down for kicks!
One of these days, whatever holds that headrest in position is going
to stop gripping!
My Japanese car's headrest is held by locking notches, not friction.
I wish the domestic car headrests worked the same way!

Carl Blesch