First airbags in 1973? Who knew?!

[mommy-medic]

Thought this was a cool story (money wasting aside) about the first car with airbags.

Historic $500,000 Georgia Car Sits In Fed Warehouse

After reviewing federal government budgets and property inventories, Channel 2's Scott MacFarlane discovered the government is using taxpayer money to store and maintain a 1973 Chevrolet Impala, manufactured at the old Doraville Assembly plant in DeKalb County.

The car was one of a special line of 1,000 Impalas built in Doraville in 1973, which would become the first ever U.S. cars to include passenger airbags. The airbag technology was state-of-the-art and was first deployed on American roads through these Impala models. But this version of the Impala failed to gain popularity with the public and stalled the spread of airbag technology, which wouldn't become widely used in automobiles until the 1990s. Byron Bloch, an auto industry expert from Maryland called the car a historic treasure, "It's a unique car. And this is the last one remaining."

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/28261401/detail.html