But rather do without retrofitting seat belts
Volvo was one of the pioneers and fitted seat belts as standard in its cars as early as the beginning of the 1960s. Other manufacturers, however, took more time because, like so many other safety features, seat belts were not controversial. By the end of the sixties, however, its contribution to preventing the consequences of accidents had been confirmed and at the beginning of the seventies, seat belts became mandatory equipment, at least in the front seats. The rear seats followed soon after.
Nevertheless, there are of course many classic cars today that still date from the time when seat belts either did not exist at all or were only available as accessories and not as standard. If these are missing, the vehicle owner may naturally ask himself whether he should retrofit them to increase the safety of the occupants.
We put this question to our readers and wanted to know whether they generally considered retrofitting seat belts in classic cars to be advisable or whether it should be rejected.
46% of respondents saw the increase in safety as an important point and were in favor of retrofitting. Around 53% were against retrofitting because concerns about originality or questions as to whether the vehicle design was even suitable for the fitting of seat belts weighed more heavily.
So the result is not entirely clear-cut, but the clear rejection or support of seatbelt retrofitting that many may have secretly expected did not emerge.
We have already asked the next question. This time, we want to know whether faithful replicas should actually be eligible for registration as classic cars ...
