Omni Gets a Lift

Washington says it is O.K.

Chrysler Corp. has been defending its new Plymouth Horizon and Dodge Omni subcompacts against charges last month by the Consumers Union testing group that the cars careened wildly during some extreme road tests. Now the company has received some strong support from Washington. After conducting the same road tests as did Consumers Union on the two front-wheel-drive cars, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported the same results--but ruled that the cars are every bit as safe as Chrysler contends. NHTSA argued that the tests are, in effect, irrelevant to driving situations that motorists encounter in the real world.

The endorsement carried particular weight because the federal agency, which only last week announced that it was urging Firestone Tire and Rubber Co. to recall 15 million of its steel-belted 500 radial tires for safety defects, is headed by Joan Claybrook, an avid consumerist who for four years directed Ralph Nader's Congress Watch group in Washington. Said Claybrook: "Our conclusion is that the Omni/Horizon has very good handling characteristics very similar to many other small cars."

The Canadian Ministry of Transport also tested the cars and reached the same general conclusion, but it had some reservations. The Canadians were concerned that when the Omni or Horizon is traveling at high speed, and the steering wheel is yanked sharply to one side, then released and allowed to swing free while the driver keeps his foot on the gas, the wheel oscillates back and forth. This characteristic was not a "defect" but was "undesirable," said the Canadian engineers, and they feel Chrysler should correct it. Added Peter Keith, head of the ministry's advanced-engineering department: "While this oscillating is significant to engineers, there is no way that we could prove it related to the safety of the cars."

The real question in the dispute is whether either of the two major tests has much practical value. Besides the steering-wheel test, there was also the avoidance-maneuver test, in which the cars were driven between markers to see how quickly they could swerve to dodge an obstacle without lurching out of control. When the test is performed with the Omni and Horizon, the cars do not begin to veer until speeds approaching 60 m.p.h. Many full-size sedans will do so at much lower speeds. In fact, every car on the highway will do so if it is put through this test at a fast enough speed. If nothing else, the squabble over the Omni and Horizon highlights the need to let buyers know just how fast their cars can be driven before that critical speed is reached.

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