Was Ford "Lifeguard' one year only? Did Merc and Lincoln have it too?

[Frantz]

I guess I put all the spice in the title:
Was Ford "Lifeguard" seat belts one year only? Did Merc and Lincoln have it too? If so, when did they start offering seat belts outside of that?

[W_Higgins]

They were offered at least through 1960 according to the instructions with this NOS set.  Out of about fifty unrestored 1958 - 1960 Lincolns that I have worked on myself, I have only seen a set in one or two parts cars and have never seen a set in a restored car.  They couldn't have been terribly common:

 

 

[poci1957]

A quick look at a source book shows the “Lifeguard Safety Equipment Package” optional for 1956-57 Fords including padded dash & sun visors and seat belts.  The new safety door latches and dished steering wheel were standard.  In 1958-59 they listed the Lifeguard Safety Equipment Package with padded dash and sun visors only for $19 and with those items plus seatbelts for $33.  The padded dash and visors seem to have been standard on 1956-59 Thunderbirds, seat belts were optional.  All these items remained available in 1960 and later but they seem to have stopped using the “Lifeguard” name.  Mercury definitely had it in 1956-57 and probably in 1958-59.

 

Even Lee Iacocca later said that the “Lifeguard” marketing campaign heavily promoted in 1956 did not work nearly as well as was hoped.     

 

[Rusty_OToole]

Ford started the safety pitch in 1955. Not only seat belts but padded dash, safety door locks, collapsible steering wheel, soft sun visors and probably other features. This was in contrast to Chevrolet who was boasting about their hot new V8 and snazzy styling. Chevrolet beat Ford's brains out in sales. So Ford forgot about safety and emphasized their new powerful engines and long, low styling and in 1957 out sold Chev for the first time since the Model T.

 

Ford never stopped offering seat belts and other safety features, they just stopped advertising them. The public was not interested at the time. Safety did not become an issue until certain politicians went nuts on the subject in the sixties.