CONSUMER INFORMATION WORLD WIDE HARMONY?

Consumer information programs around the world hold out the promise to assist consumers in vehicle purchase decisions by providing information on comparative safety features and performance. Programs in Japan, Australia, Europe, and the U.S. have been in place for many years. A primary focus of these programs has been to influence safety performance beyond what is regulated. However, none of these programs, individually or collectively, are providing the quality of information that consumers deserve or assuring that real world safety improvements for consumers are achieved.

The individual and collective value of these programs could be greatly improved by the development of a basic set of program criteria that would be followed uniformly by each program. This paper proposes program quality criteria that could be uniformly applied and suggests a mechanism by which the international community could review and adopt these criteria and any future criteria.