or the safety belts!
With safety belts, you slow down as the vehicle does.
You get more time to stop. You stop over more distance,
and your strongest bones take the forces. That’s why
safety belts make such good sense.
Questions and Answers About
Safety
Belts
Q: Won’t I be trapped in the vehicle after an
accident
if I’m wearing a safety belt?
A: You could be - whether you’re wearing a safety
belt or not. But you can unbuckle a safety belt,
even
if you’re upside down. And your chance
of being conscious during and after an accident,
so
you can unbuckle and get out, is much greater if
you are belted.
Q: If my vehicle has air bags, why should I have to
wear safety belts?
A: Air bags are in many vehicles today and will be in
most of them in the future. But they are
supplemental systems only;
so they work with
safety belts - not instead of them. Every air bag
system ever offered for sale has required the use of
safety belts. Even
if you’re in a vehicle that has
air bags, you still have to buckle up to get the most
protection. That’s true not only in frontal collisions,
but especially in side and other collisions.
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5. To tighten the belt, feed the shoulder belt back into
the retractor while you push down on the child
restraint.
If you’re using a forward-facing child
restraint, you may find
it helpful to use your knee to
push down on the child restraint as you tighten
the belt.
6. Push and pull the child restraint in different
directions to be sure it is secure.
To remove the child restraint, just unbuckle the vehicle’s
safety belt and let
it go back all the way. The safety
belt will move freely again and be ready to work for an
adult or larger child passenger.
Securing a Child Restraint in a
Center Rear Seat Position
You can secure a child restraint in the center rear seat
position. There is limited space in the rear seating
area. If you want to secure a child restraint in a rear
seating position, especially in the rear center position, be
sure to study the instructions that came with your
child restraint to see
if there is enough room to secure
your seat properly.
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When Should an Air Bag Inflate?
An air bag is designed to inflate in a moderate to severe
frontal, or near-frontal crash. The air bag will inflate
only
if the impact speed is above the system’s designed
“threshold level.”
In addition, your vehicle has “dual stage” frontal air
bags, which adjust the amount of restraint according to
crash severity. For moderate frontal impacts, these
air bags inflate at a level less than full deployment. For
more severe frontal impacts, full deployment occurs.
If the front of your vehicle goes straight into a wall that
doesn’t move or deform, the threshold level for the
reduced deployment is about
10 to 16 mph
(16 to 25 km/h), and the threshold level for a full
deployment is about
20 to 25 mph (32 to 40 km/h). The
threshold level can vary, however, with specific
vehicle design,
so that it can be somewhat above or
below this range.
If your vehicle strikes something that will move or
deform, such as a parked car, the threshold level will be
higher. The air bag is not designed to inflate in
rollovers, rear impacts, or in many side impacts because
inflation would not help the occupant.
In any particular crash, no one can say whether an air
bag should have inflated simply because of the damage
to a vehicle or because of what the repair costs were. Inflation
is determined by the angle of the impact and
how quickly the vehicle slows down in frontal or
near-frontal impacts.
The air bag system
is designed to work properly under
a wide range
of conditions, including off-road usage.
Observe safe driving speeds, especially on rough
terrain.
As always, wear your safety belt. See “Off-Road
Driving” in the Index for more tips on off-road driving.
Seat Position Sensors
Vehicle’s with dual stage air bags are also equipped
with special sensors which enable the sensing system to
monitor the position of both the driver and passenger
front seats. The seat position sensor provides
information which is used to determine
if the air bags
should deploy at a reduced level or at full depoyment.
What Makes an Air Bag Inflate?
In an impact of sufficient severity, the air bag sensing
system detects that the vehicle is in a crash. The
sensing system triggers a release of gas from the
inflator, which inflates the air bag. The inflator, air bag,
and related hardware are all part of the air bag
modules inside the steering wheel and in the instrument
panel in front of the right front passenger.
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Doors and Locks
Door Locks
I
To lock and unlock your vehicle, do one of the following:
You can use the keyless entry system,
use your key, or
Unlocked doors can be dangerous.
e
e
e Passengers - especially children - can
easily open the doors and fall out of a moving vehicle. When a door
is locked, the
handle won’t open
it. You increase the
chance of being thrown out of the vehicle
in a crash if the doors aren’t locked. So,
wear safety belts properly and lock the
doors whenever you drive.
Young children who get into unlocked
vehicles may be unable to get out.
A child
can be overcome by extreme heat and can
suffer permanent injuries or even death
from heat stroke. Always lock your vehicle
whenever you leave
it.
Outsiders can easily enter through an
unlocked door when you slow down or
stop your vehicle. Locking your doors can
help prevent
this from happening.
e lock the door from the
inside by sliding the
manual lock lever
rearward.
To unlock the
door, slide the manual
lock lever forward.
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Windows
Le; ng child. --I in a vehicle with the windows
closed is dangerous.
A child can be overcome
by the extreme heat and can suffer permanent
injuries or even death
from heat stroke. Never
leave a child alone in a vehicle, especially with
the windows closed in warm or hot weather.
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Theft-Deterrent Systems
Vehicle theft is big business, especially in some cities.
Although your vehicle has a number of theft-deterrent
features, we know that nothing we put on it can make
it
impossible to steal. However, there are ways you
can help.
Content Theft-Deterrent
Your vehicle is equipped with a content theft-deterrent
alarm system.
With this system, the
security light on the cluster
will flash
as you open
the door
(if your ignition is
off), to let you know
that you are activating the
system. This
message reminds you to activate the theft-deterrent
system. Here’s how to do it:
1. Open the door.
2. Lock the door with the power door lock switch or
the remote keyless entry transmitter. The security light should come on and flash.
If you are using the
remote keyless entry transmitter, the door does
not need to be open.
3. Close all of the doors. The light will stop flashing and
stay solid.The security light should go
off after
approximately
30 seconds. The alarm is not armed
until the security light goes
off. If the delayed locking
feature is active, the alarm will not activate until all
doors are closed and the security light goes
off.
Once the system is armed, if a door is opened without
the key or the remote keyless entry transmitter, the
alarm will go
off. Depending on how you have
programmed the alarm in the secondary information
center, the horn may sound, the headlamps may flash
or both the headlamps and the horn will activate.
Remember, the theft-deterrent system won’t activate
if
you lock the doors with a key or use the manual
door lock. It activates only
if you use a power door lock
switch with the door open, or with the remote keyless
entry transmitter. You should also remember that
you can start your vehicle with the correct ignition key
if
the alarm has been set off.
Vehicle Personalization
Memory Seat
If your vehicle has this
feature, then the controls for the memory function
are located on the
driver’s door.
I
~
These buttons are used to program and recall memory
settings for the driver’s seat, both the driver’s and
passenger’s outside mirror, and the radio station
presets. The settings for these features can be
personalized for both driver
1 and driver 2. Driver 1 or
driver
2 corresponds to the memory buttons labeled
land
2 on the driver’s door. To store
your memory seat, mirrors and radio presets,
do the following:
1. Adjust the driver’s seat (including the seatback
recliner, lumbar, and side wing area), both of the
outside mirrors, and the radio station presets to your
preference.
2. Press and hold the 1 or 2 (for driver lor 2) button
of the memory control for three seconds.
A double
chime will sound to let you know that the position
has been stored.
To repeat the procedure for a second driver, follow the
preceding steps, but press the other numbered
memory control button.
Each time button
1 or 2 is pressed and released while
the vehicle is in PARK (P), a single chime will sound and
the memory position will be recalled.
If you use the unlock button on the remote keyless entry
transmitter to enter your vehicle, the preset driver’s
seat, mirror positions and the radio station presets will
be recalled
if programmed to do so through the
Driver Information Center (DIC). The numbers on the
back of the transmitters,
1 or 2, correspond to the
numbers on the memory controls.
2-42
Daytime Running Lamps
Daytime Running Lamps (DRL) can make it easier for
others to see the front of your vehicle during the
day. DRL can be helpful
in many different driving
conditions, but they can be especially helpful in the short
periods after dawn and before sunset. Fully functional
daytime running lamps are required on all vehicles
first sold in Canada.
The DRL system will come on when the following
conditions are met:
The ignition is on,
0 the exterior lamp control is in AUTO
0 the automatic transmission is not in PARK (P), and
0 the light sensor determines it is daytime.
When the
DRL are on, only your DRL lamps will be on.
The taillamps, sidemarker and other lamps won’t be
on. The instrument panel won’t be lit up either. When
it begins to
get dark, the automatic headlamp
system will switch from DRL to the headlamps or the last
chosen headlamp setting that was used.
W-hen you turn the exterior iamp controi
to off, the
headlamps will go off, and your DRL lamps will
illuminate, provided it is not dark outside.
Shifting the transmission into PARK
(P) will allow you to
idle the vehicle with the DRL off. The DRL will stay
off until you release the parking brake or shift the
transmission out of PARK (P).
Puddle Lamps
Your vehicle is equipped with puddle lamps to help you
see the area near the base
of the front doors when it
is dark out. The puddle lamps will illuminate when a door
is opened or when you press the UNLOCK button on
the keyless entry transmitter.
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