Business Notes AUTOS

Call it a case of deflated consumer attraction. Since March 1986, Ford has offered a driver-side, anticollision air bag as an $815 safety option on its Tempo and Mercury Topaz compact autos, which sell for a base price of about $9,000. Apparently the bag option has little allure for many buyers, who have bought the safety devices on only 2% of the 189,000 Tempo and Topaz cars sold since the 1987 model year began. Last week Ford tried to pump new life into its air bags by slashing the price to $295. The company hopes that will move more air bag-equipped cars off dealers' lots.

Ford's fire sale may mollify safety activists, who have long accused automakers of charging too much for the passive restraint device. But many dealers, for their part, have said that customers simply do not seem interested in spending the extra money.