Automakers drop ashtrays, lighters from new cars

NEW YORK - Sitting in the showroom at Martin's Manhattan Honda, Declan Walsh flipped through a glossy brochure for the Odyssey minivan, noting that it seemed to have everything his family could need. Well, almost everything.

''It doesn't come with a lighter?'' Walsh asked a salesman.

''My wife's a smoker and that would be a problem,'' he explained. ''You have someplace (in the van) to store matches?''

Actually, the best place to keep matches in the Odyssey is probably the cup holder in the center console, a place once reserved for an ashtray in many cars. But Honda and other manufacturers are designing ashtrays and lighters out of many new models, both to please consumers and cut costs.

The move to smokeless cars started at Chrysler, whose 1995 Cirrus and Dodge Stratus sedans were the first to be sold without ashtrays as standard equipment. Other car makers have seized on the idea, and even in cars still equipped for smoking, ashtrays are smaller than ever.

''You respond to consumer demand,'' said Art Garner, a spokesman for American Honda Motor Co., the Torrance, Calif., subsidiary of the Japanese manufacturer. ''Consumers say, 'I don't need an ashtray. What I would like is a little storage place here. I don't need a lighter. What I would like is a place to plug in my cellphone.'''

Eliminating lighters and ashtrays as standard equipment on millions of cars also saves money for automakers, most who now sell optional ''smoker's packages'' for $15 to $100 for items once included with every new car. In the Odyssey and other Hondas, buyers can order an ash container that drops into cup holders and a lighter that pops into the socket now called a ''power point.''

''We're always looking to cut costs and eliminate things people don't want,'' said Bill George, a spokesman for Ford Motor Co, which has eliminated the accessories as standard equipment in only a few of its models. ''We don't want to put anything in there that people don't want or aren't going to use.''

The changes reflect a continuing evolution in auto dashboards and interiors, said Jeffrey Rose, vice president of technology at Textron Automotive Co., a Troy, Mich., company that is one of the leading providers of interior components for new cars.

Travelers in the 1950s and '60s were never far from an ashtray - many cars came with both lighters and ashtrays fitted into every door. But that was before the arrival of multiple cup holders and storage spaces, switches for power windows and door locks, outlets for cell phones and amenities like garage-door openers fitted into sun visors.

In the future, car interiors will be fashioned of materials that customers can choose according to their preferences, not just for color but for texture and even smell, and will be designed with Global Positioning Systems and computer interfaces, Rose said.

But the host of new electronic amenities puts the squeeze on space, and ashtrays are partly a casualty, he said.

''The truth is, not a lot has been taken out, and just tons more has been put in,'' Rose said. ''That's what everybody is concerned about - information overload in the interior.''

Removing ashtrays and lighters as standard equipment has been made easier because of the decline in the number of people who smoke, now a little more than one in five adults.

But even some nonsmokers have noticed the disappearance of lighters and ashtrays.

When Rob Malkin, a computer programmer from Saratoga, Calif., replaced his 1993 Toyota with a new Saab in late October, he thrilled at its amenities. His one disappointment was the black oval depression in the wood-covered dashboard, a spot where brochures showed a covered ashtray.

''I'm not a smoker but I did like having the ashtray to stick stuff in, like gum wrappers and parking receipts,'' Malkin said. ''I was kind of sorry to see that go.''

But other consumers say the lack of ashtrays and lighters is fine by them.

''If I had people who smoked in the car with me I wouldn't let them smoke anyway, so its no loss to me at all,'' said Dan Hollywood of New York City, who was picking up his family's new Odyssey at the Manhattan dealership.

Salesmen at the dealership say the lack of ashtrays also reinforces their message to customers, particularly those who lease, that the smell and burn marks left by cigarettes depresses the resale or trade-in value of their cars. For the most part, they've had few complaints.

''They (smokers) accept it,'' salesman Vinicio Galarza said. ''They don't complain because they understand.''

But Walsh, the car-shopper whose wife smokes, said a lighter and ashtray remain essential in a world where smoking is increasingly off-limits.

''You know, given that there are so few places to smoke,'' he said, ''the car is the place.''