Power Wheels

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The official Power Wheels logo.

Power Wheels® is a brand of battery-powered ride-on toy cars for kids ages 12 months to seven years old. Power Wheels ride-ons are built with kid-sized, realistic features – in some cases, real working features like radios, opening/closing doors and hoods, power lock brakes, and both forward and reverse motion.

1 History
2 Power Wheels Vehicles
3 Safety Recalls
4 External Links

[edit] History

The history of the Power Wheels brand dates back to 1984, when San Francisco-based toy company Kransco acquired Pines of America, makers of battery-powered vehicles for children. Two years later, Kransco renamed the line "Power Wheels". By 1990, as a result of stronger marketing efforts aimed at the Power Wheels brand name, sales of the battery-powered vehicles reached over 1,000,000 units per year.

In 1994, Power Wheels was purchased by Mattel. Following Mattel's acquisition of Kransco, the Power Wheels line immediately became part of the extensive line of Fisher-Price® toys designed, engineered and marketed out of East Aurora, New York. With the addition of new vehicle licenses and parent-directed marketing, the new Power Wheels by Fisher-Price line flourished.

In 1999, Fisher-Price announced an exciting new Power Wheels vehicle - the Harley-Davidson® Motorcycle Ride-On – which spawned a renewed excitement and confidence in the Power Wheels brand, contributing to a year of record sales for the entire product line.

[edit] Power Wheels Vehicles

Power Wheels ride-on cars, trucks and motorcycles have been sold with over 100 model names.

The latest line of Power Wheels features pint-sized versions of some of the most popular vehicles today, including the Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Hurricane, Ford F-150, Ford Mustang, Kawasaki KFX quad, Harley-Davidson motorcycle, Cadillac Escalade EXT and Lightning McQueen from Pixar’s movie, Cars.

[edit] Safety Recalls

Power Wheels vehicles have been the subject of Safety Recalls.

The first recall in 1991, involved the 18 Volt Porsche 911. The contacts in the foot pedal switch could weld together in use. If this were to happen, the motor would remain running and the vehicle would continue moving forward, unable to stop. A new accelerator pedal was fitted that eliminated the possibility of welded contacts.

In 1998, Fisher-Price undertook a monumental recall of up to 10 million Power Wheels 12 volt and Super 6 volt vehicles manufactured since 1986. The recall and repair program was conducted to replace battery fuses and strengthen battery connectors, in order to prevent the units from overheating. The main differences of a post recall Power Wheel are that the original "H" (or on very early Power Wheels, "S") connectors are removed and replaced with the larger, black "A" connectors. If your Power Wheels ride-on was built in 1998 or earlier and has the Black "A" connectors, more than likely the recall work has been performed.