Consumer Law

Enterprise Rent-A-Car Sold Cars with No Side Airbags

By Kemnitzer, Anderson, Barron, Ogilvie & Brewer

Side airbags, an important safety feature, were standard equipment on the 2006, 2007 and 2008 Chevrolet Impalas and on the 2007 and 2008 Chevrolet Cobalts. Even though the airbags were standard equipment, GM allowed fleet buyers to delete the side airbags to save $175 a car.l Enterprise Rent-A-Car bought thousands of these cars no side airbags to save $175 per car.

When it came time to sell these cars, Enterprise did not disclose to the ultimate buyers that there were no side airbags. Instead of an airbag, the place for it had a piece of corrugated plastic.

Enterprise sold some hundreds of these cars through its website, EnterpriseCarSales.com. After word got out that the cars had no side air bags, Enterprise offered to repurchase the cars for the blue book value plus $750. However, Enterprise has not made any offers to the consumers who bought the cars that ended up on Chevrolet dealers' lots that were sold as GM certified used cars.

The Kansas City Star reports that a man who bought one of these cars and was hit on the side of his car causing him severe injuries. His lawsuits against Enterprise alleges he would not now be paralyzed if an air bad had been present.

Owners can check the seventh position of their car's VIN to see if the car has side air bags. If the air bags are not present, the number will be a 5. If the air bags are present, the number will be a 7 or 8.

Full post as published by Lemon Law Blog on August 16, 2009 (boomark / email).