Rental Company Deleted Side Airbags From Cars

According to an investigation by Kansas City Star, Enterprise Rent-A-Car chose to leave out side airbags from thousands of Chevrolet Impala cars, thus saving millions of dollars. Not only that, after the company had finished renting out the vehicles, it offered them for sale. Further, the company's website claimed that the Impalas came with the side airbags.

Enterprise officials did not deny the findings of the report. They admit that they left out that important safety feature in order to cut down costs. If you consider a cost saving of $175 per Impala, and a total of 66,000 Impalas, it accumulates to a total cost saving about $11.5 million. However, the company has admitted that it did make errors in advertising by marking 745 impalas of model years between 2006 through 2008 as including side airbags when, in fact, they did not. The company has said that it will notify the buyers of those 745 vehicles, and will also offer to buy back the cars.

Fleet buyers, like Enterprise, are allowed to delete safety features they don't want. It isn't a federal violation of any sort, but it may be misleading to consumers who may rent these cars expecting to find life-saving features. For instance, because the Impala comes with standard side airbags, persons who want to rent the car may assume that the car comes with this safety feature. The lack of these features exposes the motorist to serious injuries in the event of an accident.

While Enterprise may not have committed any violations by having safety features removed from the cars it purchased, it is deceptive for customers who may rent the car without bothering to ask whether the standard airbags are present in the car. In fact for many motorists, the presence of the side airbag would probably have been one of the factors influencing their choice.

It seems like a sneaky tactic to California personal injury lawyers. Purchase a car that comes with a standard safety feature in bulk numbers, ask for the safety feature to be removed, pocket the savings, then conveniently forget to mention on your website that these features may not be actually present in your automobile after all.

Side Airbags can Prevent Accidents

Side airbags are designed to protect the head and chest region in crashes involving side-impact collisions. The chances of catastrophic injuries and deaths are much greater in the case of side-impact collisions because of the limited space between the passenger compartment and the exterior of the vehicle.

Studies have proven that side airbags can dramatically reduce the risk of a fatality by as much as 45 percent in case of cars that were hit on the driver's side. Studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway safety have shown that side impact accidents are the second most common cause of fatal injuries, next only to frontal crashes. In 2007, side impact accidents killed more than 8,000 people. These side airbags drop down over windows during a side impact crash, cushioning passengers from serious injuries.

Side impact airbags have not yet been mandated on all automobiles, but according to a 2003 agreement between federal regulators and auto manufacturers, all 2010 model light duty cars will come with these airbags. These features used to be optional in many other vehicles, but had become optional on approximately 40 percent of all new passenger cars by 2006. The Impala however, has had standard side airbags for several years now.