Posted on 08/18/2009 12:23:10 PM PDT by Nachum
One of the nation’s leading rental car companies recently ordered thousands of cars without side impact airbags in an attempt to save millions of dollars, then later sold the cars to buyers without the standard safety feature, according to a report from the Kansas City Star.
According to the report, Enterprise Rent-A-Car ordered a fleet of Chevy Impalas without the side impact
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The horror the horror
The question “So what?” comes to mind.
Standard safety feature? They're not mandatory (yet) are they? I have two 2008 vehicles and I don't think either one has side airbags.
My first car didn’t even have seatbelts standard....
I mean in all these discussions of economy I never hear or read the word "weight", the typical small car today is 500 - 1000 pounds heavier than the typical small car of 1965 and that's not supposed to be any sort of a problem.....
If a vehicle is available without side-impact airbags, then that’s not a “standard” safety feature.
I’m guessing that its a standard feature on the Impala, but was not disclosed as “missing” during the sales. Sort of like selling boxed Chess games that are missing a king, without disclosing it.
Any outfit that pals around around with Progressive Insurance...
Mine didn't have power steering, power brakes or a radio.
(I'm old.)
Its not available on a car lot without the feature, thus making it standard per Blue Book. In affect, this was a large special order.
Ah. That could be.
After having an airbag explode on me one time I would just as soon not have them.
I wear a seatbelt, and that thing damn near took my thumbs off on a little fender bender, causing far more pain than the mild bump did.
“My first car didn’t even have seatbelts standard.”
“Mine didn’t have power steering, power brakes or a radio.”
Mine had a radio, but of course it was AM only.
1966 Chevy Biscaine. Straight 6, 3 on the tree. Got 20 mpg. Seriously.
It’s a used car, why wouldn’t the term “buyer beware” and “as is, where is” come into play here unless they gave a warranty with each one?
I had a 67 Coronet, 318 two barrel with a three on the tree four door that got 23 mpg on my senior trip to Florida.
It also came with that 'new' safety feature (seatbelts) , but the nice salesman showed me how to roll them up and tuck them under the seat so they wouldn't get in the way.
My first car had not a steering wheel, but a tiller...and we liked it!
An airbag will already kill me due to my height. Why do I want more?
Yeah, and weren’t they a joy to work on?
I can remember seeing the lawn on either side of the engine, such was the lack of pollution stuff, etc.
“It also came with that ‘new’ safety feature (seatbelts) , but the nice salesman showed me how to roll them up and tuck them under the seat so they wouldn’t get in the way.”
When you’re heading for the windshield at 65 feet per second, the LAST thing you want to do is get tangled up in those pesky seatbelts!/sarcasm off
Yeah. But back then seat belts made it harder to exit the car when you were racing towards a cliff to impress your friends!
Front side air bags are listed as a standard feature for both the 09 and 2010 models.
Rear side airbags are not available.
It doesn’t bother me much that they are missing and I would buy one if I was in the market and it was a clean car.
But according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, studies have shown that side air bags with head protection can reduce highway deaths by up to 45 percent. An estimated 8,000 people were killed in side-impact collisions in 2007 alone, the Star reported.
The real interesting data, that was not asked for by the writer, of course, would be “How many deaths occurred in the 66,000 cars that Enterprise bought?” and “How many of these deaths were caused by side impacts?”
This is of specific interest since the Impala is a relatively large car, and the side air bags might be less useful...
I'm sure that Enterprise has the data....
Fleet sales options are usually a bit different than what you see in the brochures at the dealership. I'm not even sure if Blue Book data covers fleet vehicles. All rental companies buy through the fleet programs, with the exceptions being the higher-end vehicles that aren't offered through Fleet sales.
When small cars weighed 1800 lbs you didn’t NEED power steering or brakes.
I’ve bought three cars from Enterprise and have been happy with all of them. It didn’t even occur to me to wonder whether they had side air bags.
Hubby’s first car was a 48 chevy with a suicide knob..standard trans, ashtray (now you have to ask for ashtrays. Steel packed muffler, could hear him coming down the street while still 3 blocks away....
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