Enterprise Removed Air Bags From Cars, Sold Cars, Forgot To Tell Customers
New safety innovations for automobiles can be impressive. Side-curtain airbags are a great development for protecting people in a side-impact crash, and are standard on many models, including the Chevrolet Impala. Unless you're driving an Impala in the Enterprise Rent-A-Car fleet, in which case the airbags were never installed in order to save Enterprise $175 per car. This wasn't really a problem until Enterprise went to sell their used Impalas, and sort of forgot to tell people that the airbags had been removed.
After checking data on past sales, the company determined that 745 Impalas- model years 2006 through 2008 - sold from Enterprise's used-car lots "were marked incorrectly, only online, as having side air bags and they did not," Conrad said.
Enterprise said it will send letters to all 745 buyers, including 15 in the Kansas City area, notifying them of the problem. The company also will offer to buy back the cars, regardless of condition, at $750 above Kelley Blue Book value.
It's good to hear that Enterprise is making good on the transaction and that this was all an error, but quite scary that cars were sold missing a major safety feature, and customers weren't told.
Investigation finds Enterprise Rent-A-Car sold Chevy Impalas without standard side air bags [Kansas City Star]
(Photo: wwarby)
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A mistake, an apology, a remedy. Hopefully more and more consumerist articles will look like this
Enterprise checked data on past sales after the Kansas City Star did their investigation, but why did the Kansas City Star investigate to begin with? Did it have something to do with the death(s) that occurred in Impalas that had been marked incorrectly for sale?
Need more information, though it's sounding like Enterprise is about to be a defendant.
So...they were RENTING cars without air bags? Are they still doing this?
Just goes to show these ripoff artists are at it still. A couple of years ago they tried to get me on a scratch that was on the car I rented until they found out I paid extra for the insurance to cover that crap. Then they said after I told them that the scratch wasn't my fault. Yeah, uh uh......riiiiiiight!! NOT!!
I'm not as disturbed by the honest mistake of the cars being labeled incorrectly when they were sold as I am knowing that Enterprise knowingly has standard safety features deleted from their cars just so they can save some pocket change.
nice shortsighted economics.
lets save $175 but now pay $750 because of it.
@Shoemaster: A remedy sure but they aren't actually offering to add airbags to those units sold without them. $750 over KBB may very well NOT be an acceptable remedy under the circumstances. Rescind the deal and pay back what the buyer paid for the vehicle or rectify the oversight and have the airbags installed.
750 above blue book? For the current condition? That's bullshit. They should pay 750 above the price they where paid in the auction (It it is higher than the blue book).
KBB also undervalues cars compared to some other Car value listings. I found that out when the State of NJ uses another car value listing book to figure out how much use tax someone should have paid for the car.
It's the customer's fault because they didn't inspect the cars to see if they side-curtain airbags.
Which I always do when I purchase a car.
@TechnoDestructo: Sounds like it, probably yes. If sidecurtain air bags aren't mandated or advertised they are within their rights. Word gets out and customers are within their rights to take their business elsewhere.
Also, I always ask "Excuse me, is this a special rental car edition missing anything?"
Yup. Customer's fault.
It's pretty retarded that they left the airbags out in the first place. This article should be about how fucking evil a company will be to save money.
It's misleading for Consumerist to say "cars without airbags" in the title... these cars *DO* have front airbags.
What they do NOT have is *side* airbags. Side airbags are optional in many cars, and since rental fleets tend to buy cars without lots of options, it isn't surprising that these optional extra airbags weren't included.
Of course, this does not excuse Enterprise from mistakenly saying that these cars had side airbags when they didn't.
@☠Grяrяrяrяrя sings the doom song now!: $11.5 million is pocket change? Cutting expenses is crucial in this down economy. Sidecurtain airbags are not mandated and thus a luxury right now. If rentals were booming they wouldn't need to make the cuts.
@☠Grяrяrяrяrя sings the doom song now!: There is a comment on the article that says that side airbags are optional on 200-2008 Impalas, but according to Edmunds.com, side-curtain airbags are supposedly standard standard equipment.
Antilock brakes and traction control are standard on the LTZ and SS, and optional on other models. Full-length side curtain airbags, OnStar and a tire-pressure monitor are standard on all Impalas, but stability control is not available.
Which makes me wonder how Enterprise can get away with deleting standard safety equipment, and also why antilock brake would even be optional on lower trim levels.
@sashazur: I mean it's misleading for the title to say that Enterprice "removed airbags from cars..." when the airbags were never there to begin with.
@fantomesq: $175 is pocket change when compared to the cost of the entire car, yes. I can understand cutting costs by deleting rear cupholders, vanity mirrors, chrome bumper flaps, fancy wheels or whatever, but safety equipment? Particularly when that safety equipment is standard.
@Ronin-Democrat: Poor economic analysis on your part - They aren't offering the misled owners $750 each - they are offering to repurchase the cars back at $750 over KBB... but even if they were offering the cash, $750 x 745 affected vehicles would be $558750. They saved $11.5 million by cutting the sidecurtain airbags so they still would have come out $11 million ahead... hardly pocket change.
@Ronin-Democrat: When that happens too many times, they will eventually figure out to do it right ... like not provide incorrect information in the sale advertisement.
@twophrasebark: How many different things do you check/inspect when you buy a car? I'd ask for a list but I'm sure there is a maximum post size here.
@☠Grяrяrяrяrя sings the doom song now!: Its standard in dealer purchased vehicles. Fleet vehicles are often stripped of non-mandated features. Note that this wouldn't even be an issue if the website hadn't mistakenly listed that they were included.
I'm not happy with the remedy but there was no problem purchasing, renting or reselling these vehicles without non-mandated sidecurtain airbags unless you mislabel them as Enterprise did here.
@sashazur: They opted out of the airbags. Some bean counter "removed" them from the order forms and took home a bonus for saving the company hundreds of thousands of dollars.
@TechnoDestructo:
I thought this too, until I noticed they mentioned that it is side airbags that they are referring to. Front airbags are still in the car.
@sashazur: I agree, the title is misleading, as the cars DO have front airbags. But supposedly (from checking the standard equipment list for 2006-2008 Impalas on Edmunds.com) side airbags *are* standard equipment on all Impala models. Thus, people purchasing them would have no reason to believe that the side airbags had been not installed.
In a press release released today, enterprise announced to its shareholders that it would start many bold new cost cutting measures. They will be ordering cars without airbags, brakes, seat belts, lights, windows, roofs, mufflers, cruise control, full size tires, cup holders, glove box, windows, head rests, trunks, back seats, batteries, steering wheels, gas pedals, door locks, keys, carpet mats, upholstery, radiators and radios as standard equipment. Gas tanks will be reduced to 5 gallons and all cars will have no gas, thus requiring customers fill up the small tanks before they leave at the current market price plus $10/gallon. Energy efficient 4 cycle Briggs & Stratton engines will power the new fleet. New convenience fees will take affect when renting cars online. Printing a confirmation receipt on your own computer will cost $15 and will call will cost an additional $25. Customers will have the option of requesting any or all of these missing items as add-ons for a small additional daily charge.
Most customers will be unaffected by these changes and many have replied in surveys that they don't mind the missing items in the car anyway.
@flyingember: Always the best option in like ALL areas of life ... if you can go to your boss saying "here's what I screwed up, but here's my suggestion to fix it" it's always a better situation!
The fact that the cars lacked side air bags isn't that big a deal since the air bags are optional. I'm sure rental cars don't have all the sound system options either. What Enterprise did wrong was advertising the cars as if they had the air bags. $750 above KBB is hardly thrilling. What Enterprise should be doing is paying each purchaser some amount, perhaps $750, to fix the mistake. Buying back the car leaves the consumer with having to go out and get another car.
@fantomesq: Okay, thanks for the clarification. I figured there were probably some deletions available to fleet car purchasers that were not available to dealers. Still, I would rather see fleet operators deleting items that aren't safety related. Even though side curtain airbags aren't federally mandated, it would have been nice if Enterprise had found a better way to cut cost.
Well shoot, what about all of the car companies that sell cars without side curtain airbags? They must all be evil
@twophrasebark: So exactly how are you supposed to check to see that the side curtain airbags are installed when they are installed behind trim pieces? DO yo take another auction vehicle and ram it into the side of the vehicle you are looking to purchase?
You and I got a very different definition of "removed." To report the story accurately, Enterprise bought cars that NEVER HAD SIDE AIR BAGS INSTALLED IN THEM, and mislabeled them as having them installed when they sold the cars.
You can call it standard all you want, but if the feature can be removed in configuration of a vehicle, it's optional.
I suppose a recall is a lot cheaper than the lawsuit they would lose had some poor soul gotten T-boned and seriously injured.
@Shoelace: I don't think Enterprise will be a defendant. The article goes on to say that (IIRC) a safety expert that worked with the Star on the investigation couldn't determine if any of the five deaths nationwide from those cars would have been prevented solely by the presence of a side air bag.
However, another thing the article does point out is that Enterprise wasn't the only company to order cars like this, and it's possible that other companies also resold the cars once they were done with them ...
@vastrightwing: Enterprise Rent-a-GoCart...We'll pick you up (as long as you don't mind riding in an American Flyer red wagon that we tied to the back of our go-cart with a jump rope)
@Cant_stop_the_rock: So you save a paltry $175 on a car by deleting something that's standard on dealer models that might save somebody's life? Yeah, that's evil in my book.
I'd hate to think my wife, son, daughter, or mother died in a car crash because some bean-counter decided to pass on the side air-bags.
There's a side airbag delete option and Onstar delete option on Impalas that are sold to fleets. Perfectly legal to sell the cars that way, but not legal to resell them and advertise them as having side airbags. Most used car dealers don't take the time to figure out whether a car actually has ABS, side airbags, MP3 CD player, or any number of options, and just let their computer check the default boxes...
@☠Grяrяrяrяrя sings the doom song now!: i would actually see vanity mirrors on rental cars as reducing the safety. driver with unfamiliar car pulls a stupid by checking mascara or if food is stuck between teeth while driving.... in the driver's usual car they might be a LITTLE safer doing this since they are using habits to drive the car and the field of view that they get this way is normal for them.
but in a rental they are dealing with a set of unfamiliar circumstances
@H3ion: it might be more fair to pay for the cost of the airbag installations [including the airbag price] and provide a rental car for the duration of the repair time.
@mehtajr: Chevy's "customize your Impala" website lets you pick a lot of things, but skipping side air bags isn't one of them. That qualifies the side air bags as "standard" in my book.
It seems likely that only fleet buyers can readily get new Impalas without this "option", and that it's just as valid to say they chose to "remove" this standard feature of the car.
If you really want to find out, call up your nearest Chevy dealer and ask if you can order a new Impala without side air bags.
@fantomesq: I don't see anything that mentions whether the $750 is above retail or private party KBB. And what do they use when determining the original used rental car price?
The deal could be terrible or it could be great. Not enough information.
I'd also like to see the letter, and how many ways you have to sign away your options before getting a check.
If I were them I'd want the damn things off the road, yesterday. It only takes one injury possibly prevented had these airbags been present for them to really take it in the shorts.
@legwork: I wasn't saying it is necessarily a bad deal, but since buyers are entitled to receiving what they paid for, they should be able to get the airbags installed as a remedy.
This is more of a false advertising issue than anything. Side curtain airbags are not mandatory. I might be biased because I've been puttering around in a 1992 Pontiac Bonneville with a driver's side airbag and seat belts as its only safety features since 2003. I put much more confidence in my seat belt than I do the airbag to keep me safe in an accident.
Don't start ranting at me to buy a new "safer" car because I'm heck bent on squeezing at least 40,000 miles or another 4 years out of a car I paid $2300 for 6 years ago. Plus, I don't want anymore debt at this point in my life either.
Why WOULDN'T the state use the higher value, regardless of it's "correctness"? The state gets money as a % of value, so they have an incentive to use an inflated value.
@☠Grяrяrяrяrя sings the doom song now!: Except that side airbags are not standard equipment on Fleet Vehicles. And people purchasing the cars in auction would have been told they are Fleet/Commercial and not Consumer models. Knowing that, you can find out side airbags are optional on those models. Looking at the wrong model when doing research is not the company's fault.
Mislisting what the models had is.
It's always good to see an article come out the situation has a fix already in the works