When Enterprise sold thousands of used Chevy Impalas to dealers, the car rental company missed the fact that optional side airbags weren’t installed and the vehicles were sold as if they originally had this safety feature.
Window stickers on the side of the Impalas said the side airbags were intact when they were, in fact, removed by Enterprise during fleet purchases. GM allowed rental car companies to delete side airbags at the factory to save $145 per vehicle. More than 100,000 Impalas are now working their way to the used-car market without these airbags. There’s nothing illegal about this, except that customers must be aware of what they’re buying.
If you buy an Impala, you’ll know the airbags are missing if you find the deleted option code “AK5” on the identification plate in the trunk. Also, the door trim will be missing the word “airbag.” This applies only to older vehicles because GM no longer allows airbags to be deleted in fleet purchases.
Enterprise has admitted the error and said it will buy back the vehicles for $750 above the Blue Book value or pay $200 to the customer for the inconvenience.
