Hmm… Side airbags decrease the chance of brain damage in an impact with a larger vehicle by 45%, according to NHTSA. Of course a business is made to make money, but we do get a glimpse at their major priorities…

Cheep cheep cheep

Maybe it’s just me but I’d be leery of buying an ex rental no matter what. And actually more so because of what I’ve seen the lot staff do to them as opposed to the people who pay to rent them.

Buying a fleet rental vehicle knowing it didn’t have airbags is the least of your worries! I would be worried about what all those people who drove them really did to them!

My parents bought an ex-rental 2001 Maxima in November 2001 (remember, 01′ models came out in 00′), w/ 40,000 miles. They are now rolling around 130,000 miles with nothing but a MAF sensor replacement. I wouldn’t be afraid to buy an ex-rental based on their experience. Then again, anyone forking out money to get a premium rental like a Maxima might have a little more respect for it…might.

Buying an Impala or Cobalt is bad enough. But buying a used one from a fleet, like a car rental place? You have to have a brain before you can get brain damage from a side impact.

and why is gm in such a big whole. well, it’s becuase of the bean counters that have helped produce junk for the past 30 years. how much did gm make on not puting in airbags? probably .20 cents. saving a buck now, and not worrying about tomorrow. the typical right wing management decision.

alsvw, what the hell are you talking about? This has nothing to do with GM cutting corners, it has to do with the rental companies being cheapskates and putting money before their customers’ safety.

yeah, alsvw, this was a cost savings maneuver by Enterprise (deleting side airbags), not GM (selling cars to the specification of a buyer)…you’re flaming the wrong target…and this may sound odd coming from me, but that “right wing management” comment makes no sense..

Enterprise was committing fraud, essentially…advertising the cars had equipment that they didn’t have…and that put GM in a position to prevent that occurring again by changing their policy…good move by GM to counter the Enterprise douchebaggery…

About a year and a half ago I came across this on a dealer lot. When I carefully read the sticker it stated it had the side airbag delete option. I started checking the other used Impalas on the lot, and many of them also had side airbag delete.

hopefully this is a sign of gm changing in general for the better, hopefully they keep changes like this up that benefit the driver of there vehicles.

I rented an Impala from Enterprise about a month ago…… It was the biggest piece of crap with only 4k miles on it. Why the hell is GM still marketing this vehicle in Nascar? WTF!

^cause the Camaro and Corvette sell themselves, Tahoe’s are too big, and that leaves Impalas as the primary mode of transportation for the hordes of oversized rednecks that will still take advice on what car to buy from a fiberglass cover over a completely custom chassis and engine. Plus the word “Malibu” is probably too girly for them.

foamy and lefter–
gm does save money by not offering it as an option. the option was only $145 of saving for the rental companies. gm has been complaining for years how they lose money on airbags and safety equipment.
lets just say they gm and rental company’s were saving a few penny’s in having this as an option.

alsvs, as usual you are spreading misinformation to put foward your bias thinking.

GM would MAKE money if the rental companies had bought the SIAB’s. GM, like other OEM’s, MAKE money by selling options and features. Now that SIAB’s are standard and everyone has them in their vehicles the cost has come way down and the OEM’s can now make a profit, while small, still a profit on safety features.

Try again.

today is a slow day in automotive news…

@ alsvw

Errr… no, multiply that $145 by the number of cars in Enterprise’s fleet and you’ll see why they opted for the airbag delete option. GM simply gave their customer what they wanted. Probably lost a bit of money, as carstuff said. Also, as far as I know, side airbags aren’t mandatory anyway.

As for Enterprise, if they falsely advertised the inclusion of this equipment, then they should be held responsible.

Just thought of something… if they opted to delete airbags from GM cars, they probably did the same for the Chrysler, Hyundai, and Toyota cars that they rent as well. Wonder why they aren’t mentioned… perhaps those companies aren’t going to discontinue the “airbag delete” option?

Enterprise is the worst as far as being way too cheap. More often than not they order F150’s with a 4.6L motor and no tow package. That is bad enought in the 2 wheel drive models, it really sucks on the 4X4 models.

Rentals from Hertz on the other hand are always better contented.

RotaxKart – I got stuck with an Impala LS from Budget a year ago; I was “upgrade” on class of car for free. I was the only occupant from my company at that training class. One of the other trainees got a PT cruiser which was a downgrade from the Impala. I was jealous. The Impala was the worst vehicle I had driven in years. Horrible ergonomics and the most uncomfortable seats I had ever ridden in (except for Buick Century),

On the other topic posted here, yes, more of the blame should go on the rental car companies for ordering (or even asking for) these stripped cars, but GM is also to blame because the bean counters should not have offered that option in the first place. They should have just said no.

They are both guilty of being cheap and greedy. At least now, GM is showing some morals.

I don’t know why a car company would send off their cars with items deleted… don’t they realize that customers are going to rent them and think “what a POS this is”? I rented a Toyota 4Runner in Costa Rica and there was interior lighting missing including window switches that would not light up at night. I find it hard to believe an expensive SUV like that would come out of the factory like that. It kind of pissed me off that Toyota would agree to sell a shortchanged vehicle like the one I rented to a cheap-a$$ rental company.

By the way, the worst vehicle I have ever rented in 20 years was a 2004 Chevy Cavalier in Hawaii (I had no choice that day). It almost went out of control almost sending me off the road (bad tires and handling). It was an extreme piece of garbage. Everything on it was breaking. I brought it back for an Ion which believe it or not was night and day difference.

i disagree that you should blame GM for offering what the customer wants…the customer is always right, after all…if you want a triple cheeseburger, even though we all know they kill you, you can buy a ****ing triple cheeseburger…it’s up to the BUYER to make that decision, not the seller…

I was looking up the Chevy Cavalier interior and found this……

http://www.blogcadre.com/files/images/cavtat_450.preview.jpg

People are worried about what other people did TO the ex-rentals, and instead they should be wondering what other people did IN the ex-rentals…

I bought an ex-rental back in 1993. It was a 1992 Ford Escort LX, and it turned out to be a really good car. It was incredibly reliable, outlasting my sister’s Honda Accord AND her Acura Integra. Of course, I blame that on my sister more than I blame it on her cars, because she’s really hard on cars for some reason. However, I was impressed at the value I received from that old ex-rental Escort. For the money I paid, it was an excellent buy.

People love to talk about ex rental cars and what might have been done to them, but I bought one and drove it for 5 years and it was worth it regardless of what was or wasn’t done to it by previous renters. The car was purchased directly from the rental car company’s sales lot and had a 7 day money back guarantee so I could bring it back for a full refund if I changed by mind after having it mechanically checked out.
It had about 25K miles when I bought it and I got rid of it at about 95K miles before the extended warranty ran out. It was reliable enough that I would have saved more money if I skipped the warranty since it only needed about $600 of total repairs on top of normal scheduled maintenance tires and brakes spread over 5 years and the extended warranty obviously cost more than $600.
If you buy one from the rental car company’s sales lot, you will at least get the best available. Other car dealers sell the rejects that the original rental companies aren’t willing to sell and back themselves on their own lots.

I ended up buy a new car next time because I wanted side curtain airbags and stability control and at the time it was difficult to find anything that wasn’t a gas hog SUV or a minivan that had those options on the rental car lots.

…which is more of a story about rental car companies than GM, but who doesn’t love reading a good GM-bashing story?