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Investigation Finds Leading Rental Car Company Sold Vehicles Without Air Bags
Fox news ^ | 8/18/09 | staff

Posted on 08/18/2009 12:23:10 PM PDT by Nachum

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To: Nachum

My first car had not a steering wheel, but a tiller...and we liked it!


21 posted on 08/18/2009 12:53:38 PM PDT by texmexis best (uency)
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To: Abathar

An airbag will already kill me due to my height. Why do I want more?


22 posted on 08/18/2009 12:59:15 PM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: norraad

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.


23 posted on 08/18/2009 1:00:57 PM PDT by Pessimist
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To: norraad

“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


24 posted on 08/18/2009 1:12:06 PM PDT by Frank_2001
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To: Frank_2001

Yeah. But back then seat belts made it harder to exit the car when you were racing towards a cliff to impress your friends!


25 posted on 08/18/2009 1:30:50 PM PDT by Bigh4u2 (Denial is the first requirement to be a liberal)
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To: VeniVidiVici

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.


26 posted on 08/18/2009 1:31:09 PM PDT by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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To: All
Enterprise defended their decision to opt out of the air bags, noting that the safety feature is not yet required by the federal government. According to the Star, the decision saved Enterprise $11.5 million on the roughly 66,000 vehicles. Enterprise also said they are not the only company to buy fleets of cars without side impact air bags.

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....

27 posted on 08/18/2009 1:37:34 PM PDT by az_gila (AZ - need less democrats - one Governor down... more to go.)
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To: SampleMan
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.

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.

28 posted on 08/18/2009 1:58:27 PM PDT by Charles Martel ("Endeavor to persevere...")
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To: Graybeard58

When small cars weighed 1800 lbs you didn’t NEED power steering or brakes.


29 posted on 08/18/2009 2:05:32 PM PDT by wendy1946
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To: Nachum

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.


30 posted on 08/18/2009 2:12:36 PM PDT by rwa265 (Christ my Cornerstone)
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To: texmexis best

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....


31 posted on 08/18/2009 4:06:48 PM PDT by goat granny
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