Report: Enterprise took shortcut on safety

Monday, August 17, 2009 | 5:21 p.m. CDT; updated 8:24 p.m. CDT, Monday, August 17, 2009
BY The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY — The nation's largest buyer of new cars has acknowledged omitting a standard safety feature from thousands of Chevrolet Impala fleet vehicles it purchased between 2006 and 2008.

The Kansas City Star reported Sunday that St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-A-Car chose to "delete" side-curtain air bags on about 66,000 Impalas when it ordered them from the manufacturer. The cut saved Enterprise roughly $175 per vehicle, or about $11.5 million.

The air bags are not federally mandated on new cars. The Star report, however, said hundreds of Impalas the company sold were incorrectly advertised on Enterprise's Web site as being equipped with the air bags.

Enterprise officials noted the air bags aren't mandated and blamed the advertising mistake on a software flaw.

 

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