Something else to watch out for with rental cars
 

Rented a car today from Hertz (needed one for 4 people vs my little coupe) and didn;t realize until I picked up the ladies that the car didn't have a front passenger airbag.

Now - I couldn't imagine that this was possible - but in order to install the GPS device (for which I have no use) the passenger airbag has to be disabled in some cars. This was a Chevy Impala - and I ended up riding around with 3 people squished in the back seat - luckily 2 were petite older ladies.

I complained when I got back and the agent came with me to check the car and agreed the airbag had been disabled. She said she had never seen this before - but it was a brand new car - only 200 some miles.

She gave me a coupon for a free day rental in compensation. But that's not the real issue. If someone rented the car and needed the front passenger seat it was unusable.

Just another thing to watch out for when you're renting - be sure the airbag isn;t disabled if you ask for - or just get - a GPS.

Wow...and to think that people have been riding in these "unusable" seats since the early 1900s.

How did you actually know the car didn't have a front passenger airbag? Did one of the ladies just *know* this?

Thanks for the heads up. My husband always rents from Hertz. I'll have to go and ask if he knew about this.

Come on saps! You gotta give modern technology a chance, lol.

I wonder if all Americans driving an 8 year old car or older put passengers in the back seat? I wonder how many pre-air bag cars are still on the road. It would be interesting to see the stats.

I believe most two seaters either don't have a passenger side airbag or else allow it to be turned off to accommodate children and/or small adult passengers.

I'm curious too how you knew it didn't have a passenger seat airbag. We had a Hertz car with the NeverLost nav system (which we <i>loved</i>). It was a Jaguar, not domestic, which makes me wonder even more if it had no airbag because of the system. Not that I'd have ridden in the back had we known....but I'm curious how did you know?

I'm not a trained car mechanic - but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Impalas have an indicator on the dashboard that will say &quot;Passenger side airbag has been disabled&quot; or something to that effect. We have them at work.

Many new cars have the passenger side airbag disabled unless there is an actual passenger sitting in the seat. We have one of those cars.

The cars my husband rents from Hertz always have a GPS device and passenger side airbags - always.

Interesting, stw. Are you saying the indicator light says it's disabled until someone sits in the seat?

Our new car has a sensor so if someone weighing less than 60 pounds is in the seat, it disables the airbag as the car sort of presumes it's a child. We don't have kids, but when the dog rides shotgun, the light comes on telling me the airbag is disabled.

Evidently so.
http://www.chevrolet.com/impala/safety/

Yes, starrsville, there is an indicator on the dashboard.

So do we know if the airbag was disabled due to GPS installation, or if the indicator light was on simply because there was no passenger in the seat?

So, is there a chance that the passenger air bag was functional but the OP didn't think so because the seat was empty - or a child weighing less than 60 pounds?

That's possible, starrsy.

As a brilliant woman said earlier today...

Hmmmm :-?

Was that brilliant woman you, starrsy or was it me? :-))

Actually, it could have been either OBVIOUSLY...but was STW! :-)