In an attempt to save on costs, Enterprise Rent-A-Car could end up paying the price says a report where it was revealed that the company sold over 60,000 Chevy Impalas without the standard safety feature.

The Kansas City Star claimed over the weekend that Enterprise had deliberately ‘deleted’ side curtain airbags from ex-rental Impalas, some 66,000 in all. There was also an admission by the group that an additional 745 of the vehicles bought via online advertisements inluding the feature, in fact did not.

“There’s defintely a glitch in the system” the Star was told by Enterprise’s VP for corporate communications. “We’ll make it right with our customers. … None of this is intentional.”

The company said it would be making contact with the 745 bag-less owners with a buy-back offer of $750 over the standard retail price. Ironically, this is around four times higher than the cost to have them installed. The report stated that the removal of the 66,000 airbags would have saved well over $11 million.

The models, ranging from 2006 to 2008, were adjusted as Enterprise sought to reduce its unwanted features and boost sales to its target company groups. Statistics show that side-curtain airbags have significantly reduced the amount of driver’s-side highway deaths.

“I’ve never seen a standard safety feature removed from a vehicle,” the head of a safety research company said in an interview with The Star. “That’s what’s so unique about this. I’ve been doing this work for 17 years and, until now, had yet to see this happen.”

With thanks to www.cbsnews.com for the above information. For more details please refer to their website.