Kansas Dealer Fined $418k For Selling Cars Without Working Airbags

Screenshot: 12 News

Typically, you don’t think about the airbags in your car unless the light comes on, you’re in a wreck or you get a letter in the mail that says your airbags have been recalled. If you do happen to get into a wreck, though, you better hope your airbags work because they’re one of the most important safety features your car has after your seatbelt. Unfortunately for those who bought from Carnation, LLC in Wichita, Kansas, their cars might not have airbags at all, which is definitely, uh, not good.

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Wichita’s 12 News reports that Carnation, a local dealer, has been ordered to pay a $418,197 default judgment over failing to disclose that the airbags in some of the cars that it sold had gone off. They didn’t just fail to tell customers their airbags had been deployed, either. The case started because one customer found that their airbag had been replaced with and airbag simulator device that kept the car from displaying its airbag warning light. The ensuing investigation eventually found at least 12 more cars that were sold without their airbags being replaced.

This also isn’t the first time that Carnation has run into problems with the law. Back in 2019, the dealer entered a consent judgment with the Consumer Protection Division for, you guessed it, selling cars without first replacing the airbags. So while Carnation was only fined $2,000 per vehicle, because the court believes it engaged in deceptive acts and willfully violated a previous consent judgment, it also ordered the dealer to pay $390,000 in civil penalties, as well as cover court costs and any investigation fees.

Additionally, the court took Carnation’s dealer license and permanently banned the dealer from selling any additional cars in the state of Kansas.

$418K default judgment after Wichita dealer fails to disclose airbag deployment