Florida Drivers Unknowingly Sold Used Vehicle With Defective Airbags, Seatbelts
More and more dangerous vehicles are being sold off of used car lots to unsuspecting consumers, making it more important than ever for automotive repairers to be vigilant.
A report from ABC Action News revealed the story of U.S. Navy veteran Gilbert Santiago, who purchased a 2022 Volvo S60 from a used car dealer in Brandon, Florida, called HGreg.
Though HGreg claims to conduct multipoint vehicle inspections on every car it sells, Santiago quickly ran into problems with the vehicle. Soon after purchasing it, an airbag light came on, instructing for the vehicle to be taken to a dealer immediately.
What Santiago didn’t know is that the vehicle had been returned just six months prior by a customer who found problems with the front airbag and seatbelt pretensioner. He experienced an airbag warning light, rusted driver’s side airbag, incorrect parts, and tampered wiring.
However, HGreg has refused to refund Santiago for the vehicle, leading to him paying $6,000 out of pocket for new airbags—but if what the previous customer said about the seatbelt pretensioner was true, that alone is not sufficient to make the vehicle safe again.
ABC Action News arranged for Santiago to meet with them and Chris Wallin, a master technician at Brazzeal Automotive in Tampa, to ensure everything was alright with the vehicle; but that would not be the case.
Though a diagnostic test showed no problems, Wallin moved to examine the interior door panel, where he found the seatbelt pretensioner system disconnected from the wiring harness. Instead, there were wires wrapped in electrical tape, holding a resistor.
“What they’ve done is just take a resistor that matches the resistance that the pretensioner is supposed to have and just kind of shoved it in that wiring harness to trick it into thinking it’s got a good pretensioner,” explained Wallin.
For a driver that’s a victim in a situation like this—and, as NHTSA has warned, there’s an alarming number that are—diligent and trained technicians can be the difference between safety and tragedy.
A few months ago, a technician with L1 Automotive Training shared his story of a used car dealer bringing a vehicle in that had the same setup, and the confrontation between the two that followed.
“This infuriates me beyond all belief,” said Keith, a tech at L1. “There is someone who is going to buy this car, and give it to their wife or their son or their brother, and someone’s going to ride with them, and they’re not gonna know. And it may not even be this owner of the car. It may be years down the road.”
