Bought car later found out no airbag

TerrificT

I bought a used 2020 Honday Odyssey from a dealership who touted their great inspection, etc. 6 months later the airbag warning light comes on, we take it in to the same dealership and they inform us that it has no passenger airbag. What grounds do I have? Any ideas?

thecardoc3

The inspection would include pulling trouble codes from all of the modules, but it would not mean taking the car apart and physically inspecting every single component. In order for the vehicle to pass the inspection, which means the airbag control module wasn't generating a code for them to work from who-ever removed the air bag would have had to install a device to trick the system into believing it was there. In that respect they have been taken advantage of every bit as much as you have. The questions now become; Did you get a CarFax for the vehicle? If so, did it mention that there had been an accident and that it had been repaired? If you didn't get a CarFax then you should still get one. If there is someone truly liable for this, it's going to be who-ever repaired this if it was wrecked at some point.

On a similar story I was presenting an AC class for technicians, and we always stress that the techs pull codes from all of the modules in a car. One of the technicians brought his daughters Chevrolet Trax for the live demonstration. The first thing we saw was that it had multiple Air Bag system codes, but no airbag light on in the dash. The vehicle had a fake steering wheel crash pad, no airbag in it and none of the passenger side airbag components were present. Going back to your car it's plausible there may be more components missing and someone actually needs to look and be certain the vehicle is properly equipped. You should lean on the dealer to make this right, but remember they have gotten ripped off too.