nikko64

Ladies and gentlemen I would like to ask a question that ive been wondering about and hopefully you can shed some light on the issue. I have noticed on this forum that there are occasionally members who sell old steering wheels with airbags. If someone sells a steering wheel/airbag off their old car that they got rid of...for whatever reason then are they liable if someone buys it and then it fails to deploy once it is installed? I looked on ebay and there are lots of these on sale for a variety of different vehicles. Any lawyers on here that can chime in? Just curious..it seems that if you sell pre-owned airbags etc you may be setting yourself up for future legal issues if something goes wrong. Thanks all

EBMCS03

If he is not a merchant, not a "professional" and to the best of his knowledge at the time of sale to you, that the airbag is in working condition, then the seller does have some type of protection and would not be liable for any injuries if it fails to deploy. BUT if he knew it wasnt working and still sold it to you and it fails to deploy in an accident then you can probably sue him for some sort of negligence...

305bimmer

I think that selling a "used" airbag would be a risky proposition from a liability standpoint. Even if liability is ultimately avoided, the seller may still get sued and have to defend the case. It's a bad idea to get into the specific legal implications on a forum, so I'll refrain, but this link has some good information in it....

http://www.asashop.org/autoinc/march99/collision.htm