Before You Buy: How to Size Up Used Cars

In July 2003, not long after his high school graduation, Bobby Ellsworth was riding in a friend's pickup in southern California when they struck a car head-on. The 1998 Dodge Dakota truck's airbags did not deploy as expected. Instead, useless paper towels had been stuffed into the airbags. Ellsworth, sitting in the front passenger seat, died at the scene. Not until after the tragedy did those involved learn the used truck had previously been totaled after a frontal crash and sold at auction. When the truck was rebuilt, its airbags were never replaced with new ones.