Airbags Work?
 

car that I am looking at looks like it is perfect but carfax shows it has been in a major accident with airbag/bags deployed a few years back but the title is currently not salvaged or junked...pictures of the car retain airbags...

one picture I have of the dash/gauge cluster shows indicator lights lit up under the gauges which I am assuming come on when the key is slightly turned in the ignition before the car is started...there are only 2 lights on the left and 2 on the right and I see 4W ABS, Check Engine on the left..on the right I cant tell (blury) but I think battery and something else....now in an FD when the indicator lights are lit should hte AIRBAG indicator light be illuminated as well? I am just wondering if airbags have been reinstalled to the car...I don't see how this car has no damage to the title or reported frame damage yet airbags were deployed

You have to take Carfax with a grain of salt. It isn't the end-all, be-all history of a car.

Most likely the previous owner got in an accident that deployed the airbags. Insurance company said "here's some money to fix it" and it was repaired. A car is only totalled if the damage is so much that it's not cost effective to repair the car. At that point in time, it must have been cost effective to repair.

Most likely, the airbag(s) have been replaced. It would be PAINFULLY obvious if they weren't - if the steering wheel looks like a normal steering wheel, then there you go.

By the same token, if I rolled my car off the road, had my brother-in-law come get it with his tow truck, hack the car in half, and weld another car together, guess what? Law enforcement and insurance companies didn't get involved, so Carfax would have NO idea. On paper, it's a clean title, even if the car is a rolling disaster.

If the car was repaired properly, you're all good. Unless you're REALLY experienced, it might be hard to tell how well it was repaired - this should all factor into whether you want to buy the car and how much you should pay.

Dale