Rental Car Recall Repair Practices

Citing troubling reports of injuries and deaths in rental cars, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has begun investigating whether millions of rental cars are being fixed when they are recalled for safety problems.
The agency opened the investigation — called an audit query — last week “to investigate recall-remedy completion by rental car companies.”
This is the first such audit this year by the safety agency. In 2009, it opened only two audits.

NHTSA Letter to Chrysler

NHTSA Letter to Ford

NHTSA Letter to General Motors

U.S. auto-safety investigators are looking into whether rental-car companies are completing repairs on recalled vehicles from General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC before renting or leasing them.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been informed of “incidents involving allegations of personal injury and death” caused by defects and failure to conform to federal safety standards, the agency said on its website today.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into how quickly rental car companies get recalled vehicles repaired.

NHTSA said in a statement posted on its website today that it is looking at nearly 3 million recalled vehicles, from General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, that were sold to rental car companies. The review covers 29 separate models built between 2000 and 2010.

Are rental car agencies dragging their feet in taking in their fleets for safety recall repairs before letting customers get hold of the cars? Federal regulators want to find out.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an investigation into the issue, the agency says on its website. Bloomberg News says NHTSA is looking into “incidents involving allegations of personal injury and death” caused by defects and failure to conform to federal safety standards. The probe involves recalled vehicles from Detroit’s Big 3: Ford, Chrysler and General Motors.

WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — U.S. auto-safety investigators are looking into whether rental-car companies are completing repairs on recalled vehicles from General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC before renting or leasing them.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been informed of “incidents involving allegations of personal injury and death” caused by defects and failure to conform to federal safety standards, the agency said on its Web site today.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission is being asked to explain why the rental car industry shouldn’t have to live by the same rule that requires auto dealers to fix vehicles under recall notice before they can be sold.

Two consumer groups and a key lawmaker — Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. — have asked the FTC to force the country’s largest rental company, Enterprise Holdings Inc., to fix vehicles under recall before renting them out. Enterprise Holdings is the parent company of rental car companies Enterprise, National and Alamo.

Two consumer safety groups are asking the Federal Trade Commission to order Enterprise Rent-A-Car to start fixing every vehicle with a safety recall before renting them to consumers. The groups say the request highlights the lack of a requirement that rental companies must fix recalled vehicles before renting them.

The request comes about three months after Enterprise admitted in a California court that its failure to fix a Chrysler PT Cruiser was responsible for the deaths of two California women when it caught fire and crashed.