Senator Boxer challenges rental car co's: take safety pledge
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) champions rental car safety
California’s U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer has issued a challenge to the 4 major rental car companies to pledge not to rent or sell vehicles that are being recalled due to safety defects.
Hertz immediately responded and took the pledge. But its competitors — Enterprise-National-Alamo, Avis-Budget, and Dollar-Thrifty so far have failed to take the pledge. Hertz is the #2 rental car company in the nation, in terms of its share of the rental car market.
Earlier this year, CARS announced that we reached a historic agreement with Hertz, which split from its competitors and agreed to support federal legislation, named for Raechel and Jacqueline Houck, two sisters, ages 24 and 20, who were killed by an Enterprise rental car that was under a safety recall.
Enterprise received the recall notice from Chrysler about 30 days before renting the killer car to Raechel and Jacquie, but didn’t bother taking it to a dealership to get it fixed, before renting it to them.
Instead of taking the pledge, Enterprise, Avis, and Dollar complained they are being treated unfairly, since individual consumers are not required to ground recalled cars until they are fixed. They just don’t get it — no one should have to worry about a rental car company deliberately renting them an unsafe car.
Sen. Boxer’s safety pledge simply says:
“Effective immediately, our company is making a permanent commitment to not rent out or sell any vehicles under safety recall until the defect has been remedied.”
Enterprise told the St.Louis Post-Dispatch that it insists on being able to pick and choose whether to ground recalled cars, or not. A spokesperson for Enterprise raised the example of a car with a seat belt chime that doesn’t work, as the type of defect Enterprise thinks is safe enough to keep renting to consumers.
However, according to Robert Vinetz, MD, FAAP, of Los Angeles, a leading pediatrician who is well-known for his work to improve safety for infants and children, such a defect endangers kids. Many parents rely on the chimes to alert them if a child is not buckled up, or if their buckle has become unfastened. Without the warning chime, a parent may not realize their child is unsecured — with disastrous results.
Instead of being an example of why rental car companies should be allowed to second-guess auto manufacturers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Enterprise’s example is a classic argument for why they should be required to ground recalled cars until they are fixed. Period.
Read more: St Louis Post-Dispatch report:
Senator Boxer challenges:
Hertz
Enterprise-National-Alamo
Avis-Budget
Dollar-Thrifty
Hertz immediately responded and took the pledge. But its competitors — Enterprise-National-Alamo, Avis-Budget, and Dollar-Thrifty so far have failed to take the pledge. Hertz is the #2 rental car company in the nation, in terms of its share of the rental car market.
Earlier this year, CARS announced that we reached a historic agreement with Hertz, which split from its competitors and agreed to support federal legislation, named for Raechel and Jacqueline Houck, two sisters, ages 24 and 20, who were killed by an Enterprise rental car that was under a safety recall.
Enterprise rental car that killed Raechel and Jacquie Houck
Instead of taking the pledge, Enterprise, Avis, and Dollar complained they are being treated unfairly, since individual consumers are not required to ground recalled cars until they are fixed. They just don’t get it — no one should have to worry about a rental car company deliberately renting them an unsafe car.
Sen. Boxer’s safety pledge simply says:
“Effective immediately, our company is making a permanent commitment to not rent out or sell any vehicles under safety recall until the defect has been remedied.”
Enterprise told the St.Louis Post-Dispatch that it insists on being able to pick and choose whether to ground recalled cars, or not. A spokesperson for Enterprise raised the example of a car with a seat belt chime that doesn’t work, as the type of defect Enterprise thinks is safe enough to keep renting to consumers.
However, according to Robert Vinetz, MD, FAAP, of Los Angeles, a leading pediatrician who is well-known for his work to improve safety for infants and children, such a defect endangers kids. Many parents rely on the chimes to alert them if a child is not buckled up, or if their buckle has become unfastened. Without the warning chime, a parent may not realize their child is unsecured — with disastrous results.
Instead of being an example of why rental car companies should be allowed to second-guess auto manufacturers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Enterprise’s example is a classic argument for why they should be required to ground recalled cars until they are fixed. Period.
Read more: St Louis Post-Dispatch report:
Senator Boxer challenges:
Hertz
Enterprise-National-Alamo
Avis-Budget
Dollar-Thrifty
Would you "Like" Enterprise and other companies to stop renting unsafe vehicles?
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Enterprise Rental Car Co. plays "rental car roulette"
Enterprise rental car that killed Raechel and Jacquie Houck
~ Endangers customers' lives
~ Refuses to support law to prohibit renting vehicles under a safety recall
~ Refuses to support law to prohibit renting vehicles under a safety recall
Making headlines nationwide, rental car giant Hertz has reached a historic agreement with Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, to support the newly revised Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Rental Car Safety Act, named for two sisters, ages 24 and 20, who were killed in a tragic crash in an unsafe Enterprise rental car. The Act would ban rental car companies from renting or selling vehicles that are being recalled, until they are fixed.
In a front-page report in USA Today, Hertz announced its support for the Act. If it is enacted, it will protect the public from defective rental cars so unsafe they are being recalled by the manufacturer. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the safety agency:
"... believes that rental car companies have a responsibility to provide safe vehicles to their customers. All safety recalls resulting from defects present an unreasonable risk to safety and we believe it is inappropriate to suggest that some defects are not risky enough to require repair. For the safety of the motoring public, all recalled vehicles should be fixed promptly."
However, Hertz' biggest competitor, Enterprise Rental Car Co, owned by the wealthiest car guy in the country, continues to be the biggest barrier to enacting the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act.
In letters submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last April, major rental car companies admitted to federal regulators that they keep renting vehicles to the public, even when they know they are so unsafe they are being recalled by the manufacturer due to safety defects.
For example, Enterprise Rental Car Co. wrote that:
"A committee of senior executives of the parent company, including the executives responsible for vehicle maintenance and repair, evaluates recall notices. If the committee is confident that we can continue to safely rent the vehicle, we may rent the vehicle prior to the recall work being completed."
The letters from the rental car companies were submitted to the federal safety agency, in response to a formal Audit Query. The trade association for the rental car companies also stated, in a letter to members of the U.S. Senate, that after their member companies get recall notices, within the next 30-60 days, they usually fix only about 80 - 90% of the unsafe vehicles. Meanwhile, thanks to a loophole in the law, they may continue to rent or sell them to unsuspecting customers.
Obviously, 30-60 days is too long, and 80-90% is not enough. In one tragic case, two sisters, Raechel and Jacqueline Houck, ages 24 and 20, were killed by an unsafe Enterprise rental car about 30 days after Enterprise received the safety recall notice from the manufacturer. Meanwhile, Enterprise rented the defective vehicle to 3 other people. Any of them could have been killed. The car, a Chrysler PT Cruiser, was being recalled because it had a defect in a steering component that would cause an under-hood fire and also a loss of steering control. Raechel and Jacquie were riding in the car when the defect occurred. Witnesses saw the vehicle on fire. The sisters ended up colliding with an 18-wheeler, and the PT Cruiser exploded into flames. Their mother, Cally Houck, and brother, Greg Houck, have become ardent advocates for changing the law so other families will be spared the same horrific loss.
Eventually, after more than 5 years of denying it had any liability, and trying to blame the crash on the young women, Enterprise admitted it was 100% responsible for the deaths of Raechel and Jacquie -- about a week before the case was heard by a jury.
Read more: http://carconsumers.org/new.htm
USA Today: CARS and Hertz announce historic agreement on rental car safety.
What you don't know about rental cars can kill you.
What you don't know about rental cars can kill you.
Read the reports in USA Today:
www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/story/2012-02-20/Hertz-agrees-to-government-oversight-of-recalled-cars/53180734/1
www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/story/2012-02-20/Safety-advocates-Rental-car-recalls-should-be-regulated/53180374/1
Enterprise to customers: drop dead.
Would you "Like" Enterprise and other companies to stop renting unsafe vehicles?
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