One of the nation’s largest rental-car companies has acknowledged in court that it regularly rents vehicles even though it is aware that they are covered by a safety recall and should be first taken in for repair.
That news came out in a California court case involving the death of two women whose rental car caught fire after a collision with a tractor trailer. The PT Cruiser they were provided by Enterprise had, in fact, previously been rented out three times after the company had received a recall notice from Chrysler.
“When demand called, we rented out recalled vehicles, it happened, I won’t lie,” said Mark Matias, who previously served as an Enterprise area manager in San Francisco, near where the accident occurred that claims the lives of 24-year-old Raechel Houck and her sister, Jacquie, 20.
While the case was in discovery, Enterprise Manager Thomas Moulton was asked, “Did you ever consider the possibility that Enterprise should not rent cars to the public after they’ve received recall notices from the manufacturer?” Moulton, according to the ABC Report, responded, “No.”
During the trial, reports ABC News, Enterprise tried to argue that the accident was the result of the driver, Raechel, being “suicidal or on drugs.” But two weeks before trial, noted the Houck family’s attorney, Larry Grassini, the company “freely admitted that they were the only cause of the deaths.”
After turning down an initial $3 million settlement offer, which would have sealed the court documents and silenced the Houck family, a jury returned a $15 million settlement in the family’s favor.
“Given all we have learned, today we would ground the recalled PT Cruiser until repaired,” Enterprise executive vice president Greg Stubblefield said in a statement.
The rental firm says it held off on renting 2010 Jeep Grand Cherokees that had airbag problems, and 35,000 Toyota and Pontiac models potentially experiencing problems with sticky accelerators.
Safety experts quoted by ABC note that there are no specific policies at either of the two largest rent-a-car firms, Hertz and Avis, against renting recalled vehicles before they’re repaired. Instead, they make decisions on a case-by-case basis depending on the recommendations of the vehicle manufacturers.
(Enterprise deletes “standard” side airbags to save money, then sells the Impalas without alerting buyers. Click Here for that story from UsedCars.com.)
Let’s not forget Enterprise’s involvement in renting Chevy Impalas without standard side airbags that it ordered deleted to save $175 (a practice Chevy no longer allows). It then turned around and sold the used Impalas without mentioning the airbags had never been installed. The story was first reported by The Kansas Star and is recounted on my blog.
Keith, I’ve inserted a link to your story at the end of ours, above. Nice scoop.
Paul A. Eisenstein
Publisher, TheDetroitBureau.com
Hi, I work for The Hertz Corporation. Many of us at Hertz read the article that was originally posted on ABCNews.com. We are saddened about the outcome and the loss of those sisters. Who would want to rent a car that needs immediate attention and repairs. They also managed to blame on Hertz by saying that we don’t have any policy or procedure either for recalled cars. It is not fair to blame other companies when a big name company does wrong! While the article inaccurately generalizes rent-a-car companies, stating they do not have policies or procedures in place for recalls, at Hertz, we in fact, have a clear, long standing company policy to promptly repair all vehicles subject to manufacturer safety recalls. Hertz is constantly in communication with the automobile manufacturers to insure the safety of our customers and we take all necessary steps to expedite the completion of such repairs. Safety recalls, such as the recent Toyota accelerator pedal issue, will result in all vehicles being placed on hold from rental until such time that all necessary repairs are completed. In addition to safety recall notifications, automobile manufacturers often provide customer satisfaction program notices. While such notices are not safety related, Hertz aggressively completes these repairs in a timely manner as they often represent vehicle appearance or comfort features. At Hertz, we err on the side of caution and only continue to rent vehicles if, after careful review, we determine there is no safety risk. As a company, we take manufacturer recalls very seriously and our customers’ safety is our top priority.
Gulsah@Hertz
Thank you for your comments. I would be interested in speaking with someone from corporate management willing to go on the record to clarify the point you make, above. We were not able to get this cleared up when pulling this story together. Thank you and I hope to hear back.
Paul A. Eisenstein
Publisher, TheDetroitBureau.com