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Investigation Finds Rental Companies Rent out NHTSA Recall vehicles

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and automakers are working hard to make sure that individual consumers are not driving an NHTSA recall vehicle. As soon as a recall is announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, automakers get to work informing consumers about the recall, and asking them to come in for replacement of defective parts or repairs. However, there seems to be no foolproof mechanisms in place to prevent rental car companies from renting out the same defective vehicles.

In May, Enterprise Rent-a-Car was asked to pay $15 million to the family of two sisters in California, who were killed when the Chrysler PT Cruiser they were traveling in, crashed. The PT Cruiser had been recalled by Chrysler, but Enterprise rented it out to the two sisters anyway. The NHTSA recall was due to a power steering fluid leak problem that could cause motorists to lose control of the vehicle. That seems to have been exactly what happened in the case of the PT Cruiser.  The power steering fluid leaked, leading to loss of control of the car.  The two girls died in the crash.

After the deaths, the parents of the two sisters filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Enterprise. During the trial, it came out that Enterprise had no policy in place to make sure that recalled vehicles were not rented out. Far from it, the company had an unspoken and unwritten, but well-known policy that encouraged employees to rent out recalled vehicles if there were no other vehicles available on the lot. Enterprise employees testified that it was an accepted policy at the company that employees could rent out a recalled car. .

That testimony came as a shock to California car accident attorneys, and consumers who regularly depend on these companies for rental cars. However, it doesn’t seem like Enterprise Rent-a-Car is the only company that is guilty of such unethical practices. The ABC investigation shows that other major rental car companies including Avis and Hertz, also do not have policies in place to prevent recalled vehicles from being put out on the roads.

The unscrupulous practices by rental car companies burst into the spotlight last year when an exposé by the Kansas City Star revealed that several rental companies and used-car dealers like Enterprise. had chosen to get side airbags removed from thousands of Impalas on their lots. The companies conveniently failed to mention this fact on their websites.  The results of that investigation had definitely concerned traffic safety advocates and California car accident lawyers.

Enterprise seems to figure very often when there is talk of unethical practices by rental car companies, but it doesn’t seem like this company is the only one guilty of such practices. There seems to be little oversight over the question of recalled vehicles at rental car companies. and how these companies react to such recalls. Consumers are at a grave risk of accidents and serious injuries when they rent and drive a defective vehicle.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of recalled products. Please visit our website at http://www.robertreeveslaw.com/. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us at contact@robertreeveslaw.com.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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