Should Rental Car Companies Be Allowed To Rent Out Recalled Vehicles?
In 2011, the Government Accountability Office issued a report saying that all rental companies decide on either a "hard hold," in which cars are grounded until repaired, or a "soft hold," where the vehicles are allowed to be rented.
However, Avis, Budget, Enterprise and Hertz all tell USA Today that they ground recalled vehicles until repairs are finished. But an Enterprise rep says that sometimes they can remedy a recall without having to actually take a car to the dealership.
For instance, Enterprise said it was able to immediately resolve the Toyota recall for improperly secured floormats by simply removing all the mats from affected vehicles.
But some safety advocates think that, considering how many cars are purchased and sold by rental companies, more oversight is needed.
"The rental car industry is the single largest purchaser of new cars, and the single largest source of used cars in North America, yet they have escaped all regulation and oversight from (NHTSA)," says Cally Houck, whose daughters died in a 2004 incident involving an Enterprise vehicle that had been recalled but not repaired.
New twist on the car rental
SAN FRANCISCO — Emily Castor's metallic gray Honda has been driven by dozens of people she's never met.
They treat it well, pay any tickets they get and do the dirty work of finding a legal parking spot when they return it to her neighborhood near Golden Gate Park.
Castor, 29, is pulling in hundreds of dollars each month through one of several personal car-sharing companies that have burgeoned in the Bay Area over the past year. For $8 an hour or $45 a day, renters can climb behind the wheel of her Civic. Insurance is included.
The Bay Area has become a laboratory for personal car-sharing, as well as the broader "collaborative consumption" movement.
Rooms in private homes, outgrown children's clothes, parking spaces and more can be rented, borrowed, bartered or gifted through a burgeoning number of Web-based ventures.
Unlike companies such as Zipcar that finance and maintain a fleet of vehicles, personal car-sharing networks are possible wherever enough owners and renters sign up. There are nine operating in the U.S. and 25 globally, said Susan Shaheen of the University of California at Berkeley's Transportation Sustainability Research Center.
Other factors include high fees charged by personal injury lawyers, claims management firms and car hire companies. Almost half the average insurance premium now goes to cover the cost of whiplash claims, fraud, legal fees and tax. and more »
18, 2011 2:56PM EST When renting a car, I never know whether to take the extra insurance offered by the rental company. Do I really need this, or are they just trying to fleece me? I have some car rental coverage through my credit card, and more »
