Enterprise has joined the rest of the rental car industry in backing federal legislation to prohibit companies from renting out or selling vehicles under safety recalls.
The mega car rental giant announcement on Thursday came to no surprise, though it is the first time that all four major U.S. car rental companies have joined together in support of anything. The companies have decided to put their differences and competitiveness aside to support the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Rental Car Safety Act.
The agreement to band the rental of vehicles that have been recalled but not fixed comes after Raechel and Jacqueline Houck were killed in California after crashing in an Enterprise car which was rented in 2004. Until this year Enterprise had ignored the proposal.
The mother of the two girls killed in the accident started an online campaign to bring public awareness to the incident and put pressure on Enterprise to give up its stance on the issue.
"We started hearing, from more of our customers, a greater awareness of this issue, and we have a long history of listening to our customers," said Enterprise spokeswoman Laura Bryant in a press statement. "The customers told us they'd be more comfortable with federal oversight" of recalled vehicles available for rent. We now believe federal oversight will help to strengthen our industry's safety,"
The companies which have already signed on to the federal proposals include Hertz, Dollar, Avis, and now Enterprise. These companies represent 93 percent of the U.S. auto-rental market. Each of them have already agreed to fix recalled vehicles before renting or selling them to customers even if the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Rental Car Safety Act doesn't pass.
A jury in 2010 awarded $15 million to the Houck family, of Santa Cruz, Calif., after Enterprise accepted responsibility for the sisters' deaths. The sisters had rented a Chrysler PT Cruiser from Enterprise which caught fire because of a power steering problem that the manufacturer had identified weeks earlier, resulting in the recall.
After the accident, Enterprise said it approved in-house safeguards to ensure that recalled vehicles dangerous to drive were kept off the road until they were refurbished. But unlike most of its competition, the company was hesitant to support the proposed federal law, fearing that it would outlaw the renting or selling of all cars under safety recalls.
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