Consumer groups want answers from the FTC
The FTC is being asked why rental car companies don't follow the same rules that the automaker have to live by; requring cars that have recall notices to be fixed before they can be sold.
The two groups and a key lawmaker — Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. — are asking the FTC to force Enterprise Holdings Inc., the biggest car rental company in the country. to repair cars that have been recalled before renting them out or selling them. Enterprise Holdings owns Enterprise, National and Alamo.
Safety groups are saying that car renters may not kinow that the car they are given is under recall. Which could be potentially dangerous. The issue has been in the spotlight since the recalls of cars made by Toytoal and other automakers
The governemnt could get involved next year.
On Monday, Senator Schumer asked the FTC to stop the practice, across the industry, telling FTC in a communication that "if automotive dealers are not allowed to sell recalled vehicles without first fixing the safety issues, then rental car companies should be held to the same standard."
"If a car is not safe enough to be bought and driven off the lot, then it is not safe enough to rent," Schumer wrote. Threatening legislation, he said that if the FTC "can't or won't act, Congress will."
This past summer, the Center for Auto Safety and Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, petitioned the FTC to require Enterprise Holdings to take cars under recall out of their flett until they are repaired. The FTC contends that repairing recalled cars hurts the rental business.
"The concept is real simple. If the car is not on the road, it's losing money," said Clarence Ditlow, president of the Center for Auto Safety. "So they want to schedule a recall repair when it's convenient for them."
Enterprise Holdings, with over 1.1 million rental vehicles, says they park cars and do not retn them when they receive recommendations from the automaker. An automaker may tell owners to contact their dealership to schedule an appointment for service, but they rarely tell their customers not to drive their cars until they are repaired.
According to Enterprise spokeswoman Laura Bryant, Enterpise "frequently goes above and beyond what is required." Enterprise refused to rent more than 30,000 Toyotas and Pontiacs earlier this year. "In most cases, we place a 'hold' on recalled vehicles so they are not rented until the recall work is completed," she said.
The FTC declined comment on the petition.
