Is the rental car you are driving safe? – Recalls and the Car Rental Industry – What every car driver should know.

If a car you were about to rent had a open recall would you want to know?  Would you feel safe to drive it if the recall hadn't been repaired? Even if the manufacturer said it was "safe" to drive?  

These are the questions we can only wish someone would have asked before the Houck sisters decided to take a road trip to visit their mother Carol Houck.  Carol's two daughters in a rental car road trip to visit her, were killed in a flaming car fire that could have been prevented.  Enterprise had rented the PT Cruiser to the sisters, knowing the car they were renting them had an open recall on it.  A faulty power steering hose resulted in the girls losing control resulting in a horrific and preventable tragedy. 

Enterprise claims that is it not required or mandated by the manufacturers to "ground" the cars.  They felt it was not their responsibility to determine whether or not a vehicle they own is safe to drive and said they leave that to the "experts" to decide.

Sadly to say this time the "experts" were wrong.  Enterprise knew about the open recall o the vehicle they were driving but had just delayed in having it repaired.  Since there is currently no regulation to ground vehicles in open recalls legally it is still permissible for car rentals to rent cars with open recalls.  For Enterprise, choosing not to safeguard the system recently cost them $15 million in judgment the Houck family won against the company. 

Carol "Cally " Houck considers the win just a drop in the bucket compared to the reform that is needed to ensure that Enterprise and other rental companies, get the message and change their polices regarding rentals with open recalls.   Currently she is petitioning for change with the F.T.C to ensure that all vehicles are "parked until fixed".  Her recent judgment is a push in the right direction but she considers a mandate as being the only way to ensure that no more lives are lost because of negligence.

Currently Dealerships under federal law are not allowed to sell vehicles with open recalls.  We can only hope that the rental companies will get the message and soon follow suit, and that no other lives will not be lost during the interim.