The Car You Rent May Not Be Safe
Recently NHSTA opened an investigation into rental car companies and the frequency with which they repair rental vehicles that were subject to safety recalls. As the experienced vehicle product liability and vehicle defect lawyers of Reiff & Bily can attest to, many times cars rented from rental agencies have not been repaired due to the fact that rental companies do not wish to take these vehicles off the road sacrificing safety in order to maximize profitability.
In one of our cases, a 15-passenger van was rented from an agency and rolled over due to a known defect on the vehicle. NHSTA has recently asked the major automobile manufacturers to provide recall and repair information for models of vehicles that are popular among rental companies, including but not limited to the Chevy Malibu, Chrysler Sebring, and Ford Fusion. NHSTA, a governmental agency, is attempting to investigate how long it has taken rental companies to take their vehicles in for service once there is a recall. Consumer advocates and attorneys have known and claimed that rental companies do not immediately remove their vehicles out of service and wait until it is “convenient” to have the vehicles repaired. Of course the rental companies deny this and claimed that vehicles subject to recalls and put consumer safety at risk are put on hold until they are repaired.
As an experienced auto defect and product liability lawyer, we are all too familiar with circumstances where this is not the case. As chance favors the prepared mind, we believe that safety should not be an option and that rental agencies owe the highest duty of care to their customers and should be held accountable if the renter is injured in an accident due to their failing to repair a known defect.
