On car recalls

This morning on the radio, I heard an interesting bit on the news regarding recalls. Specifically, they were speaking of recalls, as dealt with via car rental companies. I have a little knowledge on this topic, so I thought I'd share.

The news article stated rental car companies have no standardized way to handle vehicles with recalls. This is true. However, they do have checks and balances.

Now, this knowledge has not been used for the better part of 10 years, so any inaccuracy or error is strictly my fault.

At Enterprise, we were taught that there were three situations in which Enterprise had the potential for unlimited liability:

1. Negligent maintenance
Faling to perform maintenance that was known to be needed could open up the liability exposure for the car-rental company. Enterprise and the other major companies get notice in advance of the public on recall situations. I knew of the problem with Ford Explorer tires about four months prior to that issue becoming nationwide news. We had long since replaced all Explorer tires.

2. Negligent entrustment
Renting a car to a person who was inelligible from a legal standpoint, or to someone who was intoxicated, acting strangely, or who posed a known threat - these things were liability nightmares. We were trained to look for major red flags that might preclude an individual from renting a car.

3. Employee loss
Any time a car rental employee is involved in a collision, you can bet the ambulance-chasing attorneys try to sue the car rental company. If the employee is at fault, you can count on the courts to find against them.

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So while rental car companies may not have "standard" proceedures for handling recalls, there is a good chance they are handled in short order the vast majority of the time. Naturally, it is still possible for something to slip through the cracks.