Enterprise Holdings Removes 50 Percent of Recalled Toyotas and Pontiac Vibes
January 29, 2010
Enterprise Holdings
announced today that it has already removed 50 percent of the approximately
35,000 recalled Toyota and Pontiac Vibe vehicles from its North American rental
fleet in less than 48 hours.
These vehicles, which have been identified for recall and suspension of sales
due to potential problems with sticking accelerator pedals, represent about 4
percent of the companys entire North American fleet.
Because our customers safety and trust are always our top priority, we think
it is important to explain not only what we are doing with these vehicles, but
also the steps were taking to meet their car rental needs, stated Matt
Darrah, executive vice president of North American Operations for Enterprise
Holdings, which owns and operates the
Alamo Rent A Car,
Enterprise Rent-A-Car and
National Car Rental brands.
Fortunately, we are uniquely positioned from coast to coast with an extensive
airport and neighborhood network that gives us unparalleled flexibility and
agility in situations such as these, Darrah explained. This means we not only
can quickly and efficiently move vehicles from city to city, but also back and
forth between airports and nearby neighborhood branch offices to minimize
customer inconvenience and delays in getting them into another replacement
vehicle.
Enterprise Holdings is North Americas largest and most comprehensive car
rental company, with more than a third of all airport business in the U.S. and
Canada. In addition, the company operates more than 5,000 Enterprise Rent-A-Car
offices located within 15 miles of 90 percent of the U.S. population.
Darrah said that Enterprise Holdings also is refreshing its fleet with delivery
of new vehicles and is keeping some existing vehicles a few weeks longer than
planned while the affected Toyota vehicles are grounded. We want the public to
know we have the infrastructure, the fleet and the people in place to continue
meeting their car rental needs at the airport as well as in local communities,
Darrah stressed.
The company, while continuing to remove affected models from its rental fleet,
also is suspending sales of the those models and will not put any new Toyota
vehicles into service under the Alamo, Enterprise or National brands until the
situation is corrected. Further, Enterprise Fleet Management, working with
Toyota, is contacting its leasing customers who have leased a vehicle subject
to the recall and keeping them informed of the latest developments.
None of the hybrid vehicles in the companys car sharing fleet, operated under
the WeCar brand, is
affected by the manufacturers safety recall concerning potentially sticking
accelerator pedals.
News Source: