The Toyota effect - trickle down from the pedal fiasco
Avis said it is removing 20,000 cars in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico as a precaution on worries that faulty accelerators could be a safety threat. The company said the Toyotas represent "a small percentage of our overall fleet." Avis Budget's fleet size was estimated at around 274,000 last year in a December investor presentation.
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Source: The Toyota effect - trickle down from the pedal fiasco
Quote from the article:
| Hertz and Enterprise joined Avis later Wednesday, saying they were pulling the cars for safety reasons after Tuesday's news that sales of eight popular Toyota Motor Corp. models would be halted in the U.S. and Canada. The models include big sellers like Camry and Corolla. Enterprise added that Pontiac Vibe models would also be pulled. Wednesday, General Motors halted sales of about two dozen Vibes, essentially the same car as the Toyota Matrix. The cars were built at a California factory that used to be a GM-Toyota joint venture. The impact appeared to be most significant for Hertz, whose fleet of 290,000 vehicles is about 20% Toyotas, according to a spokesperson. Enterprise, operator of the Enterprise, Alamo and National rental brands, said the vehicles represent 4% of its fleet. Avis's figure was not immediately available, but its December estimate suggests about 7%. Earlier Wednesday, before Hertz announced the removal, a Hertz spokeswoman said the company hadn't pulled any cars but was monitoring the situation and would work with any customer who prefers not to drive a Toyota. "The affected Toyotas are primarily higher mileage, older vehicles," said Hertz spokeswoman Paula Rivera before the decision to pull the cars. "As we rotate our fleet quite frequently, we feel confident that our fleet is not affected." Analysts said the Toyota recall will have a minimal impact on earnings for all the involved rental companies. "This is not impactful to earnings. It's more of a customer experience and customer-service issue," said Christopher Agnew, an analyst with MKM Partners. Agnew said rental companies typically run their autos to 30,000 or 40,000 miles, which is thought to be well under the mileage at which the Toyota accelerator defects begin to appear. |
Source: The Toyota effect - trickle down from the pedal fiasco
