Enterprise Holdings Removes 83 Percent of Recalled Toyotas and Pontiac Vibes From Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental Locations
Company's Unique Network of Neighborhood and Airport Locations Enables Rapid Response, Minimizes Customer Inconvenience
ST. LOUIS, MO--(Marketwire - February 2, 2010) - Enterprise Holdings announced that, through
its regional subsidiaries, it has now removed 83 percent of the
approximately 35,000 recalled Toyota and Pontiac Vibe vehicles from its
North American rental fleet on behalf of its Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise
Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental brands. The company credits its unique
network of more than 5,000 Enterprise Rent-A-Car neighborhood locations --
located within 15 miles of 90 percent of the U.S. population -- with
enabling it to respond quickly and smoothly to the recall.
These vehicles, which were identified for recall and suspension of sales
due to potential problems with sticking accelerator pedals, represent about
4 percent of the company's entire North American fleet.
"We've been able to move so quickly to pull almost 30,000 cars from our
fleet because of our coast-to-coast network of neighborhood and airport
locations," said Matt Darrah, executive vice president-North American
Operations for Enterprise Holdings, which owns and operates the Alamo,
Enterprise and National brands.
"I also have to give tremendous credit to our team," Darrah noted. "Our
employees have worked hard to ensure that, in the process of protecting our
customers' safety, we've also minimized their inconvenience.
"The other factor that's worked in our favor is that the affected vehicles
represent such a small percentage of our total fleet," Darrah said. "That's
added to our speed and efficiency in moving vehicles from city to city, or
back and forth between airports and nearby neighborhood branches, to
minimize delays in getting customers into a replacement vehicle. That same
flexibility, combined with new cars coming into our fleet and our plans to
keep some existing cars a bit longer than planned, makes us confident that
we can continue meeting customer demand."
Enterprise Holdings will continue to remove all affected cars from its
fleet. Meanwhile, the company has suspended sales of the affected models
and will not sell or put any affected Toyota vehicles into service under
the Alamo, Enterprise or National car rental brands until the situation is
corrected.
Further, Enterprise Fleet Management, working with Toyota, is continuing to
contact its leasing customers who have leased a vehicle subject to the
recall and is keeping them informed of the latest developments.
None of the vehicles in the company's car sharing fleet, operated under the
WeCar brand, is affected by the manufacturer's safety recall concerning
potentially sticking accelerator pedals.
About Enterprise Holdings
Enterprise Holdings, through
its regional subsidiaries, owns and operates more than 1 million cars and
trucks, the largest fleet of passenger vehicles in the world today, under
the Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental brands.
Enterprise Holdings, headquartered in St. Louis, also operates a network of
more than 8,000 car rental locations in neighborhoods and at airports
worldwide.
Ranked No. 21 on the Forbes Top 500 Private Companies in America list,
Enterprise Holdings is unparalleled in size, strength and stability -- the
only investment-grade company in the car rental industry. In addition,
Enterprise Holdings is part of a global strategic alliance with Europcar, creating the world's largest car rental network. Other Enterprise
business lines include Enterprise Fleet
Management, Enterprise
Commercial Trucks, Enterprise Car
Sales and WeCar car sharing. For
more information about Enterprise Holdings, visit
www.enterpriseholdings.com. For more information about Enterprise
Holdings' environmental stewardship and the company's long-term commitment
to ensure the sustainability of its business, visit www.keystogreen.com.
Contact Information: For more information, contact:
Laura Bryant
Enterprise Holdings
314-512-4178