Avis, Enterprise pull recalled Toyotas from fleet

[NINETY EIGHT REGENCY]

Avis, Enterprise pull recalled Toyotas from fleet

BY JUSTIN HYDE

FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON -- Rental car firms Avis Budget Group and Enterprise Holdings said today they were pulling thousands of Toyota models covered by a recall for sticking accelerator pedals from fleets in the United States and Canada until a fix is available.

In a statement, Avis Budget said the decision to idle 20,000 Toyotas was a precaution, that the affected models "represent only a small percentage of our overall fleet," and that it would not create problems meeting customer orders.

"We believe that all of the Toyotas in our fleet are safe, given the regular maintenance and the low mileage of our overall fleet," the company said in a statement.

Enterprise Holdings, which controls the Enterprise, National and Alamo brands, said it too would pull an unspecified number of Toyota models from its fleet, accounting for about 4% of the cars it has in service. The company also will stop selling used Toyotas while the automaker finds a fix for the problem.

"The safety of our customers is our number one concern, so we are acting out of an abundance of caution to remove the affected vehicles from our fleet until Toyota has identified a remedy for the issue," said Matt Darrah, executive vice president of North American operations for Enterprise Holdings.

link:

http://www.freep.com/article/20100127/BUSINESS01/100127050/1210/BUSINESS/Avis-Enterprise-pull-recalled-Toyotas-from-fleet