Three leading car hire firms, Hertz, Avis/ Budget, and Enterprise who own both Alamo and National, have all joined together to oppose new legislation proposals in the US put forward by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Under the new proposals, it would become illegal for car hire companies to lease a vehicle to a paying customer if the car has been subject to a recall order from the manufacturer. Current laws forbid the sale of cars which are affected by a recall notice in the US, and the proposed new rules would extend this rule to car hire companies as well.

The Safe Rental Car Act is the proposed legislation which the car rental companies are opposing as they believe the act has been drawn up based on inaccurate evidence.

The proposed legislation came off the back of a study conducted by the NHTSA which found that during the period of June 2006 – July 2010, 90 days after a recall notice on 10 GM and Chrysler models between this time, Enterprise had fixed 65% of their affected cars, while Avis/ Budget had corrected 53% of theirs, and Hertz had remedied 34% of their affected hire cars.

However the three car hire companies argue that this data is not a true reflection of the situation as the findings are not up to date. Since the proposed legislation is based on this study, the car hire firms are recommending that the new rules be reconsidered.