banktime.com

While it’s logical to think that dealers and current owners of Toyota cars, trucks, and SUVs were freaking out over the immediate futures of their vehicles after news of the massive recall broke, there is another large group of people also dealing with the fallout: rental car companies. On Wednesday, Toyota announced that it would be halting production and prohibiting sales of eight of its best-selling models (Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Highlander, RAV4, Matrix, Sequoia, and Tundra) due to a faulty gas pedal that has been blamed in multiple accidents and at least one death. Until the acceleration pedals can be repaired, many Toyota owners have reason to be concerned about driving their cars. And that goes double for rental car companies, who have to worry about consumers potentially getting into trouble while driving autos from their fleets. The end result? Many major rental firms have announced that they are pulling all Toyota cars from their line-ups of rentable cars.

Yesterday, two of the biggest rental firms in the country (Avis and Enterprise) announced that they would be pulling all Toyota cars from their fleets. The news was reported on the Travel Pulse website, an industry trade publication. Luckily, both companies say that the news should not cause consumers to be worried about vehicle shortages. Toyotas compromise no more than only a small percentage of their total amount of cars. In Enterprise’s case, the number is only four percent. Finding replacement vehicles in the meantime will supposedly be easy for the agencies. The gist of the reports is that both Enterprise and Avis will replace the Toyotas back into the fleet once they are able to be repaired appropriately.