Saw a story on the news this morning (June 13th) about how "diligent" rent-a-car companies are about getting cars in their fleets repaired when a manufacturer's recall is issued. The BEST car rental company has a current record of 50% of it's cars being repaired when a recall is issued while the rest hover around the upper 30% range. One or two companies admit that they have NO mechanism in place to get a car that has been recalled, repaired...apparently, it's just normal fluid changes and that's it.
Enterprise (ironically, one of the "better" companies for fixing recalled cars) was sued when a PT Cruiser caught fire and 2 young women were burned to death because the power steering hose recall was not done on the rented car. The fine was $15M.
I wonder how they compare to the average owner? I suspect the numbers are similar or worse. Notice that cars still aren't bursting into flames around every corner...
that's supposed to be the "advantage" to buying a used rental, supposedly they are religious about maintenance and repair....
The problem is the rental car companies "float" cars around between locations and who knows how long rental periods, makes getting dealer required service impossible. I have fixed some of Enterprises rentals before, but only because they brought the car in for OTHER dealer only service repairs, like keys or warranty check engine lights.
Ranger50 is dead on the money. People scream for cars, a lot of the time when one comes in it goes right back out. It's just about impossible to get the darn things off the road long enough.
Fun fact: some of these rental companies are allowed to hire technicians who can do some warranty repairs and submit claims to the mfgs just as if they were a dealership service department. Even those companies are not allowed to do recalls, only a dealership is allowed to do that.
a lot of people get recall forms and chuck 'em in the trash. a service advisor is required to run a VIN check for recalls when a car comes in. If a customer refuses a recall for any reason including they are in too big a hurry, the SA is required to note that on the repair order. That saved my butt once when an engine oil cooler line ruptured on an Isuzu Trooper. A year after his service visit the line fractured, sprayed hot oil on the exhaust and it burned to the ground. He tried to claim we had refused to repair it. Went back in the files, there was a note where the guy did not want it done because he didn't have the time.That's called CYA (Cover Your Ass). 
I've owned 2 or 3 cars in my life that had recalls on them...one or two had been traded off before the recall was necessary. I do remember getting a recall notice for a car I once owned (the car was physically so old I doubted it was still on the road) and I got a notice for a "repair that I felt bordered on a wear item, so I didn't bother.
With the exceptions of holidays, like Christmas, New Year's and Thanksgiving, I've never seen a car rental location that was out of cars (barring a natural disaster, like a sudden snowstorm). The news story said NONE of the car rental companies had a "mechanism" for getting cars repaired that were recalled. In other words, they never even tried to plan for it.
