Enterprise Holdings announced today that it has already removed 50 percent of the approximately 35,000 recalled Toyota and Pontiac Vibe vehicles from its North American rental fleet in less than 48 hours.

These vehicles, which have been 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.

“Because our customers’ safety and trust are always our top priority, we think it is important to explain not only what we are doing with these vehicles, but also the steps we’re taking to meet their car rental needs,” stated Matt Darrah, executive vice president of North American Operations for Enterprise Holdings, which owns and operates the Alamo Rent A Car, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and National Car Rental brands.

“Fortunately, we are uniquely positioned from coast to coast with an extensive airport and neighborhood network that gives us unparalleled flexibility and agility in situations such as these,” Darrah explained. “This means we not only can quickly and efficiently move vehicles from city to city, but also back and forth between airports and nearby neighborhood branch offices to minimize customer inconvenience and delays in getting them into another replacement vehicle.”

Enterprise Holdings is North America’s largest and most comprehensive car rental company, with more than a third of all airport business in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, the company operates more than 5,000 Enterprise Rent-A-Car offices located within 15 miles of 90 percent of the U.S. population.

Darrah said that Enterprise Holdings also is refreshing its fleet with delivery of new vehicles and is keeping some existing vehicles a few weeks longer than planned while the affected Toyota vehicles are grounded. “We want the public to know we have the infrastructure, the fleet and the people in place to continue meeting their car rental needs at the airport as well as in local communities,” Darrah stressed.

The company, while continuing to remove affected models from its rental fleet, also is suspending sales of the those models and will not put any new Toyota vehicles into service under the Alamo, Enterprise or National brands until the situation is corrected. Further, Enterprise Fleet Management, working with Toyota, is contacting its leasing customers who have leased a vehicle subject to the recall and keeping them informed of the latest developments.

None of the hybrid 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.