Have you guys seen this? U-Haul won't rent to Ford Explorer owners due to some lawsuits. I know tort law is WAY out of control in this country, but this is kind of odd. U-haul is basically making sure any jury will find them guilty as this almost is an admission of guilt by the company.

Question for us, do we show some Ford brand loyalty and not rent from U-Haul either? ...or don't we care about folks who buy the Ranger based Explorer instead of a real truck?

http://www.dontrentfromuhaul.com/

 

I got a trailer the day they came out with the e-mail to the retailers and took it all the way to Lubbuck (Daughters in collage there) in my wifes Exploder no problems at all and she has the 4.0L V-6...I think a lot of the problem is operator error..basically not knowing how to tow anything (plan your braking distance, watch sudden manuvers, ETC.)...and having the right hitch set up..I used the 2 inch drop hitch and it put the trailer level...just tell them you have an Expedition..they won,t know the differance

 

The whole thing seems like a gross over-reaction from a corporate lawyer to me. But what does that mean for us renting from them...are you for a boycott?

 

I never rent from them anyway...

Their equipment is, typically, old and worn. Poor customer service and, overall I just don't like them.

I'll rent from Penske ANYWHERE I go... and I rent frequently for work to get 'stuff' to and from jobsites...

RP

 

And for this I would never rent from u-haul.
I had a 96 explorer which i bought new, it was hands down the best vehicle I ever owned.
At the time I was 16 and treated it like crap absolutely dogged it and never had trouble out of it.
The biggest problem with the explorer rollover issue is driver error, yea sure when some idiot turns the wheel to sharp its gona flip thats a given but my grandcherokee is alot more tipsy fealing than my explorer was.

And as far as the firestone blowout on the explorers, thats exactly what it says .....firestone not ford.
My explorer eddie bauer had the firestone tires on it but I replaced them with michelins and never had one bit of trouble.

So if u-haul is stupid enough to not rent to explorer owners thats u-hauls loss.

If any of you explorer owners need a trailer, you can borrow my 20 foot trailer.

 

How is this an admission of guilt by U-Haul? If U-Haul has been sued by more owners of Ford Explorers than any other make or model, enough so that defending themselves against related lawsuits has affected their bottom line, then this sounds like a smart business move to me.

In the real world, not the fantasy internet world where anyone can post a website decry, it costs money to defend yourself, win or lose, right or wrong. I have to believe that U-Haul performed more than sufficient financial analysis to see what the impact would be of just such a decision.

Gross overreaction by corporate lawyers? More like a gross overreaction by a Ford Explorer owner with too much time on his or her hands. Ford owners boycotting U-Haul because of this is stupid. I guess for the 1100 people that signed this "petition" it would be preferable for U-Haul to continue renting to Ford Explorer owners so the company could risk being driven into financial ruin like the aforementioned tire manufacturer.

 

Well, I kind of agree with the Webmaster on this as per I can understand why U-Haul is doing what they are doing.

I have no facts but am willing to bet that a big part of this is due to sue happy trail lawyers as far as the problems with the Explorer and roll over’s.

Some of these over paid lawyers are going to go after anybody they can that has deep pockets, which was Ford, Firestone and it is sounding like U-Haul.

U-Haul simple made a good business decision and closed their pockets to any further money hungry lawyers looking to make a fast buck off of some of the Explorer victims.

I am sure U-Haul sees a good number of people that just do not know what they are doing when towing and get into accidents and see lawsuits because of it but when you got some big boys running around taking advantage of the Explorer victims and targeting a particular vehicle then it is a very simple decision to just say no to renting to someone that may come back to sue you big time because of their inability to tow correctly and then blame it on U-Haul.

If it was my business and I was faced with losing money and statistics showed me a good number of Explorer owners are suing me or that I am at a greater risk of being sued by them, then I am going to deny them that possibility.

Simple put, it is a wise business decision and there is no one to blame but the lawyers running around looking to make money off an unfortunate event with a particular vehicle.

If someone wants to blame someone then look at the lawyers representing the Explorer owners and not a business trying to protect themselves and their employee’s jobs…

 

I am a Ph.D., a member of the patent bar, and an upper level law student - I also work in a fortune 100 corporate law department. This does not make me an expert in these areas, but it does help...

1) If anyone sues U-huaul for prior Explorer crashes any descent tort lawyer will make them look like absolute ****. It might even hurt them in other rollover cases as a good lawyer will point out to the jury how their stuff is such crap that they can't even rent to the people driving the best selling sport-ute in the damn country. It might protect them if the incidence of Explorer rollovers is MUCH higher than others, but since we don't know the figures it is rather silly to speculate.

2) If they still rent to Ranger owners (same platform) and one of those rolls they will again get shredded by any good lawyer.

3) The tort system in this country is horrendous! I don't know what your background is, but the cases you hear about in the media are only the tip of a VERY seedy iceberg.

4) Because of 3, U-haul is likely to lose more than it gains, in my opinion.

5) If you run this site I hope you keep up on Ford - they have won many of their Explorer rollover cases this year (7 I think), kinda interesting time for U-Haul to run.

6) etc. - I can go on, but you get the idea....

7) ...and they still rent to Jeep Liberty owners...I would love to take that rollover case after this!

8) I'll cut down on challenging posts, you seem to want average crap on mileage...but I will ask, what do you think of the Ford black box in the 04 F150 (used to determine status of truck at the time of the crash)?

 

I would agree that in a simple world this could be helpful, but in the world of law any move you make will be used against you...and this one can be spun negative. If the Explorer was the only small sport-ute prone to rollover it would make sense, but it isn't...I think they needed to spend more on their defense law firm!

 

justsomeguy, are you at all affiliated with this "uhaul" site? You certainly speak (type) with the passion (and perceived bias) of someone who is. Frankly, I don't care either way. But my opinion still stands regardless of your background, a boycott of U-Haul by Ford owners because of this I consider idiotic. I'd go into my educational, career and personal background, but it's not relevant to my opinion.

Incidentally, regarding your comment about "challenging" posts - this site has been around since 1996, with nearly every topic regarding Ford having been covered from both postive and negative angles. I fail to see how you jump to your conclusion that controversial discussions are not allowed after only having been here for a few days. The discussion on this site is primarily positive for good reason, it's an enthusiast site.

 

That may be true but since we have the society we have today everybody, more so business has to protect their butt from money hungry lawyers looking to make fast money of usually very lame cases.

Should U-Haul try to fight it? Sure in the perfect world that would make sense, but the real world basically dictates it is much cheaper to pay someone off to shut up and leave then spend untold thousands of dollars protecting themselves in a case, then winning the case and still being out of untold thousands of dollars.

What the county needs is a complete reform of the entire legal systems and laws when it comes to suing and the and the outrageous awards that are giving where many lawyers make out like bandits.

What many people may think is U-Haul did the wrong thing and will lose money over it. I, like Steve, am sure they weighed the issues and came to the conclusion that just one unwarranted law suit could have resulted in more money lost on their part then all the profit they may lose with this decision.

Again it is not U-Hauls fault, nor is it Ford’s fault, it is the fault of some money hungry lawyers going for the quick buck in deep pockets, and that is the real world we live in today…

 

Playing a numnbers game here:

If the Explorer is the best selling SUV for several years running, then their are more Explorer owners around compared to other owners of SUV makes, which would statistically increase Uhaul's chances of being sued by an Explorer owner.

For example, if on the average 1 in 100 rentals has an accident, and if 1000 trailers are rented to Explorer owners compared to 300 to Cherokee owners, the Explorer owners will acount for 10 accidents compered to Jeep's 3. If 1 in 5 accidents results in a lawsuit, then 2 lawsuits were just accounted for by the Explorer owners, and the Cherokee owners have yet to rent enough trailers to statistically have 1 lawsuit.


*disclaimer - All of these numbers were made up, these numbers are not accurate. Ford Explorer and Jeep Cherokee are trademarked and were used as examples only. Be careful when driving with hot coffee, fast food will make you fat, don't run w/ scissors, and watch out for pyschotic twinkie eaters.

 

Damnit! You leave them out of this!

 

Well I have to Chime in here.

When my Father died in Fla, my brother and I rented a truck and a car carrier (the kind that the whole car is on the trailer) from Ryder to bring back some of his stuff. The car carrier was towed behind thier own truck and tranported my dad's 71 Mercedes (which was of more sentimental value to us). The salesperson gave us a toll free number to call if we ran into any problems.

Well in North Carolina, the hitch tounge broke and we were dragging the front end of the trailer on the ground. We almost lost the trailer and car. If it was not for a passing motorist, we would have never known except when it would be too late (You can't see behind the truck).

A NC trooper came to help us (he was real kind, understanding, and helpful and in my book, the best). The trooper drove us around for a hour to see if we could get help. We called the number and basically they told us we were on our own. When the trooper said he wanted the broken trailer off his highway, they sent a tow truck for the trailer only, they dumped the car on the side of the road for us to worry about. U haul wanted nothing to do with us as we did'nt rent from them in the first place.

The reason the car had to be towed was it had a failed alternator. We had the Mercedes towed to the nearest garage, charged the battery, and started it up. Since it had mecanical fuel injectors (it's a diesel), it would run as long as I did'nt shut it off. I drove it the rest of the way to NJ with the dead alternator while
my brother took the truck.

Upon returning the rental truck in NJ, we asked for a refund on the trailer and for the towing charge since the trailer was defective and broke. Again they refused us, even though the trailer was in some bone yard in NC. All the letter writing to corporate Ryder proved fruitless, we did not see a dime of the trailer money of tow charge.

Moral of story: NEVER rent from Ryder, they love you when things are good but when you have a problem, they don't know you at all.