Hire study reveals neglected vans
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• A Which? magazine investigation of hire vans has found that two of the 11 vans it hired from a mix of six national firms and five smaller independent companies would have failed the MOT test.
The body of a Ford Transit from Equis Self Drive Hire of Braintree, Essex was not securely fitted to the chassis; the chassis itself was cracked and the exhaust mounting was missing, Which investigators found. Another Ford Transit, from Europcar in Welwyn, Hertfordshire, had a split windscreen wiper rubber, very low pressure on one tyre and badly rubbed tyre walls.
Four of the vans Which
examined had no handbook, three had wrongly inflated tyres and most had some external damage. Generally, the survey found that the older the vehicle, and the higher the mileage, the worse its condition. The standard of vehicles from local companies varied more than those from national companies, and the vans were scruffier than hire cars — probably because they were replaced less frequently.