Sources and method

Every number on this site has a link.

Rental Car Intel is a static briefing desk. Editorial pages cite primary company, government, and trade sources. Daily panels are rebuilt from public feeds. If a feed fails, yesterday’s file stays put.

What we will not do

Invent fleet counts, rates, or savings.
Copy rental-company logos or trade dress. Brand names are text only.
Tell you a VIN is clear without you checking NHTSA or your own system.
Treat a Scoop/industry report as a Hertz press release — we label who said what.

How the daily refresh works

One command pulls everything and stamps Eastern time:

python3 /workspace/rental-car-intel/scripts/refresh.py

It is idempotent: it overwrites JSON/JS outputs in place, never appends duplicates, and keeps the previous file when a source errors. If a Cloudflare Pages deploy has been enabled for this project — not Shop Recall Radar — the same command redeploys.

Live data sources

Panel	Source
Headlines	Google News RSS queries per brand and topic
Recalls	USDOT Socrata dataset 6axg-epim; docs at NHTSA datasets and APIs; VIN/model lookup via api.nhtsa.gov
Travel	TSA checkpoint travel numbers
Weather	NHC Atlantic RSS, Eastern Pacific RSS, NWS active alerts API

Core editorial sources

Hertz newsroom and IR: online buying, Amazon Autos, eBay, TestDrive+, Q3 2026, FY 2024 EV reduction
DealershipGuy (Nov. 9, 2026) for the Hertz spokesperson statement on closing dedicated Car Sales locations
Enterprise Mobility financial facts and FY25 recap; official brand descriptions for Enterprise, National, and Alamo
Avis Budget Group Q3 2026 results and Our Brands page
Sixt H1 2026 results and Sixt Car Gate help page
EU Case M.12258 notification (Volkswagen / Europcar); Morocco Competition Council notice listing Europcar, Goldcar, and Fox
BusinessWire (2019) Europcar acquisition of Fox
49 U.S.C. §§ 30120(i) and 30102; NHTSA Zipcar consent order (2023)
LAWA LAX Rental Car Center release (March 11, 2026)
Cox Automotive / Auto Rental News remarketing outlook (Jan. 16, 2026)
CBS News and The Drive on Hertz/UVeye; TechCrunch on Turo’s IPO withdrawal

Each article page repeats the specific links next to the claims it uses.