Is your Rental Car filled with bacteria? Or human fecal matter?

Most of us know how clean (or dirty in my case) our vehicles are. But what about the vehicles we rent when we are traveling? Do we really know what is in those vehicles?

Today News wrote an article on how dirty rental cars really are. A Today News correspondent and his team rented six cars from Orlando, Florida. Those cars were from the top rental companies in the country and included sedans, an SUV and a minivan.

The team also hired scientists who with gloves and goggles swabbed every rented vehicle from top to bottom, including but not limited to, the steering wheels, gearshifts, door handles and even the GPS units.

Two out of the six vehicles passed their inspection. However, the minivan they tested had a bacteria called ‘human bacteroides’ all over the steering wheel. Human bacteroides is short for human fecal matter. Simple translation: Poop.

If finding fecal matter on the steering wheel wasn’t enough, the tests also came back positive for sewage contamination in the child car seat. Something that could really put your child’s health in danger.

Out of the 25 samples collected by the Today News team, 22 of them tested positive for for some kind of germ. The cleanest area of the cars were the GPS devices.

Experts recommend travelers to wipe down all the surfaces in the car, especially the door handles and steering wheels. They also believe that if you notice any filth in your rental car that you return it to the facility and ask for a cleaner car, most companies will be glad to exchange it due to cleanliness issues.

The main cause of dirty rental cars is the demand for rental cars in major cities like Orlando, Washington, D.C., Miami, Los Angeles, etc. Rental car companies usually have a quick turn around rate for returned vehicles and don’t seem to be bothered with properly cleaning them for filth that is not visible to the naked eye.