They were sold the private equity then taken public in 2006 and the quality of the company declined dramatically over the 2010s.
They changed their model to focus on partnership programs through airlines, hotels, and credit cards while offering low teaser rates for their rentals and upselling addons afterwards.
Performance metrics for their staff shifted from customer satisfaction to sales targets.
They canceled their R&D efforts (like rental kiosks) and refocused that money on marketing campaigns.
Their marketshare and profits declined and as a result activist investor Carl Icahn put pressure on the company to cut costs in 2016, forcing in a new CEO. Those cuts ultimately led to incidents like the one in the original article about falsely reporting the vehicles stolen but also to the company's bankruptcy filing in 2019.
It's been quite the fall from grace for the company.
