UHAUL van rental from Hell ! Unsafe at any speed ! Steering locked up 3 times. We could have been killed if we'd been in traffic ! Never again ! ...

 We rented a van on Thursday so I could pick up a bookcase and some bulky food items.

 Little did I know it was the rental from hell.

UHAUL's Ford vans ( there's a reason why FORD stands for fix or repair daily ) have a feature where you have to press hard down on the brake pedal to move the shift lever out of park.

That's fine IF it doesn't happen while you're driving the damned thing !!!

The van we rented from the Monument Avenue location in Concord kept having the steering wheel lock up every time we either stopped and had our foot on the brake or parked and it also locked up 3 times while we were driving it. It finally locked up totally and we spent over 30 minutes trying to get the steering wheel to move. The ignition switch would also not move either and was also locked up.

I and my girlfriend both tried to move the damned thing and nothing happened. I called the location where we rented it and they were of no help. They transferred me to UHAUL'S misnamed customer service and they weren't any help either. They did send someone out to help us but when he arrived he was actually blocks away from our location and did not know where we were and asked ME for UHAUL'S emergency road service phone number ( something he should have & shouldn't be asking the customer for it ) and by that time I finally got the steering wheel to move by putting both of my feet on the pedal A LA Fred Flintstone, pushing as hard as I could on the pedals and using both of my hands applied force on the steering wheel and by moving it to the Left, I got it to move and my gf was able to drive it. IF she had been alone, she never could have gotten it to move.

This feature of pushing on the brake pedal is dangerous and should not be on any van.

We're furious and are just thankful the steering wheel didn't lock up when we were in heavy traffic or on the freeway.

I asked UHAUL for an adjustment to my bill but ... they take 2-3 days to contact you instead of dealing with it on the spot. I want a refund of at least the rental fee given that we wound up cutting our plans for the van short because we were afraid to drive the cursed thing.

I and my late Father had rented UHAUL trucks for years and never had a problem But after this experience, I will NEVER rent another UHAUL van again !!!!

Van unsafe with UHAUL's press on the brake to move the shift lever feature !