In of my business trips to USA, I was directed to use one of the company cars. The car seemed to have a severe breaks issue and not having an oil changed for a year and a half after the deadline. I was warned to be careful and leave a distance from the cars ahead but it was scary when I had to decide to turn abruptly.

If am asked to drive a car in a similar situation, how I can politely say that there is a severe safety concern and they need either to fix it or rent me a car?

Because of the crisis in the company, the local employees many times try to fix up things by themselves. Should that fix be requested to be handled by licensed persons and only?

Note: the cars are pretty old (manufactured in 1991)