Car rental giant Hertz filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday, ostensibly felled by a pandemic that dramatically lowered demand at its airport counters. Under the hood: Hertz is a Frankenstein of financial engineering, beginning with its leveraged buyout in 2005 and continuing long after its private equity owners cashed out. History: Clayton Dubilier & Rice led a $14.8 billion purchase of Hertz from Ford Motor Co. in late 2005. The deal included just $2.3 billion of equity, split equally with the Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch's private equity unit, and leveraged $6.9 billion of financing against its fleet.