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Buying rental car


kioolt

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First off I'd like to say that I haven't bought a car since 1994 so I'm not at ease when I need to buy one now. I have owned the same cars which seems like forever. My everyday car was totaled by a person who ran a stop sign. I found a car at the local Ford dealer that I like but a Carfax report shows that it was a rental car. It now has 28k on it but it looks great. My biggest concern is that it was a rental. Are there any good reasons not to buy a rental car? Do rental companies do the recommended oil changes and other maintenance items?

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Most rental companies do the bare minimum. Depending where the car was based, airport or a rental place near all the car dealers it could

have had over 200 drivers. How do you feel about that? If the number of drivers were average people not so much of a problem but if that

number of drivers were from this place...... :rofl:

They don't call them "rent a racer" for nothing. :dopeslap:

Any extended warranty to cover the big stuff like transmission, engine??

Pricing should reflect being a rental so compare to like cars available in your area.

Good luck.

 

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Usually CarFax will show dealership performing scheduled maintenance. I would be leary if different locations.

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Years ago I spent a lifetime in the car business :Cool: and can say if the car was from any of the major rental companies, they maintain their vehicles so I wouldn't have a problem with it. Since the car is at a major dealer they generally aren't going to stock junk so that's also a plus. It all boils down to price. Extended warranties are also available but I'd not consider one just because it was a rental. Extended warranties are nothing more than insurance. If you have to use it for a major repair, it generally more than pays for itself. Oh, and extended warranties are a negotiable item ... you might be able to score a discount if you "haggle" a bit.

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LittleBriar

I have purchased several rental cars in the past. They were purchased directly from outlets of the rental car company. I got good deals and had no problems with the cars.

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If bought at a dealer, it was bought by a dealer at an auction. Rental companies don't keep cars past a certain mileage or time unless they have accident damage. Those are sent for repair and then sold 90% of the time. Because these cars are in use ALL the time, often the maintenance schedule isn't exactly followed. You know, sort of like most car owners!

 

These cars are usually the stripped down or at least cheaper models in that lineup. Many years back these were sold as "executive demos", or just demos to unsuspecting customers.

 

Cars today are so much better built that I would not expect any more problems with a rental car than a car bought by an individual.

 

But you should know the market price and these cars should NOT sell for a premium price! These cars typically show a bit more wear and tear. Such as scratches in the paint from loading luggage, stains in the interior, cigarette burns, and so on.

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If it concerns you enough I'd look elsewhere, I'm sure they made more than one of them. ;) Now, looking at it with the glass half full mindset. Most people of legal age to rent a vehicle understand that driving like an ass will cost you. Most... :grin: Service, records and some trust. :dontknow:

 

Pat

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John Ranalletta

I'd prefer an off-lease CPO unit with extended warranty or some of the original drive train warranty remaining.

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I had a neighbor that ONLY bought used rental cars. She said that she always got an excellent price, they were always in top condition and lasted as long as anyone could expect them to.

 

I haven't bought a car since 1997, so I haven't had a chance to test the theory. But yes, I think people are prone to say "it's a rental? oh, my god no." without really thinking about why. But they'll buy a used car off a lot, without meeting the former owner. I'd be just as leery of that, myself. Dirtbags buy and sell cars all the time, and fail to do any maintenance. When was the last time you abused a rental car? I think the vast majority of people get in, and just drive around in a manner that allows them to turn the car in without any headaches.

 

There's that old joke:

 

"Don't worry boss, we'll treat it like our own".

 

"Yeah, well, that's what I'm afraid of. How about you treat it like it's not yours?"

 

Anyhow, there are pros and cons to every hypothesis. And we can't really answer the question here. We are just people with opinions. It would be something interesting - to study the reliability of buying used cars in a Consumer Reports manner.

 

Edited by elkroeger
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I purchased several used rental cars. Got a decent car for a good price. The only problem was a Chevy Cavalier that used oil. I did what the rental company said and they repaired the engine. Overall, it was ok.

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Buying a rental is less of a crap shoot than buying any other used car. Any of the major companies will make sure the maintenance is done and will clean the cars regularly, which is all any modern car will need for the first few years. One of many drivers might have driven it abusively, or you could buy a car from a single owner who was always abusive and neglected it entirely. I probably would not buy from a Rent-A-Wreck type company.

 

Our Camry was bought from a local dealer, who rented it to customers having their cars repaired. We purchased it after nine months in service with 7500 miles, for 65% of the new sticker price, when it was still the current model year. 120,000 miles later, there have been no unexpected expenses.

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szurszewski

Car Talk addressed this years ago. Their conclusion at the time was a rental car was probably just fine. Sure some jerk may have rented it and driven it like a race car, but what at the chances that ALL the renters, or even many of the renters, drove it like that?

 

The thing that they said they'd be wary of was a lease return on a high end car (this was before many leases included regular maintenance like oil changes) because who would bother to pay for expensive synthetic oil changes if you were only going to put 25 or 30 thousand miles on the engine before giving it back? ;)

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We've bought several rental cars from Hertz. They were all little over a year old with about 25k miles, were spotless, came with service records and a warranty. They were all great cars at good prices. We ran them all to over 100k miles with no issues, just normal maintenance. Hertz closed down their sales outlets here or we would have bought again from them when the time came.

Edited by MarkAZ
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Well, I took the plunge and bought a 2017 Ford Taurus Limited to replace my 1995 Ford Taurus GL that got totaled when someone ran a stop sign. It is a Ford certified pre-owned certified car with a drive train warranty of 7 years and 100K miles. At the moment I drive about 6 to 8 K a year. To bad the windshield wasn't included in the warranty since on my second day of ownership the windshield got cracked. I actually thought that this year would be the year I would buy a new bike since my current 04 R1150RT has over 186k miles on it. I put off buying a 2018 RT because of the rumor of the variable valve timing engine that might be out next year. I believe that whatever bike I buy next will probably be my last one. I'm getting up in years and since I keep my bikes a long time I'll probably be too old to ride before I would wear it out.

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We've bought several rental cars from Hertz. They were all little over a year old with about 25k miles, were spotless, came with service records and a warranty. They were all great cars at good prices. We ran them all to over 100k miles with no issues, just normal maintenance. Hertz closed down their sales outlets here or we would have bought again from them when the time came.

 

+1. We just bought a 2 year old Sonata (a college commute care) from the Hertz sales outlet in Nashville. Low miles and a great price. Everybody I spoke to there including the sales manager and porters all own Hertz rentals. Sure, they get a discount, but that's got to say something.

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