My DD crashed her 15 year old chevy impala- hit black ice on I-95 did a couple 360 degree spins and ended up perpendicular on the freeway. She was doing 45-50 mph, hit the barricade on the bridge and was lucky that the air bags did not deploy nor did she get hit by other cars. Amazing!
We are now looking for a newer used car- probably something 2-3 years old with lower mileage- about 40K or less. We have been preapproved for a $15K loan with me cosigning for her. We are looking at 4 door sedans and during the initial online look, I have found a few cars that show on the CarFax that they are previous rentals.
I would assume that a rental would have better service than a ‘regular’ owner, but then the people renting wouldn’t care how the car was treated. I’m hoping the CC panel can give some advice about the rental vs. regular owner trade in vehicle scenarios.
I am NOT looking forward to trying out cars… argh. I hate haggling with people, I can do it but it is so time consuming. I know we can also go through Car Max- we bought hubby’s truck through them, loved their process. In and out of the door within 30 minutes. But the down side to that is we paid a slightly higher price.
I rent a lot. I would not buy a 4x4 or a sports car that has been a rental, but I would seriously consider a basic sedan. Such boring cars do not usually get mistreated by renters (other than renters causing some cosmetic damage to the inside and minor scratches on the bumpers) - it is very unlikely renters are going to abuse such a sedan by racing it down the freeway or try to do some offroading tricks in it. If you are looking for a basic vehicle, a rental car would be just fine, especially the one coming from a place where most renters are business people (like Silicon Valley).
Don’t know where you are located…but we bought DD a 2012 Camry LE (we bought it last April so it was three years old) with 38,000 miles on it. Out the door including registration and everything was $14500 or so.
We got it at a place called Carite. We went to one in Windsor Locks CT. They sell gently used mostly Honda and Toyota cars…but o see they also have a bunch of Nissan too. The one we got was a personal lease. The place does a 300 point inspection. We got new brakes, new tires, all fluids, and belts checked and changed if needed. Cars are completely cleaned inside and out…and the exteriors are buffed shiny and new looking. When we picked the car up…it looked brand new.
I would never buy a former rental car. I think the “regular maintenance” is kind of a myth, but that is just IMHO. I was a business renter for many years and a calm, older woman driver but I wouldn’t even want a car that I had rented. The “Check Engine” light comes on… I am not taking it in, I have stuff to do. Will let them know when I get done. Meanwhile, car is low on oil, causing damage. How many curbs were hit with no visible damage, but maybe frame alignment issues? I think many rentals have a hard life. But I don’t have “proof”.
I’d first check with the local credit union for certified pre-owned cars. Ours has a set of dealers that agree to have worked out credit union pricing.
Others might mention good deals on Craigslist, but I don’t know enough about testing cars/checking for problems to be able to trust that the car is in fact a good buy.
After I totaled my car a few years back (also in an ice storm on the freeway, but I flipped my car and landed in a ditch), I bought a former rental car. It was a year old Kia Rio, less than 20k miles on it, and I got it for less than 10k. 5 years later and it’s the best car ever. I’m at about 100k miles now and I’ve spent probably less than 1k in maintenance on it over these last 5 years.
I had a Subaru Forester that was a rental, got it with about 25,000 miles on it. Sold it to a neighbor kid a few months ago with 176,000 miles on it. It had no more or less than the normal issues for a car – I would do it again.
We just bought our older son a 2014 Corolla LE (previous loaner car for Toyota Dealership). 35 K miles and out the door for $15,000. It was certified/pre-owned so we got the 5 year warranty and free oil changes for the 1st year included.
My relatives have had good success purchasing rental cars. They’ve each bought quite a few–Nissan Ultimas, Honda Accords, and Mazda. They tend to get it with some warranty from Hertz, or whomever they buy from. I’m assuming they find it a good way to purchase as they have each purchased several cars in that manner. I hav no personal experience buying a rental car.
I do know S nearly bought a rental car, prior to inheriting a car.
We bought our daughters a 2006 Kia Optima that was a rental, back in 2007. Never a thing wrong with it, and it is still going strong. The usual things apply - have a mechanic check it out, get an insurance quote (you’d be surprised at what vehicles they consider higher risk), look for things under, over, and through it.
Enterprise only resells its former rentals that are the top 10 percent in condition. I bought a Chevy Impala 2 years old with 22k miles on it and it was like a new car–everything absolutely perfect, new tires. I traded in a van with 199k miles and a slipping transmission but they had a deal to add $1000 to the trade-in value of the car so I got $1000 off the price.
You can search their website. I think they drive any car within 100 (60?) miles of their closest location free if you want to look at it and test-drive. And you can return the car within a week for exactly what you paid for it except the license plate cost.
I do not like to rent from Enterprise because their cars are usually in top shape, and the agents scrutinize every tiny blemish upon return. Alamo, OTOH, doesn’t give a crack about their fleet.
I used to be against buying rental cars, I knew people over the years who bought cars from Hertz and Avis, and the cars were so so with maintainence (friend of mine bought a car, I took at look at the dipstick for the oil in the engine and transmission, both were not in great shape)…but these days, most of them appear to be maintained well. The other thing to keep in mind is rental car companies generally keep them for a year or year and half, and they don’t have more than 20-25 k on them. Back in the day, when a car with 35,000 miles was ready for rehab (anyone tells you about the good old days of cars is full of crap), it would not be as good a bargain, but with car engines and powertrain lasting well into 200,000 mile range, they make sense. The other option is cars coming off leases, many leases these days are coming off with 30k or so, and may be a good bargain as long as the car was maintained properly.
In the end, you likely will end up with a decent car, probably much better than if you bought it from someone.
It would not be surprising if the former rental cars being sold directly by the rental car companies were the better ones compared to those which the rental car companies auctioned off to other dealers for them to sell.
I am driving a car that was a prior rental. I absolutely LOVE my car – it is a 2014 model, purchased in August of 2015, perfect condition. It’s still under warranty because it’s a Hyundai and they have long warranties. It was an Enterprise car, but I bought it from the local Hyundai dealer, not Enterprise - which I think is good for service. It had roughly 35K miles on it, which is typical for rental returns. There were some minor dings & scratches on the car but I got the dealer to do the body work on the car for me when I bought the car- they repainted the front bumper & buffed out whatever other scratches were visible.
After I bought the car I read online that Enterprise cars tend to be a better buy than some of the other rental agencies, as Enterprise tends to rent a lot to local customers – but I don’t know how true that is. But if @BunsenBurner is correct, maybe that’s another plus for a former Enterprise rental. You never know with a formal rental what the drivers have done along the way-- but then again, you don’t know with any used car what the former owner might have done. With a rental, you can be assured that the car was kept clean and regularly maintained.
I actually walked onto the lot on the last day of the month and told the dealer I was interested in a former rental. They tend to be priced well, and be recent model cars; for a comparable price on a non-rental, you’d typically be looking at a model that was several years older and higher mileage. (Last day of the month can be a good day to buy; dealers can be very motivated to sell to qualify for various incentives. I got a very good price on my car that wouldn’t have been available a day earlier)
You definitely need to test drive the car. I test drove another car, also a former rental, same make and model but a 1-year older model year, and it did not feel as good or drive as smoothly & responsively as the one I ended up buying. Same dealer; it’s just that I wasn’t in love with the first car I drove and so insisted on walking around the lot with the salesman and looking at every other car in my price range. My car was actually the same price as the other one I had test driven. I don’t know whether the difference in the feel of the respective cars was because one was in better shape, or because of improvements in the 2014 model year.
Haven’t read the entire thread, but H bought an Enterprise loaded Impala, gorgeous car, with 40K, for only 15K. It was a fleet car, not an everyday rental. Got a great warranty, like a new car. Our neighbor got her high school daughter a Corolla from Hertz, with hopes it will take her through college. New cars are the costs of houses when we were newlyweds, so we are definitely looking at used rentals as our next purchase.
One of the cars in our family is an Enterprise car. The other one is Corolla, which was bought new. When we wanted to give DS one of these two cars, it was not easy for us to decide. The Enterprise car is larger, likely safer due to its weight. But it is older. In the end, we gave him the Entriprise car.
Be sure to replace its brake (replace the whole set of the brake at a dealer) if you get an Enterprise car. It could have a Firestone brake. In our case, the brake gives out some noises when the brake is applied, especially when the brake is applied gently and the car is at low speed. (We only noticed this problem after we had owned that car for almost one year.) Then, it took us almost 3 years to track down the problem and have it fixed. (The car is Nissan Altima. The replacement Firestone brake does not fit well with other parts of the brake on that car, as we heard from a mechanic. He also said all Enterprise cars in our state are maintained by Firestone.)
