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Would you buy an ex-rental car?

M

Murpheeee

Diamond Member
We are looking at buying a good used second car in $5000 range

we looked at a Mazda Protege tonight...very nice car, it's a 2000 with 73K miles...but it was a rental car for first two years of its life, which set off alarm bells for me.

The owner just had to put a new transmission in it ($2100)...otherwise the car is immaculate....if the
transmission went after 70K, anything else that may follow?
 
Hell no was my initial reaction.....due to the abuse factor........but this car was immaculate


And another thing.....when you buy from a used car dealer, most of the time they come from auction.....so there is no way to tell what could have been used a rental car....right?

argh...I hate used car shopping
 
Yes I bought a 2001 Altima with only 21000 miles that was a rental. Immaculate and service was done like clock work. Depends on the car and the rental company though. Got it $2000 behind wholesale.

OOOHHH. Ebay and a rental. Double whammy to most folks here I guess.
 
Sure, why not. NOt everybody is a total asshole when they rent a car and try to tear it up. The answers you are getting here are from punks who deliberately tear up the cars they rent.
 
what parts get abused most in rental cars?

transmission? (new one in January)
tires? (3 months old)
brakes? (new pads last year, feel pretty good)
 
Originally posted by: Murpheeee
Hell no was my initial reaction.....due to the abuse factor........but this car was immaculate
Click to expand...
So you looked inside the engine (which is probably fine actually) and ripped apart the suspension and everything? Or are you going by the $120 that the owner paid to a real good detailer? Just wondering.
And another thing.....when you buy from a used car dealer, most of the time they come from auction.....so there is no way to tell what could have been used a rental car....right?
Click to expand...
In my state, they have to tell you if it was a lemon, in any known accidents, or a rental by law.
Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
Sure, why not. NOt everybody is a total asshole when they rent a car and try to tear it up. The answers you are getting here are from punks who deliberately tear up the cars they rent.
Click to expand...
It only takes one asshat beating on it. In two years, it would be very likely that the car saw over 100 drivers (probably closer to 200). So, if out of every 10 great renters, one was an asshat, then at least 10 asshats drove the rental.

Oh, BTW...
<---- asshat.
 
Actually carfax will report if it was a rental car.

If it is a REALLY good deal and you know something about cars and have given it a good checking out, it isn't necessarily terrible. But it IS a risk.

My gf was looking to buy a car for her mom, and we narrowed it down to a 0-3 year old neon... well, about half of the used ones we looked at turned out to be ex-rental-cars. (literally, like 6 out of 10) The other 4 had obviously been in major accidents and shoddily repaired.

Ended up picking up (I think) a 2 year old neon for $5500 - basically less than half the price of a new one. It was cosmetically a 9/10. It still had a tiny bit of warranty left, although the one time they took it to a dealer for something, the car left the dealer with 2 other problems. (and a salesman trying to get my gf's mom to put her social security # down on some form because she wasn't safe driving "that bad car")

That was over a year ago and the car has been perfect since, and never shown any evidence of any actual problems. (the one it went to the dealer for was a $29 sensor they refused to fix under warranty and charged my gf $200 to replace - and then mysteriously the car started overheating the next day, apparently they hadn't bothered to reconnect the electric radiator fan)

It had closer to 30k miles, not 70k, and I do know enough about cars and engines to identify basic good condition vs bad, so YMMV. Definitely keep a sharp eye out for any signs that it had been in an accident and repaired.
 
If you by almost any used car you don't know how it was treated. Most rental car companies at least make sure the proper service is done.

Edit: Most people also take good care of rentals out of fear of being charged for repairs.
 
I would.

the car may have been treated badly, but unlike other used cars, you at least know that the owner (assuming it's a reputable rental company) was doing constant maintenance on the car.

my best friend works for Enterprise as an accountant, and he bought an ex-rental car from them a few months ago. it's not as good as a new car, of course, but it's a lot nicer than a lot of other used cars I've seen bought from dealers.
 
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