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Think many people launch their own car 3-6ft in the air?? 90% of my rentals get jumped like that st least a couple times. ...
What makes you think you are a typical renter? Based on the various events you are describing I would say you are far from the typical renter. The vast majority of people renting cars just need a car while in town on business, replacement car for car in shop, car for a vacation or other trip or car for the day/weekend/week because they don't own one themselves. They aren't going to waste time or energy abusing the car.
Look I wouldn't say that there isn't a higher chance of this happening with rental cars than with most people's owned cars. Sure it likely is. But is it important if there's a 0.5% chance of it in privately owned used cars and 1% chance of it with ex-rentals? That's double the chance with a rental, wow! But is that important? Maybe, maybe not. Also keep in mind that there will be neglect with a fair number of owner operated cars. Neglect not abuse is perhaps most likely with these, but it's possible for similar costs down the line.
The only real way to be pretty sure there was not abuse or neglect is to buy a new car that started with a low single digit number of miles on it when you take delivery. But that of course doesn't guarantee no problems. It just means whatever comes up is not abuse or neglect. And it comes with a fair amount of depreciation hit (although for now perhaps less than in the past).
Everything is a trade off. There's no perfect solution for acquiring a vehicle. The odds are still overall in your favor even with a rental. And it seems like there isn't a good way to guarantee you're not getting a rental anyway. Carfax might come close, but we know that their data isn't always correct. (The Carfax report should indicate if a car was put into fleet/rental use, but it's not a 100% guarantee.) Ex-rentals turn up on regular car lots all the time.
Think many people launch their own car 3-6ft in the air?? 90% of my rentals get jumped like that st least a couple times.
Maybe not quite 3 feet, but I have and so has a friend of mine. How many people do you think rent cars and jump them? Honestly I don't believe your claims. Jumping a car is extremely harsh on a car and although it can be done without causing any visible damage, without looking under the car anyway. You only get lucky so many times before very obvious damage happens. No rental company is going to be ok with that. It costs them money for repairs and they also lose money every day they can’t rent out that car.
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Originally Posted by LRPct
Responsible for damages? Yeah, that walk around the car looking for dents and scratches is really thorough. Amazingly enough all a rental has to do usually is roll up to the return line under its own power... very seldom does it matter if its on four square tires, trsnsmission about to fall out and motor wheezing from bouncing off the rev limiter all week cause a coworker thought itd be funny to zip tie the throttle wide open and the driver thought itd be even funnier to drive it like that all week back and forth to work using the geat selector to control speed while boncing off the limiter in neutral at all stops.
I don’t believe this either. You would do a burn out every time you took off from a stop and eventually blow the trans, diff, or axle(s). The engine would also over heat. You can’t control your speed with any accuracy with gears alone. Cops will notice or get calls about someone burning out and speeding all week.
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Originally Posted by LRPct
Enjoy rolling the dice.. lol
I will and all the way to the bank. I saved over $4000 on one purchase alone. Savings like that is more than enough to offset the rare purchase of a lemon.
Yes, Im cetainly not a typical renter.. but I am a typical renter from the industry I work in. And theres hundreds of us in a different city around NA almost every week, generally using 4-10 rentals every week or weekend in each location we are working in. Thats fine if others want to gamble against worse odds than they need to. Me, I dont gamble with my own $$$, especially against worst odds than I really need to.
Maybe not quite 3 feet, but I have and so has a friend of mine. How many people do you think rent cars and jump them? Honestly I don't believe your claims. Jumping a car is extremely harsh on a car and although it can be done without causing any visible damage, without looking under the car anyway. You only get lucky so many times before very obvious damage happens. No rental company is going to be ok with that. It costs them money for repairs and they also lose money every day they can’t rent out that car.
I don’t believe this either. You would do a burn out every time you took off from a stop and eventually blow the trans, diff, or axle(s). The engine would also over heat. You can’t control your speed with any accuracy with gears alone. Cops will notice or get calls about someone burning out and speeding all week.
I will and all the way to the bank. I saved over $4000 on one purchase alone. Savings like that is more than enough to offset the rare purchase of a lemon.
If practiced for decades is pretty easy do jump almost anything without severe damage.. just the kind that shows up miles and months/years later.. all a rental has to is make it to the returns line or to the next customer. After that, theres no telling when any damage happened, especially with the subpar maintance done by MOST rental locations.
And no. A compact 4 cyl will not burn out they way you think. Going back n gear just a chirp each time. She did run warm, but not overheat, even in rather hot Sebring. 4 speeds is plenty fr speed differentials to pick from.. slipping back n forth from neutral while moving helps. The lil 4 cyl doesnt attract much attention no matter what rpm she is at, and the few cops around there did not notice especially with windows up and ac blasting. On the way back to the airport she certainly was a lil weaker, but nothing "blew up".
Certainly not average use but its not that hard to do "right" if you know what you are doing. Dicey for an average driver? Certainly. But people that drive almost 100k miles on public roads a year and OVER 100 k miles on "closed courses" a year are not average drivers.
Still driving a 1999 Saab 9-3 Convertible that we bought as the 3rd owners in 2005. It started life as a rental in Colorado somewhere at a place that rented Luxury and Near Luxury cars. She had 40,000 miles on her.
We are at about 92,000 now with ZERO significant issues. She's even been retired to a summer car since my wife got a new car and we decided to let her be the summer joy ride.
It really depends upon the car, I think, as you stand a better chance with regular rentals, i.e., family sedans since there are more of them in rental fleets and they may not attract the renter who would knowingly abuse the vehicle. Friends' parents owned a couple of rental car franchises, among their businesses, and the parents only allowed the children to select from the outgoing fleet. Needless to say, they had a number of Buicks at their house for many years.
I was told that the key is to buy from the agency, as the program cars can have some problematic vehicles that the rental agency sent back to the manufacturer for some problem or another. It's hard to know with certainty about any rental car, but all I do with a rental is get in, turn the key, drive to the hotel, office, tour, etc., and then return the vehicle. Most people tend to drive that way, though I agree there are exceptions.
If the car is a good value, and checks out with a mechanic, buy it. It will likely not be any different than a used car. Hertz will even let you do a Rent-to-Own where you rent the car for a weekend and then can either just pay for the rental, or purchase the vehicle. You could easily take it to your own mechanic for an inspection during the initial weekend rental period, where they could give the car a thorough inspection and road test.
Then again, I am so odd in that I will have a rental car washed if it is unsightly because I don't want to drive around in a dirty vehicle. The concern I would have is synthetic oil not used in a vehicle that requires it, and use of the inappropriate fuel over a long period, likely not an issue with a knock sensor in the modern car. However, a regular sedan that does not require premium fuel or synthetic oil should not have that issue.
On long-term rentals I have had, I would bring the car back to the agency to get it serviced, either waiting, or securing a replacement vehicle. It's much better than in Europe where I had to buy four tires and windshield wipers for a rental Mercedes that had bad tires, got two flats, with no tool kit, much less spare. I was credited for the expenses, but the car was kept in the fleet much longer than it would have been in the US, though I would not have recommended purchasing that Mercedes.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
I washed my last rental too, but I think it was the first time. It's because I had just been on a highway trip partly in snow and I knew I'd be getting in and out of this car many times over the next few days. We had another snowy highway trip on the way back, though, and I didn't wash it again before turning it back in.
Do you have data to prove that? To me playing it safe woud be buying a new car. Any used car is a risk.
I don't have any data to prove anything, just my own knowledge and experience in the industry where "avoid buying a former rental car" is considered common knowledge. Of course the safest bet is buying a new car. However, there is nothing wrong with good used cars where you have some idea of the provenance. An off private lease Lexus ES350 with complete maintenance records is a pretty safe bet. In general, when people are on the hook for fixing their own screw ups, they try not to screw up.
As long as we are talking odds, even a brand new car is delivered with a few miles on it if only to the gas pump and back. Who's to say the kid who gassed it up didn't "jump" something along the way. Anyone who would do that to a rental car is sick as in mental and they are supposed to be only 20% of the general population.
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