Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The simple answer is yes. It is fine to buy a former rental. They're as good as any other used car.
The only people who would tell you not to have never bought one and have no experience.
This. You will find a lot of people telling you why you shouldn't buy a rental, but none of them have actually done so.
People who have purchased a rental have generally found them to be trouble free cars. We bought a former rental for my mother. 9 years and 130K later, its still running strong. It was even *gasp* a smokers car. But you can fix that with a couple of home remedies too.
My relatives have bought them at times. They have had very good luck with them.
Rental companies are very good about scheduled maintenance.
Most mature drivers do not abuse rental cars. They realize they are being entrusted with someone else's property and it is both morally wrong and risky to abuse the car. Rental companies are notorious for charging massive amounts for repairs/damage.
Most rental cars are used to drive to a hotel, a conference center or office building, and back to the airport.
the most abusive drivers of rental cars are young people. However most rental companies will only rent to those 25 and over. Stay away from areas that attract lots of young people (like Southern California, Denver, Austin, etc) and you increase the likelihood of getting a car that has never been abused. If you buy from a rental company in say, Wichita, it is unlikely the car had been abused, or used for sex, etc. Also the kind of car you buy will make a substantial difference. Higher end cars are less likely to be rented by youngsters (who cannot afford them). Flashy cars like convertible mustangs (or any mustang), are often rented by people who want to test them (even though they are usually low performance versions).
Unless you buy used cars from relatives, the likelihood of abuse, sex, smoking, spills is no greater in rental than in a purchase via craigslist. In fact, the odds may be less since most rental do not get used much (just sit in parking lots) and since only a few people are abusive to rental cars and will damage property that is entrusted to them.
I would not have a problem buying a rental car as long as the location and type of car are less likely to see abuse. My biggest concern wold be that they have been smoked in. I do not want a smoker car ever again. It is too hard/impossible to get the smell out, except the dealers can hide the smell temporarily, then you suddenly realize six months later, you car reeks. I disagree that you can fix this, unless you replace the upholstery, headliner and carpet. But then I am unusually sensitive to smells ( a good thing when you detect burning odor while in an airplane before anyone else notices (we sucked a bunch of geese through the engines and the pilots did not realize it at first), less good when buying used cars).
1) all the used rental cars I did pre-buy inspections on were in Denver where my shop was located. Can't say that I ever saw a difference in those cars than rental fleet cars that were brought in from other areas in the Rocky Mountain West. Do be aware that rental fleet cars can be moved around by the fleets, too, to accomodate market demand for events.
2) I'm also a non-smoker with life-long allergies to tobacco smoke products, so am more sensitive than many people to the smoke odor. But cars can be cleaned out with a thorough cleaning ... vacuuming, shampooing, and steam cleaning (we use a portable Hoover upholstery steam cleaner). The car must be somewhat disassembled to do this properly ... door panels removed, seats taken out so you can access the back/undersides of the cushions, carpet pads removed. Leather surfaces thoroughly cleaned with Murphy's Oil Soap and treated with Hide Food, etc. Dashboards scrubbed with Murphy's, too. Glove boxes thoroughly cleaned and scrubbed, inside and out. Under dash components and wiring washed out as much as possible.
All followed by a liberal spray application of "reodorant" product available from pro auto detailer supply outfits on all surfaces. This includes a thorough cleaning and application of the reodorant in the trunk, too.
The difference between reodorant and deodorant products is that the reodorant absorbs odors, while deodorant products hide the smell with their own odor. The problem is that as the deodorant odor wears off, the original odors it masked that are more durable ... such as tobacco ... will predominate again.
A thorough drying out/airing out of a car after the cleaning/deodorizing process can leave a clean smelling car. Additionally, a cachet of absorbent reodorant materials can be placed under seats or hidden in doors which will absorb any residual odors for a long time.
Few auto detailers will go to these steps needed to thoroughly clean and deodorize a car. But the good ones can and will do so on a car that may justify the expense; I saw this process done many times on higher value MB's and BMW's that were smoked in cars to prepare them for resale. If I couldn't tell that they were smoked in cars after this process, it's unlikely that you could, either. It's kinda like' the difference in expectations and cost between an Maaco paint job and a top quality repaint at a specialty auto body/paint shop ....
The last time I personally did such a cleaning/prep for a dealer, it took me two days of time with an assistant doing the vacuuming, hotsy, and steam cleaning of the car interior items ... either in the car or when I'd disassembled it. So it's not a quick process and unlikely to be done on an inexpensive used car ... but it can be done.
PS: I've helped to do this cleaning/deodorizing on Cessna's, too. Nothing like a C180 that's been used for hauling hunters that smoke and their bounty out of the backcountry for an assault upon one's nasal passages.
My relatives have bought them at times. They have had very good luck with them.
Rental companies are very good about scheduled maintenance.
Most mature drivers do not abuse rental cars. They realize they are being entrusted with someone else's property and it is both morally wrong and risky to abuse the car. Rental companies are notorious for charging massive amounts for repairs/damage.
Most rental cars are used to drive to a hotel, a conference center or office building, and back to the airport.
Yes, and since the car is as often as not rented on a corporate card, you don't want to be called on the carpet for a $5,485 charge against the company AmEx.
I would never buy a rental car. Ive rented countless cars where I said to myself. Who the hell was driving this. Because they don't deserve to have a car. Who knows what people do to those...
Rental companies probably take better care of the car than most owners do. They get regular oil changes, cleaned regularly, problems are fixed quickly, etc.
My first vehicle (a Ford Escape) came from a rental company in California. It was priced the best out of all similar vehicles in the area. It was in perfect shape except for a few minor paint scratches, I drove it for almost 8 years without issue. I definitely wouldn't hesitate to buy a rental car again. It had certainly been better taken care of than the truck I bought privately after that (the owner was a pig and smoked in it too).
When seeking a used vehicle I avoid the former lease cars and former rental cars.
This is why I'm asking...they are getting harder to avoid in the 2-year-old car pool.
I've thought of nearly all the pros and cons that have been mentioned, but just don't know what's fact and what's fiction. I know absolutely nothing about the rental car business.
It depends on whether or not it was a rental -- most rental companies not only sell old rentals but also the usual used cars they purchases from big auction houses like Manheim.
Be careful about purchasing a real rental with a lot fewer miles on it than other rentals of the same age because they could have been troublesome hanger queens. I once almost bought such a car because it seemed great, and I realized it had been in a wreck only because the body shop made just 1 mistake in their repair: they forgot to mask over a window seal and painted over it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
