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I would be very weary, 3 different owners in 3 years tells me its probably a lemon and people are just dumping it because they do not want to deal with the issues it has.
If you're the kind of guy who would marry a prostitute, knowing that she was prostitute , then this car should be right up your alley since you ARE a risk taker!
I bought a '01 Sentra with 100K for $3,000. I bought it from a guy who picked it up at an auction, the owners name on the title was the Corpus Christi Police Department, which probably means it was a drug seizure. It was about $300 rough, with cracked windshield and a few other things. It doesn't use a drop of oil between changes, and gets 38 mpg highway. It's gone 30K miles, the clutch lasted two years and cost $500, it needed a sensor, which could not be caused by owner abuse. So I've got $4,000 in it, and two years out of it, it's still a nice running car, and I' don't think I was crazy to buy it.
I wouldn't have gone near it, but for a different reason. Used Hyundais don't get the 100K warranty as it is not transferable. It doesn't seem right when manufacturers won't transfer the warranty to the next owner- it's like they know the car's going to need warranty work. VW is (was?) the same way...my friend had a turbo Beetle and he blew the engine- it would have been under warranty had he bought it new but he bought it a few years old. Luckily he works at a VW dealership, bought the parts at cost, fixed it himself, and dumped it after that.
I have bought two repos. The first thing I would do is pull the speedo, chance are behind it is a GPS tracker. I would cut that out and trash it so it will never rattle or cause electrical shorts.
The cars I bought were kids cars, they looked like repos. They ran but it was clear that the last owners used the cheapest repairs they could to keep the car running. Would I do it again, well if I need a 2 - 3K car, yes - but I'm getting older, have more money and I don't like the suprises. So probably not. I have set my target higher, now I look at 5 - 7K cars.
I would be very weary, 3 different owners in 3 years tells me its probably a lemon and people are just dumping it because they do not want to deal with the issues it has.
That would be interesting, because an actual Lemon Law buyback has to be disclosed by the dealer.
One "owner" was a rental company, another couldn't make payments...and I bet the other dumped after the wreck.
I have bought 6 automobiles in my life- all one or two years old- and all of them were cars from rental agencies. I suspect that most cars for sale that are 1-3 years old with 20,000 to 40,000 miles on them were once rental cars.
Quote:
Originally Posted by POS VETT
I'd walk away.
There are several things in automotive world that I'll risk. Previous rental car isn't one of them.
A friend of mine bought a salvaged Elantra, and as a result of the salvage title, the warranty was invalidated.
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Most newish used cars were rental cars
