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Youre smokin crack... when was the last time a car rental place paid to check your driving history? NEVER in the 20-30 times a year that I rent a car. Plenty of places rent to those under 25.. many under 21yo. Ive known multiple 18-21 yo who have rented with a suspended DL. Never had my insurance called in and verified either.
I honestly don't know if they checked my driving record, since I don't have more than 3 violations within 12 months. They don't call my insurance co, but they do want to see a current insurance card.
As far as the age thing, I do remember trying to rent a car while in my early 20's, and being denied because I was under 25.
Any used car is a gamble in terms of condition and reliability. Each particular car should be treated the same as far as inspection and investigation into it's history to try and make an educated guess as to whether it is a good buy. The vast majority of rental fleet cars are not used by kids as track day beaters either. (and even Grandma's garage queen might have been taken by a grandkid and hammered around the track or the street too).
Me thinks you have a wild imagination...! The meter is pegged on this story..!
Whats so "wild imagination" about that? I see rental cars get whooped on racetracks hundreds of times a year. We've used them as lead follow vehicles, support, skid pad vehicles, chase vehicles through the desert during off road races, and recently used a Ford ecoboost F150 in a demo where it was dragged backwards by the tow hitch, tires smoking, 10 times a day as it lost in a "tug o war".. Thats not half of the not so nice stuff that gets done to them for work. For play they're prob used much harder than that as well.. js
Me thinks you have a wild imagination...! The meter is pegged on this story..!
ummmm.....No. I have done stuff like that to rentals!
I wouldn't buy a 25K mile rental car if it was a $5,000 savings over a non rental. Most people drive rentals like they stole them!
A few high lights that I have experienced in rental cars:
1. Attended a track event with a rental car being used as the instructor's demo car as in he took students for beat rides in the rental around the track showing the best way to drive something hard.
2. Took a small Geo (metro maybe) and did no less than 25 hand brake u turns. Get up to speed and yank the emergency brake while cutting the wheel so the car spins out.
3. Brought a Cutlass Ciera back with brakes sparking. Pounded on the car with 2 buddies for a week, somewhere along the way we smoked the front pads and drove it back metal on metal.
4. My favorite: Went to Ireland, rented a small car and sideswiped a ivy covered stone wall at 50-60 mph. Lost the side mirror and the side of the car appeared to be randomly dented and scraped from headlight to tail lights! I was driving on a small winding road and an oncoming bus was in the middle of the road (this was more of an accident than a beat ride).
I recently did a few burnouts in a 300 mile Mustang GT 5.0. I borrowed the car from a distant relative, asked if he got the insurance (he said yeah why?) and I took the car for a little exercise (car was fantastic BTW). I was thoroughly impressed with the car, 414 HP and simply a great car for the money.
Whats so "wild imagination" about that? I see rental cars get whooped on racetracks hundreds of times a year. We've used them as lead follow vehicles, support, skid pad vehicles, chase vehicles through the desert during off road races, and recently used a Ford ecoboost F150 in a demo where it was dragged backwards by the tow hitch, tires smoking, 10 times a day as it lost in a "tug o war".. Thats not half of the not so nice stuff that gets done to them for work. For play they're prob used much harder than that as well.. js
100% right on!
BTW I attended a Cadillac Performance Driving School (with CTS-V's in all varieties) and they were brand new cars with less than 1000 miles. I strongly suspect they became "Cadillac Executive Demos"...add those to the "not buying them" list!
We also got to track the new ATS cars with the 3.6 motors. Nice cars but they are DREAMING if they think that car will steal sales from BMW 3 series, especially the 335's.
3. Brought a Cutlass Ciera back with brakes sparking. Pounded on the car with 2 buddies for a week, somewhere along the way we smoked the front pads and drove it back metal on metal.
They should have charged your credit card for the brake repairs. They certainly had the right too.
For the most part rental cars have had decent care and notwithstanding the stories here most of them have not been abused extensively.
They tend to be rather plain cars though, almost none have stickshifts.
Depends on what you want in a car and what you want to spend.
If you are actually buying at an auction, you need to know what you want to spend, and not go over that, don't get stuck in a bidding war, particularly for such plain cars.
Even the car driven with the front brake pads gone - if the car is otherwise in good shape, and you find this out by inspecting it, not by guessing - a couple of loaded calipers, couple of discs, and maybe front wheel bearings and the damage is history.
Whats so "wild imagination" about that? I see rental cars get whooped on racetracks hundreds of times a year. We've used them as lead follow vehicles, support, skid pad vehicles, chase vehicles through the desert during off road races, and recently used a Ford ecoboost F150 in a demo where it was dragged backwards by the tow hitch, tires smoking, 10 times a day as it lost in a "tug o war".. Thats not half of the not so nice stuff that gets done to them for work. For play they're prob used much harder than that as well.. js
Unbelievable, and I do mean it... How long did it take to come up with that pile of manure?
Give us a break, hiding behind a keyboard doesn't mean people can't tell a tall tale when they hear one..
Was your childhood lacking in some way?
Unbelievable, and I do mean it... How long did it take to come up with that pile of manure?
Give us a break, hiding behind a keyboard doesn't mean people can't tell a tall tale when they hear one..
Was your childhood lacking in some way?
Well, your "unbelievable" is just another day at work for me.. sorry your life is so boring.. there's hundreds, even thousands of us that work these programs every day.
Maybe if you hungout at racetracks and other places where other men do instead at "girly, effeminate" (two of your favorite words it seems from your previous posts) places like the nail salon, flower shop, etc. you'd see there are places that men are not scared of oil, gas, burning or chuncked up rubber and sometimes a lil creased sheetmetal.
BTW I attended a Cadillac Performance Driving School (with CTS-V's in all varieties) and they were brand new cars with less than 1000 miles. I strongly suspect they became "Cadillac Executive Demos"...add those to the "not buying them" list!
We also got to track the new ATS cars with the 3.6 motors. Nice cars but they are DREAMING if they think that car will steal sales from BMW 3 series, especially the 335's.
Most times those cars are owned by the manufacturer and they are used for those types of events ALL year long. After that many are scrapped. Some are taken apart as part of R&D, some are donated to tech schools etc., and a very few, some that may not have been abused much, mostly used for shuttling etc may be used as "company vehicles".
If theres "competitor cars" used in the program those are usually leased or rented. If its a multi city event usually they are leased from a company that specializes in such special events. If its a lcal or short term program, ie 1-3 cities many times the competitor cars are just plain rentals from enterprise, alamo, etc.
Over the years I've seen one or two rental cars get totalled at the track from mechanical failures, seen a couple get a nice scraping across a wall/tire wall. Turn 11 at Watkins Glen and Turn 2 at Cali Speedway.. But the worst is always the offroad events. Its usually the mudpits that are the worst abuse.. small rocks and grit and mud packs in EVERY crevice and destroys vehicles that get used All day every day for such programs over the course of a weekend or a week. I've seen both a Jeep rental and a Hummer rental being returned to the rental company on a flat bed after it was rolled.
For an event or multicity program that easily runs into the millions for cost which can fluctuate by hundreds of thousands of dollars just by hotel prices or fuel prices alone the cost of a few totalled/trashed rentals is not that signifigant and SOME are even covered by insurance. Now that the economy has bounced back a good deal and manufacturers are spending big $$$ on marketing again budgets arent so tight like in 08 & 09 and when they spend the $$$ to make these events happen everyone wants to do something bigger and better than the "other guy". Top priority is makng an impression and making sure participants have a once in a lifetime experience and if a car or two get bruised in the process so be it.
This can work for or against the people/instructors working such events these days. For example the positive of having pretty much unlimited tire budgets for hot laps etc. for the Cadillac program you attended, being a pro and then an off road course event where the manufacturer wants it to be the gnarliest, dirtiest, bumpiest possible, $$$ not being much of a consideration. Sounds fun until you have to right seat it ALL day, multiple days.
Last edited by LRPct; 03-19-2013 at 05:17 AM..
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places like the nail salon, flower shop, etc. you'd see there are places that men are not scared of oil, gas, burning or chuncked up rubber and sometimes a lil creased sheetmetal.
