My current car is an ex-rental, and it hasn’t given me any mechanical problems. I’ve owned it and driven it for longer than it was a rental, so I hope anything would have shown up by now, and regular maintenance hasn’t said anything. The dashboard clock is a little funny, though. Sometimes it tells me that it’s 18:88 (am AND pm), and that the CD player is on (there’s no CD player).
I like to think that it’s been to the Bermuda Triangle and lived to tell the tale.
I agree with Doug Bowe.
I bought a 2003 Toyota Camry from Enterprise in the summer of 2004. It had 31,000 miles. It came with a 12 month guarantee, in addition to the remaining Toyota warranty. They start that car out on their used car lot at $15,995. At the end of a month, they lower it to $14,995. It doesn’t drop below that price. At the end of the next month, they shift it to another Enterprise lot. The employees are on salary and make nothing extra by selling you a car.
I had nothing to use as a down payment, but have very good credit. I got, through them, a 5 1/2% used car loan. This was below what I could get anywhere else. I HATE shopping for a car, and bargaining for a good price. The lady who sold me the car explained up front that “that’s the price.”
Yes, probably a slight bit more than you could purchase on from a private party, but you don’t know how that private party drove/maintained their vehicle. I agree with others that the rental car saw regular maintenence.
I’ve got 83,000 on it as of tonight. Never had a problem. But, it’s a Toyota.
I was told, and don’t vouch for, that Enterprise sells it’s “problem” vehicles through auctions. They ain’t gonna give a 12 month guarantee on a problem.
Some years ago I was told, don’t buy a used rental car with low lileage as it will be a lemon they are off loading. If it is a year old car with normal mileag (which depends on where you live) it could be a good buy.
Never bought one but it could be true.
My dad has bought 3 fleet (not rental car) Tauruses over the past 15 years.
His last one that he bought, maybe 10 years ago, which is a 1994 Taurus, is still in use by my aunt. It’s not the best car in town but my cousin’s a mechanic and takes care of it for her.
He would recommend them to anyone. He has new cars now just because he’s old and crotchety and wants new cars.
I own one-and-a-half Toyota Yaris. The first one, I bought new and it’s co-owned with my brother (he’s the one who actually uses it). The second one, I bought from Toyota but it had previously been leased to a rental agency.
My only complaint about this second one is that it’s got less ponypower than the first and it shows, specially trying to go uphill with the AC on…
I’ve done this 3 times now and been very satisfied every time. Average mileage was probably 20 to 30K and cost was well below NADA.
My uncle used to do this. About every second year, he’d buy a car from Hertz for himself, my aunt or one of his kids. Over the years, he must have bought ten or a dozen cars from them. Without exception, he was happy with the purchase. He said the cars were usually no more than 18 months old and were very well-maintained. Hertz sold them for less than a used car dealer would charge. In fact, I believe that used car dealers often buy rental agency cars for resale.
Rental places don’t seem to have any cars with manual xmission, and I’d only buy an automatic as a last resort.
One of the rental clerks told me that they stopped buying manuals because people would use them to teach their kids how to use a stick, and ruin the clutch in the process.
This is all very interesting. Thanks to everyone who’s chimed in with information and personal experience. I thought it seemed a little, I don’t know, iffy, but now it sounds like something vey much worth considering.
(BTW, as I live in a town laid over extremely lumpy terrain, the automatic transmission is not only not a concern, it’s a bit of a bonus.)
I believe the salient quote comes from P J O’Rourke :
“There’s a lot of debate on this subject - about what kind of car handles best. Some say a a front-engined car, some say a rear-engined car. I say a rented car. Nothing handles better than a rented car. You can go faster, turn corners sharper, and put the transmission into reverse while going forward at a higher rate of speed in a rented car than in any other kind.”
which IIRC is from “How To Drive Fast While Getting Your Yin Yang Stroked” from a 1970s *National Lampoon * piece.
My current car is. Bought about 2.5 years ago at a used car dealership, my '03 Chevy Malibu with somewhere around 35,000km on the clock was apparently a rental in a previous life. Other than a slightly scraped aluminum rim, a crack in one of the plastic wheel well guards, and a missing manual they took their time replacing for me, it was about mint, and cost near blue-book. The rotors needed turning (which they did for free), and it needed the pads replacing a year later, but other than a few minor things covered under the 60,000km warranty, it’s been trouble free.
The worst thing that happened to it was me, as I briefly forgot cars needed oil, and have managed to scratch up the trunk with my bike pedals, and the front fender with my garage door. :smack: