Experience buying former rental?

[jellis4148]

I work at a GM/CDJR store, and have for 22 years. We sell approximately 175-200 program cars a month. Program is rental. Yes, every once in a while you get one that you can tell has been abused. Dealers buy cars on a grading scale. The dealer that wants to pay less will buy D class cars, and have there body shop fix a bumper for $300 or a tear in the seat for next to nothing. We actually buy A class cars. Almost everything we get in needs an oil change, Missouri vehicle inspection, detail, and they are good to go. I can assure you that you need to watch the paint on a rental. If they are in an accident. They will have there in house body shop throw some paint on it, and call it a day. I've seen Enterprise cars with huge paint runs, and doors that don't even come close to matching the rest of the car. That being said. If you look them over, and drive them. You can get a good vehicle, and save a lot of money over new.

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[KrzybonesJLU]

Rule of thumb and I am sure you already know this is to always always check the carfax on the car if it’s a fleet car and even a CPO car. A lot of CPO cars can be fleet cars but CPO cars are always better options over fleet cars.

 

[roaniecowpony]

Also, not every rental is abused. I go to the west coast once a year and rent a vehicle. I drive it normal like I would my own car.

Agree. I wouldn't buy a vehicle from a private party that abuses rentals if I knew. But, with all used vehicles that you didn't personally know the owner, it's always an unknown as to how it was treated.

 

[viper88]

Not the glass but the frame. When I first saw it (months after buying it) the first thing came to mind is they hit something hanging down low. Its the like the top corner by the freedom panel, it looks like it was crushed and then repaired. The metal is wavy and wrinkled some and the paint is textured and little darker.

It's very possible someone hit a low branch or something on a trail. Or even a garage door that was closing? Sounds like the body shop could have spent a little more time on the repair and blending the paint. You can always get a second opinion from a qualified body shop if it's something that bothers you. Estimates are free. Enjoy it!

 

[cosine]

enterprise is a good rental company in general. depending where you are some are good, others are crap. the one down the road from me is good because i've used them and even upgraded to a luxury vehicle vs getting a econo car for the same low price for the econo car. however, everyone here drive them like they stole em.

as for buying one, i've looked at them and to be honest, i'm not taking a chance getting stuck with a vehicle that going to puke up every time i turn around with problems. price wise doesnt seal the deal for me either. i rather pay more for a new vehicle vs saving a buck or two on a used one with X number of miles on it. yeah, i'm all about saving money, etc. just notin this case.

 

[viper88]

Rule of thumb and I am sure you already know this is to always always check the carfax on the car if it’s a fleet car and even a CPO car. A lot of CPO cars can be fleet cars but CPO cars are always better options over fleet cars.

A Carfax is a good idea but don't drop your guard just because a vehicle has a "clean" Carfax report. Carfax are far from accurate from my experience. I have seen cars with "clean" Carfax reports that had prior body damage and paint work. Some were obvious and some were not so obvious.

How Carfax gets it data is important. Is the data accurate? Was body damage ever reported? How long of a lag between the accident and report? Most body shops do not report to Carfax. Some insurance companies don't either. Neither do police departments. Carfax buys information from insurance companies, dealers, public records, police departments, etc. They also buy data from software companies that track VINs. Software like the ones body shops and parts departments use to provide estimates.

Some of the inaccurate or lack of reporting might be due to several things. A body shop might not use estimating software that tracks data to sell to Carfax. More and more people are raising their deductibles. Someone with a $1000 deductible might not go through insurance and take it to a body shop for cash. Someone sells or trades their car after it is repaired before the data is reported to Carfax. Someone might trade-in a damaged car without repairing it and the dealer's used car department repairs the car in-house so there is no report. The dealer then sells the previously damaged vehicle to a unsuspecting buyer with a clean Carfax.

Like I said, don't drop your guard even if a vehicle has a "clean" Carfax.

 

[scgmc]

Personally, I would not buy a rental. I seldom drive one, but when I do, I find out it’s limits. Even if it’s an Altima with a handle emergency brake. I can only imagine how people drive rental Wranglers.

 

[jayteal]

My personal opinion is they probably get better than average maintenance during their life as a rental. Lube and oil and other routine maintenance are likely done as part of a corporate policy, rather than some Johnny Joe Idaho's schedule.

Do they get driven harder than a personally owned vehicle? I dunno, but there are a lot of guys on this board that want Hemis, performance modifications, etc.. You think maybe they want these mods to drive like granny? I would believe most rentals of late model vehicles are driven by people on business travel, followed by family vacation travel. Neither of these groups strike me as people that drastically abuse vehicles. Do some people abuse rentals? Sure, but then some people abuse their own vehicles. Then there's always the debate over what abuse is. The little bit of driving the car wash boys do in them are unlikely to hurt anything. More likely, a private owner takes his Jeep out and bangs it around on the rocks which almost no rental would see.

Perhaps...I rented a 2019 Sahara with the turbo last year from Avis for five days. The oil life was at 1% remaining (found out after I left the airport) and both freedom tops had significant damage (looked like they were both dropped). I thought Avis won't care or pay attention to this even though I mentioned it when I returned it, they shrugged it off. The oil life warning indicator went off every day for the rest of the rental time. I was tempted to change the oil myself but that would have been a waste of my money. So maybe companies service the vehicles better, maybe they let things slide more.

 

[Pig-Pen]

my father has bought a couple of cars from Hertz. he still has them and they have a ton of miles on them. theyre plebian vehicles though. a minivan and a commuter car

me? i dont think i'd even look at a rental place. ive known people to take rentals to the track and drag strip. ive heard of people hooking up nitrous to rental cars and take them to the drag strip.

 

[roaniecowpony]

my father has bought a couple of cars from Hertz. he still has them and they have a ton of miles on them. theyre plebian vehicles though. a minivan and a commuter car

me? i dont think i'd even look at a rental place. ive known people to take rentals to the track and drag strip. ive heard of people hooking up nitrous to rental cars and take them to the drag strip.

I've seen that as well. But it's an extreme rarity. Most vehicles at the track or strip are personally owned. Those personally owned vehicles get sold to others too. Like Forest said, "...ya never know whatcha gonna get." when buying used.

 

[Bikemobile]

Family and I have had great luck with prior rental cars. Oil changed on time, driven fairly regularly.

It is challenging to get all the mid level management and vacation farts out of the seats though.

My dad has 300k on a suburban he bought from enterprise...

 

[sf5211]

Perhaps...I rented a 2019 Sahara with the turbo last year from Avis for five days. The oil life was at 1% remaining (found out after I left the airport) and both freedom tops had significant damage (looked like they were both dropped). I thought Avis won't care or pay attention to this even though I mentioned it when I returned it, they shrugged it off. The oil life warning indicator went off every day for the rest of the rental time. I was tempted to change the oil myself but that would have been a waste of my money. So maybe companies service the vehicles better, maybe they let things slide more.

Just a heads up Jay, it is possible the oil was fresh. The oil change indicator has to be manually reset. It’s possible they just didn’t bother.

 

[Bikemobile]

Yeah the oil life monitor is all manual.

 

[xray]

From the many rentals I have had over the years, and many years of business trips the synopsis is: depends. On the West coast, in business areas like San Jose or SF, the rentals we pretty decent. On the East coast, the cars were pretty abused in many ways. This is despite tier 1 Hertz or Avis which are primarily biz customers.

The exteriors on the east coast are always scuffed up, just from road grime and people rubbing against it. I don't think it's abuse, just heavy use in the business sectors. The main area that is always trashed is the interior. The front for obvious reasons, but the back from anyone that is a family traveler. Cloth seats take some serious abuse from food, feet, luggage, car seats etc.

Finally, there's also one other element and that's smoking, I rarely see that issue on the West coast, but it's prevalent on the east coast. People smoke despite the rules. I can tell if they've been vaping as well. Human sweat, grime, oils, all get over the headliner and really any interior surface. When the clean the vehicles, they're not detailing them like a ferrari, they're just wiping dirt off and inadvertently into anything.

So for me, a used car is no-go unless it's from an enthusiast. I like my cars clean and fresh, and rarely abuse the inside. If your uses are more utilitarian then no big deal.

 

[roaniecowpony]

From the many rentals I have had over the years, and many years of business trips the synopsis is: depends. On the West coast, in business areas like San Jose or SF, the rentals we pretty decent. On the East coast, the cars were pretty abused in many ways. This is despite tier 1 Hertz or Avis which are primarily biz customers.

The exteriors on the east coast are always scuffed up, just from road grime and people rubbing against it. I don't think it's abuse, just heavy use in the business sectors. The main area that is always trashed is the interior. The front for obvious reasons, but the back from anyone that is a family traveler. Cloth seats take some serious abuse from food, feet, luggage, car seats etc.

Finally, there's also one other element and that's smoking, I rarely see that issue on the West coast, but it's prevalent on the east coast. People smoke despite the rules. I can tell if they've been vaping as well. Human sweat, grime, oils, all get over the headliner and really any interior surface. When the clean the vehicles, they're not detailing them like a ferrari, they're just wiping dirt off and inadvertently into anything.

So for me, a used car is no-go unless it's from an enthusiast. I like my cars clean and fresh, and rarely abuse the inside. If your uses are more utilitarian then no big deal.

Great observations. They follow what I've seen as well. A few years ago, I looked at some Hertz GT350s here in Socal. They had a good number of them for sale. Of the cars I looked at, The interiors were near perfect. And the outsides were from good to great.

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