Experience buying former rental?

[jeepdabest]

Not every rental is abused. I got this one for 50 dollars under sticker!

Sponsored

 

[viper88]

Not every rental is abused. I got this one for 50 dollars under sticker!

I know someone who can fix it! His dad is television repairman and has the ultimate set of tools...

 

[sf5211]

Not every rental is abused. I got this one for 50 dollars under sticker!

Bad day on the trail?

 

[NMPirate]

fastest car in the world is a rental.

Yea, but what's even faster is your buddy's rental car!

 

[jakebrake]

Not every rental is abused. I got this one for 50 dollars under sticker!

meh...so it needs a windshield.

 

[RichD]

I guess it’s risk vs reward. I’ve had mixed luck with former rentals over the years. Of my 5 program cars, 3 were gems, great bargains, but 2 were turds (literally!). Of the turds, 1 had a mouse infestation and the resulting stink, the other just plain stunk – I could not find the source, but I’d gag when it sat in the sun for a while. So I’m a little gun shy when it comes to program cars. My 2018 Wrangler was purchased new. Nothing like a new car smell!

 

[whiskey jack]

I haven't considered buying a rental, but as a former state employee I was often tempted to buy a former state vehicle from out state's public surplus site. The maintenance was fantastic, but some were super abused. I would call the fleet manager and he would give me the low down on any vehicle I was interested in. Basically it would always come down to this, never buy anything that was used by the highway patrol, dept of corrections, game and fish, or dept of family (social) services. Each for different reasons. Unfortunately even when I was tempted enough to place a bid, the used car dealers were always there with wads of cash buying up everything they could to sell as a "one owner".

 

[JeepDave]

This Enterprise rental got abused by an F-250 Super Duty (not a mark on it)...tip - always take your proof of insurance on your rental trips...

 

[viper88]

I guess it’s risk vs reward. I’ve had mixed luck with former rentals over the years. Of my 5 program cars, 3 were gems, great bargains, but 2 were turds (literally!). Of the turds, 1 had a mouse infestation and the resulting stink, the other just plain stunk – I could not find the source, but I’d gag when it sat in the sun for a while. So I’m a little gun shy when it comes to program cars. My 2018 Wrangler was purchased new. Nothing like a new car smell!

Dead rodents can be nasty. I had a Toyota Supra that developed a really nasty smell over a week. It smelled like dog shit. I thought someone stepped in shit and got into the car at first. No sign of that. I took it to the car wash and they tracked down the smell. It was a dead rat stuck in the engine compartment.

 

[D60]

My buddy was just in my driveway with a rental JL Sahara.

As Saharas go, it was arguably the least optioned Sahara out there. It had the 2.0 (which, depending upon who you believe, is actually an "upgrade option"), standard lights (no LED), 7" UConnect, cloth seats, no HD electrical group (thus no aux switches), and probably other stuff I failed to notice.

Just something to consider. It was so low mileage the bag for the Freedom Panels was still in the back, which shocked me - someone's gonna lift or lose that quickly

I'm sure some rentals are more heavily optioned, but absent sales or incentives rental companies would seemingly have little reason to check the option boxes when placing an order. I mean LED group at $1k per vehicle adds up....

 

[D60]

Also I was in the VI in '16 and I swear 80% of all vehicles and 100% of rentals are Wranglers. I mean thousands of Wranglers crawling all over the islands....I've always wondered what happens to those when retired. They can't all stay on the islands 'cause there's just not room....and it wasn't like you saw a history of YJ's, TJ's etc. Everything was a 4 door JK or nothing (sure I'm exaggerating a little but seriously 4 door JKs were EVERYWHERE)

So if you're within striking distance (by boat) of something like this, watch out for flood damage. The Islands were fairly recently wiped out by hurricanes and unfortunately probably will be again. And again.

 

[Black Jeep Convertible]

My '19 is a former rental with 27k miles that started in Florida, then North Carolina. I'm hoping most of it's miles were down south. I've checked the undercarriage and don't really see any rust or scrapes from wheeling. Funny thing is almost all the former rentals in my area are 2.0T's with eTorque.

Before & After

 

[SoCal]

I recently rented one from Avis/Budget at Ontario Airport to take to Tahoe due to heavy snow from Mammoth up to Tahoe and wanted a car I wouldn't have to worry about getting through anything.
I got a very nice granite grey Sahara with about 18,000 miles on it ....was shocked how clean the thing was and how well it did on the highway and of course in the snow......now I'm obsessed and looking to get one lol

I noticed that about 90% of the used JLU market seems to be rental or fleet vehicles and so I started searching for deals on new ones since the savings wasn't that great on used market anyways

but Avis has a great program to buy from where you can rent the car for a few days see how it holds up and you can take it to your favorite mechanic for a PPI, if everything checks out ok and you buy it, they take the rental fee and put it towards your down payment and they have a 12 month 12,000 mile warranty......Not bad if you can score a deal.

BTW, always check the car fax to see where the car was rented out of.....I wouldn't buy any of them that came from Hawaii as that red dirt in the wheel wells and under the jeep will stay with that car forever. I'd prefer cars out of So Cal

 

[Miloe]

A lifetime ago, late 80s, one of my first real jobs was working for Dollar rent a car. They seemed to have some lease agreement or something where they turned the cars back in after two years, if they were under 30k miles. If the cars were over 30k, they kept them and sold the cars themselves.

There were cars in the fleet that had never had an oil change done. Top off the fluids in the wash/vacuum line and put them back in the rotation.

Won't even mention how the cars were driven, let's just say everyone beat on them.

 

[viper88]

A lifetime ago, late 80s, one of my first real jobs was working for Dollar rent a car. They seemed to have some lease agreement or something where they turned the cars back in after two years, if they were under 30k miles. If the cars were over 30k, they kept them and sold the cars themselves.

There were cars in the fleet that had never had an oil change done. Top off the fluids in the wash/vacuum line and put them back in the rotation.

Won't even mention how the cars were driven, let's just say everyone beat on them.

A friend used to manage a Enterprise branch. He said Enterprise was good about oil changes. His opinion about everything else you said is pretty spot on.

Sponsored