Buying a rental? Any Good?

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
There is no such thing as a Daewoo car anymore. I rented a Spark and it wasn't a bad car for someone living in the city. It's easy to park, and with the back seat folded down you can put some pretty bulky cargo in the back. There's plenty of room upfront, and it actually has a pretty decent ride height. The ride isn't bad, it's fairly quiet inside and it's fun to drive. I wouldn't want to do any extended highway driving in it.

Daewoo makes the engine.

My buddy-mechanic maintains a customer's 2010 Chevy Aveo. Has 80k miles now and it's been meticulously maintained, everything done and car is taken care of. Front end was pretty much redone at 50k miles, tie rods, bushings, ball joints. Also all of the hoses were crumbling. The hoses looked like they came off of a 40 year old car, dry cracked and starting to leak. Has had a bad axle, catalytic converter failed, and both cam shafts just failed. Dealership replaced those under warranty and rebuilt the top of the engine. Countless other things, the car is just garbage.

 

[Rhymingmechanic]

I would guess there's always risk involved in buying a rental, but the risk probably increases with the miles. With that said, I remember getting some rentals with pretty high miles back in the mid-to-late aughts, but none stuck in my mind as junkers. (That title goes to the Sunbird I drove for a week in 2001.)

Have you looked for those cars at other sellers? I bought a '10 Vibe with 29k from Carmax for about $13,000 in 2010. The Carfax said it had been a fleet vehicle, which I took to mean a rental. The trans fluid looked hammered, and analysis found high aluminum, but the Al has gone down with regular changes and the trans works fine so far. None of the car's other problems could be attributed to rental duty.

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: dishdude
There is no such thing as a Daewoo car anymore. I rented a Spark and it wasn't a bad car for someone living in the city. It's easy to park, and with the back seat folded down you can put some pretty bulky cargo in the back. There's plenty of room upfront, and it actually has a pretty decent ride height. The ride isn't bad, it's fairly quiet inside and it's fun to drive. I wouldn't want to do any extended highway driving in it.

Daewoo makes the engine.

My buddy-mechanic maintains a customer's 2010 Chevy Aveo. Has 80k miles now and it's been meticulously maintained, everything done and car is taken care of. Front end was pretty much redone at 50k miles, tie rods, bushings, ball joints. Also all of the hoses were crumbling. The hoses looked like they came off of a 40 year old car, dry cracked and starting to leak. Has had a bad axle, catalytic converter failed, and both cam shafts just failed. Dealership replaced those under warranty and rebuilt the top of the engine. Countless other things, the car is just garbage.


Aveos suck. They don't make them anymore and Daewoo Motors doesn't exist.

 

[mrsilv04]

I wouldn't touch a used rental car with 50,000 miles at all.

10,000 miles, yes... after I looked the car over personally.

But 50k in Enterprise's fleet? No way.

 

[CT8]

Being too lazy at the moment to look up a new car price .How much does a new one cost? I looked it up it is a $20,000 car with options.

 

[expat]

Originally Posted By: mike7139
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: mike7139
H

I probably put between 3k-5k miles a year on my vehicle and I am looking for a car to keep atleast 15 years. Oh and the car will probably never be garaged. It will always be outside with all the others who live in my apartment complex.

You plan on living in an apartment for another 15 years?



As of right now I don't ever see me buying a home or even renting one. I do move to a new city every 5 years just for change of environment.


Seems to me you need a 'life' more tan a car.

 

[spasm3]

I live near the airport, avis, hertz, all used to sell cars there. They don't anymore. In the 80's i bought several rentals, never had a problem. i did look under them to make sure they were not from up north and rusted. Most of them i drove to almost 200k.

 

[Bluestream]

Lease return vehicles are not looked after any better than rentals, and maybe worse.

 

[gabriel9766]

I wouldn't buy a rental vehicle. We use 2 have hertz bring thier vehicles in for oil changes and the cars always were beat 2 he!!. The never wanted to pay for the correct oil such as dexos or full syn. Plus the way I'm driving my rental car right now, there is no way I'd ever buy a rental vehicle. I beat the [censored] or of my rental car.

 

[philipp10]

For a person that drives 3-5k miles a year, do not, I repeat, do not buy a new car. Complete waste of money IMO. I drive 10k a year and I am realizing I will never buy a new car again. Reason being, cars are made to easily go 200k miles and at 3-5k a year, your only going to have 45k-75k miles in 15 years. The mechanicals will be great but the rest of the car will be basically junk.

As far as buying a rental, I wouldn't. I have had great luck buying from private parties. Vet them out over the phone. Figure on a month search and be picky. You can tell by the way the guy conducts the rest of his life as far as if he takes car of his cars. Ask lots of questions, there ARE sellers out that that take good care of their cars. I would think with your low mileage usage you could buy at 50k to 75k mileage car and still have low miles over the next 10-15 years.

 

[JTK]

I've bought and had decent luck with ex-rentals, but that was back when they only kept them for 24-36K miles tops. Like said, that's a lot of miles with very minimal maintenance. I'd bet none of those saw more than 2-3 oil changes in 50K miles. Now if they were that price and came with a bumper/bumper warranty 'till 100K miles, maybe.

 

[Bud_One]

My Vibe is an ex-Avis rental I purchased at 7k miles.
I took a gamble and it paid off. Almost 200k on it.

I say drive it and go with your gut. If you get a bad feeling about it ,don't buy it.

 

[Rolla07]

I bought an 07 corolla with 55k miles on it in 2009 for 8k canadian. (Not an ex rental). Best money I ever spent. Im at 140k miles and still happy with it. If you got a new one, im confident you would be happy with it. That or buy used and worst case get something newer in 5-7 years. Cheap to maintain and good on gas. Good luck whatever you decide

 

[dishdude]

I work with a guy that is in sales, he puts 30k miles a year on his cars and always buys old Enterprise cars with around 30k on them. He was buying Centuries, but moved on to Malibus. He changes the oil every 10k at Jiffy Lube

does nothing else to them and sells them around 150k because at that point they are too old (model years) for the car allowance reimbursement. Between the allowance and mileage, he said he makes money on the cars.

 

[ecotourist]

My FIL bought a Buick Century rental car some years ago. He was getting close to 80 years old and needed a better vehicle for his last few years. It was cheap and served his needs very well. I wouldn't have been happy with it, but it worked for him.

I rented a car once in Eastern Canada. The oil monitor was asking for a change. The agent said, "There's lots of oil in it, don't worry about it." I don't think she even understood why it should have the oil changed.

 

[Gasbuggy]

It doesn't look like a good enough deal to me. I would expect a 20% discount to the market price buying a rental with 50k.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
If all you're going to save is four or five grand, then buy something new. I think you'll find that the marginal cost is actually less than that.
None of the models you've mentioned are exactly flying off the lots at current fuel prices.
Try finding a few dealers that offer internet pricing and sending out some emails.
I think you'll be surprised how cheaply you could buy one of these models new, without the abuse that any rental car will have suffered.


If it is "only" fivegrand, you should send him a CHECK for the difference!

 

[mlatour]

Despite low mileage and clean appearence, never buy a ex-rental car
expecting it to be mechanicaly 'almost like new'.

You can be assured the car jockeys and the customers have very likely pushed
every car in the fleet to it's engine, brakes, trans, shocks, etc. to it's mechanical limits more than once.
From the basic econobox the highest luxury car in the fleet, everything gets the same treatment.

At 18 y/o I worked as a car jockey for a major rental chain,the job was more commonly refered to as car test pilot.
Imagine a bunch of 18-25 racing/beating on brand new car daily and being paid to do so...
Lucky that era cars still had strong bumpers and no airbags, quite often they would have deployed during our manoeuvres.
Being say less than mature at the time, I can attribute 2 engine failures from my personal 'testing' of mechanical limits.

40K miles / 6 months on factory fill and never opening the hood
to check any fluid levels since it left the manufacturer was quite 'normal' as well.

Not saying that all rental cars have seen this amount of beating
but unless very cheap and you don't plan on keeping it past the
manufacturer's warranty period, play it safe and look away from buying an ex-rental!

 

[Silverado12]

Like the others said, I wouldn't consider one with that many miles on it. You can buy a new left over 2015 GM for 20% off the sticker right now. For a few extra grand, you def will get something that will last 15 years with no guesswork as to how well it was cared for. I bought a lease return 2004 Impala back in 2007 and it was trouble free.

 

[mlatour]

Lease returns can be different, unlike a rental car that has had so many drivers, they know exactly who to blame if there is damage or neglected maintenance.