Rental car companies not "salvaging" accident vehicles?

[GON]

I have been watching this 2019 Lincoln MKC Reserve with 53k miles, and a clear title, not sell at the salvage auction for many weeks in a row. It is now offered at a buy it now price of 19k. The vehicle has accident damage, and yet it has a clear title. Enterprise is the seller.

I am wondering if this MKC has deeper damage than seen in the pictures. Or maybe it is as simple as nobody wants an MKC. I don't know, but I have to wonder if rental car companies, that are self-insured (I imagine), sell vehicles that should be salvaged title, as clear titled?

A thousand wolf's tracking every salvage car auctions. For this MKC to sit, something is off, and I had to ask myself if Enterprise being the Seller tells the Wolfs' to stay away.

2018 LINCOLN MKC RESERVE for Auction - IAA

2018 LINCOLN MKC RESERVE for auction at Seattle (WA) branch location. Current Bid: $0 - - Mileage: 53,061 mi (Actual) - Color: SILVER - Transmission: Automatic - Stock: 35352482

www.iaai.com

 

[wpod]

It is not worth the cost .

 

[daves87rs]

Nobody should buy Enterprise cars regardless. Knowing a few folks that work there, these poor cars…..

 

[GON]

It is not worth the cost .

Maybe it is that simple.

Enterprise is a very well run organization, they squeeze every single drop out of every lemon, every time. Enterprise doesn't appear to ever spend money in exchange for convience. Their management trainee program is a perfect example of this.

 

[Wrenchturner44]

GON, I am not sure if you can tell by previous regisration or titles, but could this vehicle maybe a Leased vehicle instead of one that was in the Rent A Car fleet. If it was leased there may be other financial considerations as to the pricing.

 

[wpod]

Maybe it is that simple.

Enterprise is a very well run organization, they squeeze every single drop out of every lemon, every time. Enterprise doesn't appear to ever spend money in exchange for convience. Their management trainee program is a perfect example of this.

Yes it is not worth it. There is a reason rental companies have their business formulas and knows what is supposed to work the best for their business .

 

[DuckRyder]

IME if it is anything that stops it being rentable they will auction it (Hertz too) the lost revenue while repaired isn't worth it and any parts delays or hiccups makes it worse...

 

[gman2304]

Didn’t you do an earlier Lincoln suv a couple of years ago? IIRC it had some interior and/or suspension problems.

 

[RhondaHonda]

Having worked in the insurance industry and having dealt with Enterprise claims they will total a vehicle at a much lower repair % of the value than state law or a typical insurance company. I think the line of thinking is the car will be down for repairs and have a tarnished history anyway so they just total them at 30-40% of ACV. Lighter damaged vehicles bring bigger salvage returns so the net cost is probably close for them and they don’t have to wait for the repairs to take place to start earning revenue.

 

[SC Maintenance]

You can likely buy one off the lot for $26K. You might have to wait 9 months for parts. You might have hidden damage. A lot of cash outlay which you might need to sit on a long time, then the repair cost , to make a couple thousand dollars on resale. Meanwhile used car prices are falling.

 

[joegreen]

I used to work for enterprise. These cars are constantly making money and when they are not on the road that’s lost revenue. Enterprise also has there own car dealerships they sell the vehicles at. I don’t think enterprise would go through the effort to hide damage. They would just total the car and get another.

 

[ecotourist]

I rented a car in Atlantic Canada. The annoying thing about it is that every time I started it, the "needs an oil change" light would come on. So when I turned it in I told the nice lady at the counter. "Don't worry about it." she said, "It has plenty of oil in it. I checked myself."

And when my father in law was getting on in years he bought his last car, a Buick with cloth seats, from a rental place. That car always had a distinctive odour of cat pee. And it was probably not cat pee.

Rental cars have not been on my "good place to buy a used car" ever since.

 

[redhat]

I have rented many cars from Hertz, Enterprise, National, etc.

I am not easy on these cars and I do not care. These rented cars are usually in horrible shape when I rent them. Filthy and hammered.

I'd never buy a rental car.

 

[Chris142]

The asking price is too high. The used lots know that they can't buy it, repair it and make a profit.

 

[JTK]

I used to work for enterprise. These cars are constantly making money and when they are not on the road that’s lost revenue. Enterprise also has there own car dealerships they sell the vehicles at. I don’t think enterprise would go through the effort to hide damage. They would just total the car and get another.

I can't imagine Enterprise Car Sales has much to sell these days.

When I bought my 2019 Ram 1500 classic from them in June of 2020, it was right when the rental car companies were panicking and selling off their fleet. Got quite the deal on the Ram. It was very low mileage and clean. The process of buying a car from them was awesome and I had looked forward to buying from them again until COVID did what it did to the market.

 

[dishdude]

The asking price is too high. The used lots know that they can't buy it, repair it and make a profit.

Exactly this. Here's one at Carmax (the absolute highest price retail around) same year, trim with similar mileage for $26k

https://www.carmax.com/car/23282822

 

[PimTac]

Maybe it is that simple.

Enterprise is a very well run organization, they squeeze every single drop out of every lemon, every time. Enterprise doesn't appear to ever spend money in exchange for convience. Their management trainee program is a perfect example of this.

They shafted me out of several hundred dollars for damage that was not of my doing but a faulty assembly by Chrysler several years ago.

Never again.

 

[dishdude]

They shafted me out of several hundred dollars for damage that was not of my doing but a faulty assembly by Chrysler several years ago.

Never again.

Go on....

 

[Rmay635703]

GON, I am not sure if you can tell by previous regisration or titles, but could this vehicle maybe a Leased vehicle instead of one that was in the Rent A Car fleet. If it was leased there may be other financial considerations as to the pricing.

Many of Those in the car industry haven’t accepted what cars are actually worth now.

The car market is returning to historic norms where the car actually has significant depreciation in the first few years.



There are several “used car salesman” YouTube channels talking about all the strange newer than expected cars ending up at auction or for export at excessive prices being relisted for months without much reduction in price.

Even mainstream market shills are noticing




In effect you’ve got certain places banking on prices to be unbelievably rediculous forever and kept buying even when all signs were that prices were going back to normal, now they are trying to sell into a different market still hoping for an overseas sucker to overpay for a car that might belong in the sure sale or salvage lines.

 

[PimTac]

Go on....

I should clarify that they TRIED to scam me out of several hundred dollars, over $800 to be exact but the credit card took care of most of it. I paid $160 out of pocket. Bunch of crooks.


“I had an issue with Enterprise regarding an assembly failure of a body panel. The attaching clips had broken and Enterprise said I damaged it. Even showing the manager what had happened did not change her mind. Since I used a credit card with benefits the loss was paid except for diminished value which was $160. The total bill was around $800. In talking to my insurance agent they were very much aware of Enterprise running this scam. National and Alamo are also part of the group. A lot of people do not realize that not only do you pay for the damage itself but for the diminished value loss and the loss of revenue while the vehicle is out of service. Taking a video of the walkaround was recommended by my agent and that sounds like good advice. Never again will I deal with Enterprise group.”


There was no actual damage. The retainer clip for the front fender panel at the bottom of the tail aft of the wheel failed and that part of the panel was sticking out. This was on a brand new Chrysler Pacifica.

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