would you buy a rental lyft/uber vehicle?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Originally Posted by WhyMe
hertz has them for about $8-10k depending on model. Elantra, sonatas, altimas etc. they all seem to hover about 80k milles for the 2017 models. would you buy one of these ex ride share models?

I bought a former rental. Put 100K miles on it. Had zero failures of any kind that I could attribute to its rental life.

-Diff died because I ran it across a stream and it flooded and I didn't know it. 32K miles.
-HPFP and FPR both died 5 minutes after getting gas at 106K miles. I blame the fuel.

Other than that, I had no issues.
 
I would have no qualms buying one from their ex-fleets, only if it doesn't have a CVT, and only if it's not made during the Carlos Ghosn regime.

49.gif
 
Our van was an ex-Enterprise vehicle, doesn't bother me one bit. I wouldn't have an issue buying an ex Uber/Lyft vehicle either.
[Linked Image]
 
I'm used to being able to get a brand new stripped Elantra for $15400 or even less.

My philosophy is to buy new, or completely falling apart.

I like to assume a car is "done" at 150k, so one for sale with 75,000 should be half price or lower. Not just half of MSRP, but half of what I could get after all the rebates and haggling. Mileage beyond 150k is "free" and my reward for not just buying new. I haven't bothered to look, because of my aforementioned philosophy.
 
Yes, if the price is less than a car of equal value. Why pay more for the same car? Most people that rent a rental car have the common sense
to treat the vehicle as if it were their own. Broke people don't rent cars. For the most part a rental should be just as good if not cleaner than
an auction or private owner car. They get cleaned every time you bring them back.
 
Rental cars from Hertz, Enterprise and Budget are one thing.
Privately owned ride share cars are another.

Nothing stops a mechanically disinclined person from buying and driving. People scrape their own cars' wheels.
They hit holes without the thought of avoiding them. They don't change their oil.

At least a big company can inspect and possibly even warranty a car.

When a private citizen sells his car who's to know if the vehicle was used for Lyft or Uber?
 
Originally Posted by eljefino
I'm used to being able to get a brand new stripped Elantra for $15400 or even less.

My philosophy is to buy new, or completely falling apart.

I like to assume a car is "done" at 150k, so one for sale with 75,000 should be half price or lower. Not just half of MSRP, but half of what I could get after all the rebates and haggling. Mileage beyond 150k is "free" and my reward for not just buying new. I haven't bothered to look, because of my aforementioned philosophy.

Thats a really good philosophy. I wonder though as the car prices are going only up, how long would you hold on to this philosophy, and do you stick to barebone cars only?

I would buy a rental vehicle below 50K mileage and take it to the ground. The vehicle listed in the OP 'feels' expensive for the mileage. A while ago, I came across this website. I do not know where they get statistics from but interesting (to me). http://usedfirst.com/cars/nissan/altima/ It doesn't seem to account for the mileage though
 
Originally Posted by WhyMe
would you buy one of these ex ride share models?

You're never going to buy a car if you keep taking "advice" from here. If and when you do buy something, I wouldn't give any details about it's history either. Or lie and say it was privately owned with immaculate service records.
 
Originally Posted by MoneyJohn
Originally Posted by eljefino
I'm used to being able to get a brand new stripped Elantra for $15400 or even less.

My philosophy is to buy new, or completely falling apart.

I like to assume a car is "done" at 150k, so one for sale with 75,000 should be half price or lower. Not just half of MSRP, but half of what I could get after all the rebates and haggling. Mileage beyond 150k is "free" and my reward for not just buying new. I haven't bothered to look, because of my aforementioned philosophy.

Thats a really good philosophy. I wonder though as the car prices are going only up, how long would you hold on to this philosophy, and do you stick to barebone cars only?


If I had to buy new again, I'd go for the "newspaper special"-- the end-of-its-body style leftover. It'd also have to have a tolerable drivetrain and MPG. Even a Mirage has all the features I want.

IDK if my prius AWD-e is "barebones" though I got the cheapo model. AWD had just been invented so there weren't any used ones out there, I like the 2005 version of the car, and little else had changed. I could have bought anywhere on the depreciation curve but figured that making payments would get me to the 2-year old version I was going to buy anyway.
 
I wouldn't, but i also wouldn't buy a couple year old car. Don't know if it's been serviced, or how it's been serviced. I'm also picky about how its been cleaned. Automatic touch washes are a no-no for me and a majority of people use them. I also like to fight the rust from new, much better chances of keeping it away than getting rid of it.

Lucky for me i like really small cars and so far in my life they have always been affordable enough new for me to buy them. This methodology wouldn't work if i wanted to drive a truck or luxury vehicle.
 
Originally Posted by eljefino
I like to assume a car is "done" at 150k, so one for sale with 75,000 should be half price or lower. Not just half of MSRP, but half of what I could get after all the rebates and haggling. Mileage beyond 150k is "free" and my reward for not just buying new. I haven't bothered to look, because of my aforementioned philosophy.


Oh yeah, I guess one car I bought definitely hit that mark. About 28% of MSRP and under 50k miles and about 6 years old. Gotta love luxury car depreciation. Pay less, get more. Now over 5 years later, probably down to about 12% of MSRP.
 
Everyone in my family (including me) is very happy with their Hertz cars. Most two year old cars on lots are also rentals, just sold at higher price through the dealer. I have qualms about three year old lease returns. Unlike the rentals, I'm not sure if these are serviced regularly although I've had salesmen assure me they check service records upon turn-in.

Uber/Lyft cars-- not sure. If I bought a private car and it was clean I'd still want to see the service records, no matter how it was used.
 
Nope. Maybe as a beater and the major bits were plentiful. I tell people buying a used Prius is a big gamble for that reason alone.
 
I bought a 15' Sonata in 2/2017 with 52k miles, just traded it in 12/2019 at 108k miles. It was a prior rental car. Only issue I ever had with it was 1 torn CV boot. That's it.
 
Did I overlook the part where these cars are advertised or disclosed as ex-Uber cars? I am not seeing it. In any case I would be much less interest in a 3 year old 80,000 mile car from Hertz that is not the sweet spot.

Most Hertz cars are sold with 30,000-40,000 miles on the odometer and the ones for sale now are the 2018 model year. They are short-term daily or weekly rentals by Hertz and serviced by Hertz, and cleaned between rentals. They can be very good deals. That is not excessive mileage at all, for the model year. You can also catch 2019 with about 15K priced more as you would expect.

When I see a Nissan Altima on the street I assume it is a rental car. Might as well buy from Hertz at a very good price and live the dream.

I would not want to be the poor soul who got maybe $5,000 off the very inflated Nissan window sticker price with all their frequent rebates, and bought a new 2019 Altima one year ago from a Nissan dealer for $25,000-$30,000.

Then you see two dozen 2018 Altimas selling for $13,000 at Hertz.
 
Originally Posted by WhyMe
hertz has them for about $8-10k depending on model. Elantra, sonatas, altimas etc. they all seem to hover about 80k milles for the 2017 models. would you buy one of these ex ride share models?

https://www.hertzcarsales.com/certi...ima-7150ad8b0a0e0ae8703b023603a93630.htm



Depending on the overall condition, sure. This has got to be half of the actual cost of a new one. Figure the best you'll do on a brand new basic Altima is $22K maybe?

I see it as a just a higher mileage ex-rental car. If it was driven by the same individual, it maybe even better than a standard ex-rental. Given these are CVT and you can guarantee it hasn't been serviced, it may be wise to pay up for a powertrain only extended warranty contract that covers you another 30K miles or so.
 
Would I buy an ex-rental car? Yes, absolutely, I have and would do it again. There are plenty of good ex rental cars for sale 1year old with high miles at very attractive prices.

Would I buy a ex-uber/lyft ride sharing car? No. Period. Those cars do lots of extended idling waiting for rides and they are puked in by drunk passengers often. And almost every Uber/lyft driver I've had is a terrible driver, not sure how half the ride share drivers I've had even have a drivers license.

I see a lot of ex Uber cars on hertz website. They often forget to take the Uber decal off the front windshield. I think the major rental companies lend their ex rentals to ride share companies often. If you see an ex rental car that is 2+ year with HIGH miles (around 100k miles) you can be certain it was a ride share car. The major rental companies don't keep cars that long due to maintenance and liability, except for maybe a few rare instances...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top