Rental car maintenance?

L

lukejo

Joined
Sep 21, 2011
Messages
484
Location
IL
Going to be buying a 2018 or 2019 sedan. LOTS of Camrys out there (at Toyota dealerships and other) with 20k-35k miles, clean CarFax, but listing the "one-owner" as rental...and the rental CarFax rarely lists any oil changes.
Is it generally accepted that the rental companies provide timely maintenance/OCI's per manufacturer's recommendations?
 
If they never changed the oil at all at 20,000 miles you would probably be ok. I believe most of the companies have to go by certain oil change and maintenance standards in order to retain the warranty. With automatic low oil lights etc. I believe you would be ok as far as maintenance. Most companies have a crew of people that clean the cars and check out the vehicle. Yes, there are. horror stories out there however for the most part you should be fine if the car is nice and clean and ding free. Most people on vacations and business and overall rental reasons do not beat on cars such as a Toyota Camry. Now a Corvette or Mustang V8 rental is a whole new game.
 
Check underneath!!!

I have been looking at off rental Frontiers. First one I looked at looked great topside. I rolled underneath and it was surprisingly rusty. Like it would give my rotbox 01F350 a run for it's money. Transfer case / trans were powdered white with corrosion, All the connectors had the green crusties growing in it. Any exposed metal parts were super rusty. Oil pan had a nice gash in it that had rusted through and started to leak. Front tow hook was bent. And the frame was full of sand.

Yup, it went for a swim in the ocean.
 
Mr. and Mrs. Hertz sure do buy and trade cars often... don't they?
lol.gif


Generally, yes. Don't expect anything more than the manufacturer's recommendations. When I get a rental with around 8,000-10,000 miles, I usually check for evidence of its first oil change, and do usually find it.... either an aftermarket oil filter and/or very clear and clean oil that is at the full (or overfilled) on the dipstick.
 
Some larger chains have their own in house or send to lube shops that will not spend the extra to add to their records.

But yea most do every 7500 I believe. So I would not worry to much.
You can also buy direct. Hertz and other large ones sell direct now. I would wait till after the first weekend in June. Hertz may be filing for bankruptcy and/or dumping a lot of cars to raise money. Will cause prices to drop more.
 
Figure once every 10k. I had a long term rental for work, b3cause I had to do a lot of driving, and it turned out that when I called them, and they said to wait on it, that they got a car back with 14k mikes on the oci.
 
If they are selling the car at 35,000 miles, it means the change oil light came on at 10,000 miles, 20,000 miles, and 30,000 miles. That's it for any maintenance. By the way. The owners manual does not discuss when to change oil.
 
The general rule of thumb is to stay away from rental vehicles. However, if you find a really good condition vehicle(in this case a Camry) at a spectacular price, buy it.

We have looked at rental sales vehicles at some of the major rental companies. And strangely(or not), every single, solitary vehicle that we've ever looked at over the years had:

some body damage or
was missing trim pieces or
stained(with who knows what) interiors or
shoddy maintenance or
grossly needed brakes or
one or more of the above!

And the rental sales agency's firm asking price was really nothing special. However, all vehicles came with a CarFax history.
 
I have heard that places keep up with their basic maintenance, but buying a rental can be hit or miss. On one hand most people that drive a rental car are responsible and even careful, on the other there is always that 10% that feel they need to beat the ever living tar out of it to get there money's worth. That means that for every ten people that rent that car over two weeks...at least one of them has beaten that thing pretty hard....add that over the course of two years and you've got 48 people that have beaten the snot out of your car.

And make sure the car doesn't smell like smoke or mold...I've seen more than one of these things with serious odor issues (that they try to cover up and it comes back and never goes away. Ever).
 
Originally Posted by Snagglefoot
If they are selling the car at 35,000 miles, it means the change oil light came on at 10,000 miles, 20,000 miles, and 30,000 miles. That's it for any maintenance.


Not optimal, but get back on track and likely that vehicle still lives 99% -100% of its lifespan, with never an oil issue. The engine will still easily outlast the car.

I doubt there is any issue at all, but if forced be concerned with anything, it would be how the trans was treated.
 
Originally Posted by Char Baby
The general rule of thumb is to stay away from rental vehicles. ...

Maybe 20 years ago that was the rule,

Hertz, Enterprise and Avis know it is cheaper in the long run to maintain their vehicles even if they only have them for ~30,000 miles.
Do some cars get beat on, sure, but most rentals are good buys, especially the "boring" vehicles.
Many times you can find CPO rentals and are a great bargain with a great warranty.
My mom's Kia was a rental, she got it with 23,000 miles on it and was a CPO from Kia, so has the full 100,000 mile warranty on it, so even if it was "beat on" or has any issues, it is covered under warranty.
I had a Grand Caravan that was a rental, had over 80,000 trouble free miles.
 
The big-name rental car companies keep up on the maintenance better than people think. Probably better than the average owner too in fact but that's not up to acceptable standards here.... You'll also hear horror stories about how people drive rental cars but those are the minority. How many people here have rented a car and treated it like garbage ? I've driven my share of rentals and I treat them like I treat my own vehicles.
 
My last rental was with Enterprise. A young guy was taking me back to the repair shop to pick up my car. We got to talking and he got a call from his office to drop the car off at Firestone for an oil change. He told me they were pretty strict about changing the oil every 5k. He said they were graded on how their cars were maintained. Of course a car may go 6k until it is returned. He said corporate was strict about it. I believe there are conditions in their purchase contracts about maintaining the cars. Think about it, does any car company want a glut of their late model cars on the market that haven't been maintained? I don't know if this was true years ago because I have picked up Enterprise cars that were a qt low on oil.
For those who would never purchase a used rental, most of the late model cars you see on used car lots are from the rental companies sold through auction.
 
A lot of rental car companies are self insured. Meaning that if a rental is wrecked there's a good chance it will still have a clean Carfax. Not all rental companies maintain their cars like clockwork. Best to ignore the clean Carfax and have a mechanic you trust go over the car.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with buying a rental as cheap as used cars have become.
 
Originally Posted by loneryder
My last rental was with Enterprise. A young guy was taking me back to the repair shop to pick up my car. We got to talking and he got a call from his office to drop the car off at Firestone for an oil change. He told me they were pretty strict about changing the oil every 5k. He said they were graded on how their cars were maintained. Of course a car may go 6k until it is returned. He said corporate was strict about it. I believe there are conditions in their purchase contracts about maintaining the cars. Think about it, does any car company want a glut of their late model cars on the market that haven't been maintained? I don't know if this was true years ago because I have picked up Enterprise cars that were a qt low on oil.
For those who would never purchase a used rental, most of the late model cars you see on used car lots are from the rental companies sold through auction.

I work for enterprise rent a car. I can verify the above. Our computer system keeps track of all oil changes performed. We cannot rent a car if it needs an oil change. The individual branches get rated on the oil changes we do. It's called a loafer score and corporate keeps track of everything and sends out a mass email to the branches showing how all the branches in the area rank on there score. We take vehicle maintenance very seriously. If a vehicle is making a wierd noise, needs a recall, or anything else it gets fixed. After working for the company for over 4 years I can only recall once where a vehicle ran out of oil and that was due to the shop installing the oil filter loosely. Enterprise usually gets the vehicles serviced at a local chain such as Mavis or Monro muffler. Call them up and ask how often they perform oil changes. When I first started with the company I used to think buying a rental car was a bad idea. Enterprise has completely changed my mind and I almost wouldn't consider buying a car that was not a rental. Other good things happen too such as the vehicles getting constantly washed. This helps keep the salt from sitting all winter but the downside is all the vehicles have swirl marks in the paint.
 
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Around here 90% of the 1 to 2 year old Camrys on Toyota lots, are rental cars...and many of them are being sold as Toyota Certified. I understand that doesn't mean anything, but just making the point that I think A) the stigma of rentals is about gone because they are so common, but especially B) many people are buying rentals from dealerships and never have a clue...and are totally happy with them. They are touted as one-owner, and unless you read the free CarFax, you'd never know.
 
Originally Posted by lukejo
Around here 90% of the 1 to 2 year old Camrys on Toyota lots, are rental cars...and many of them are being sold as Toyota Certified. I understand that doesn't mean anything...

If you mean they're being sold by Toyota dealers with a Toyota-factory backed warranty for multiple years, it says a lot. That's huge actually. Take a look at most automaker's new car warranties. If the vehicle is used as a rental, most automakers throw the warranty out the window. If what you're saying about Toyota, and what I'm interpreting, Toyota has 100% confidence in some of the rental companies that use their vehicles.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by lukejo
Around here 90% of the 1 to 2 year old Camrys on Toyota lots, are rental cars...and many of them are being sold as Toyota Certified. I understand that doesn't mean anything...

If you mean they're being sold by Toyota dealers with a Toyota-factory backed warranty for multiple years, it says a lot. That's huge actually. Take a look at most automaker's new car warranties. If the vehicle is used as a rental, most automakers throw the warranty out the window. If what you're saying about Toyota, and what I'm interpreting, Toyota has 100% confidence in some of the rental companies that use their vehicles.


For example look at this one—Toyota Certified...CarFax shows it was a Rental.

https://www.mariontoyota.com/certif...ion-7ce9bb360a0e08be6f8b957be7eca3d8.htm
 
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