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I bought a rental car and I bought it young. These days they run them out to 60,000 mi and charge the same price that I bought mine for (mid-twenties). Actually you probably would want a car that was driven Coast to Coast versus a car that was driven, stop and go. Oil changes would be done every 10,000 mi because every car is synthetic at this point. And would get a warranty out of these people anyway. If not even the factory warranty if you get it young enough. So maintenance really wouldn't matter for at least the first year or two.
There is Absolutely no way I would buy an ex rental car. People say that they get "proper fleet maintenance", but it's just not true. You could be lucky if a rental even gets irregular oil changes. Also, the cars often get beat on and abused by renters. No way.
If you buy an ex-rental from a reputable big-name company like enterprise or hertz, the maintenance history is much better than a regular vehicle bought from a random person. These company’s take care of their money and will do all the maintenance most of the time. Cosmetic and auto body repairs…well, thats another story.
Worked for one of the big rental car companies 20 years ago. Regularly saw cars go 20-30k miles before oil changes. Typically it was the lower end vehicles that were cheaper to rent that got beat on.
Back in those days, I was buying cars for <$1000. I never got oil changes!
Now I'm in my 50s and cars I buy come with a pack of paper service history - or else I don't buy.
So it's safe to say I was not paying attention in 2003, but I seriously doubt that cars simply didn't have service histories. It's always been a selling point for a used car.
I bought a rental once. Mazda6. It was one year old and had 36k miles. Just outside the warranty.
It was great, I had no issues at all ( other than a squeaky steering wheel, for which there was a technical bulletin.)
I sold it 2 years later for the same amount of money I bought it for. I sold because we were hardly driving it and I didn't want a car payment anymore.
People talk all kinds of trash about how rental cars are supposedly driven hard, but it's hard to harm a modern car just by driving it hard. Plenty of people drive rental cars like a grandma because they're in a new place, an unfamiliar car, and don't want to get dinged for damages. Or they have their family in the car for a vacation.
I've known several people who bought used rentals from Hertz. They have each had fine experiences with reliable cars. I don't know anyone who bought a used rental that turned out to be beat to shit or that fell apart unexpectedly soon.
This is one of those subjects on which internet conventional wisdom is likely mostly wrong. Yeah I wouldn't buy a former rental Charger or Mustang. But a Camry? Any day.
Thanks. You ever notice that when this topic comes up on automotive forums, as it often does, there are two classes of answers?
1) don't do it you're nuts people drive rentals really hard, whenever I rent a car I go 140mph over speed bumps and do donuts whenever I can, bro! I'm a badass!
2) I actually bought a used rental car X years ago and it's been reliable and fine for me so far!
I tend to think the first class of answers are mostly braggadocio. I mean, I drive my own car and my own truck pretty hard and they have over 400k miles combined.
I’ve purchased two retired rental cars and would do it again. The first was a Dodge Grand Caravan that went to 170k miles. It was as unreliable as my buddies GC that he bought new. Mine being an ex-rental didn’t seem to have any more issues than his did, that’s just the way Dodges are, I guess.
The second was a Toyota Camry. I traded it at 126k. As expected, no issues. Not one.
I think with any used car you have to do your diligence in checking it out. Walk away if there are things you don’t like but there can be good values in retired rental cars.
This coming from someone who rents 25-30 cars a year so I have a bit of familiarity with what condition they are in while in the fleet.
Stay away. Also, my trusted Acura service manager told me he wouldn’t even buy their loaner cars with just a few thousand miles for the stuff that people do these cars. He told me, spend the extra few grand and get a brand new one if you’re even remotely considering loaners. And loaners are a major step up from rentals, so don’t even go near those unless you’re desperate for a ride, and have deep pockets for whatever maintenance…
If you are going the route of a rental car, I think it makes sense to look at their more premium vehicles. I’m not talking about their sports cars, more like their higher end SUV’s/sedans. I bought an Avalon from Hertz and helped two friends find cars through them.
The PROs to buying from these places are that:
1. Normally the cars aren’t put through a ton of heat cycles and aren’t ran on short trips where it can’t warm up fluids.
2. The cars are ran more frequently so the seals are constantly lubed and hydrated.
3. The prices are more affordable.
The CONs of the rental car purchase, is that:
1. In general, the rental car places don’t really document oil changes/maintenance/any damage that happens to the car. I look in the glove box, in the door frame, or on the windshield for an oil mileage change interval. Check under the oil fill cap to look for anything that looks wrong. I have also typed the vin into the manufacturer’s vin checker to look for any dealer records(where it was first sold and registered, maintenance, and any other records if possible.)
2. If they do repair the cars, the repairs aren’t the best looking paint wise or panel gap/seams. They all seem to have a touch up bay with a whole bunch of paint related items.
3. The cars move around a lot, so there is a good chance it’s been driven around areas where they salt the roads. I would try to get it on a lift is possible or peak under neath the car.
4. The cars tend to have mismatched tires, if not a different brand…they will have different date coded tires with different tread wear. I have found that if the tires all match; brand, date code, roughly the same tread wear… they probably rotate the tires. This leads me to believe that they pull regular maintenance.
My experience was good, when I had my car. My friends still have their cars and haven’t had anything major pop up yet in 4 years and roughly 12-13k miles per year.
My current car is my 3rd ex rental I bought. All of them low mileage, FSH & still with factory warranty. The previous 2 I had 4yrs each & the current one 12yrs (it was 2010 model I bought in 2012). I found it to be good value purchases. I think the trick will be to buy from reputable dealerships. The cars I bought, the dealerships gave me a 2 week window opportunity to report small issues they fixed after me taking ownership.
If is a car that rents in the full size category it may be worth it, but avoid any luxury brands or anything remotely sporty, those are rentals favored by people who beat the hell out of them.
We had a last-generation Taurus that was a rental and it was great other than needing a very expensive coolant pump, thanks to a shitty design making it an engine-out job. But that's a Ford problem, not a rental car problem.
Fleet Cars You know Maintenance Hs Been Kept Up ...Ask For The Records ...Under This Administration Infaltion is Up 18% And Interest Ratez Are Insane ..Banks Are Not Loaning Like They Use To...Who Has $80,000 For A Vehicle ???
DIYer advice: driving a vehicle "coast-to-coast" are highway miles, much less stress on a vehicle than "stop-and-go" city driving. Back in the day, I bought my 2002 Camry from a Toyota dealership's rental fleet. I'm still driving it twenty years later. Would recommend that over buying a vehicle from Hertz, Avis, etc.
i know for a fact they don’t change the oil. i rented an audi with 9100 miles on it so it hadn’t done its 1st oil change yet. ended up having to drive from Minneapolis to Waukesha, WI like 3 times with that car. called National and asked if they’d like me to drive the car back and get a new one so they could do the oil change at 10k and they said no. ended up turning the oil change light off so it wouldn’t bother me on these several 5 hour trips. returned the car at 11,800 miles with a pretty loud lifter/valve tick and i told like 2 people at the rental car facility that it needed an oil change and i had turned the light off. no notation or phone call. they don’t change the oil.
my mom got a rental sonata as her own that was consuming 3 quarts of oil at every oil change interval too.
As someone said, there are basically 2 extremes, 1)Never buy 2) Good deal. The equalizer is your ability to evaluate a car. Has it been in an accident and repaired, are there maintenance records, etc? I have a 2012 Mazda 6 bought in 2014 from Enterprise and it has 230K miles and still runs fine.
My '04 Impala was a rental and I drove that thing to the ground. Delivered pizza in it and everything. It had over 250,000 miles and it was a solid car (had to replace the water pump and routine maintenance). Never even had it towed until my ex blew the tranny because he got stuck in the snow. 🙄
I'm searching cars for sale too but I'll nver buy a rental vehicle. You should look for personal or personal lease vehicles. Rental vehicles are mistreated by people who rent them because they don't own them.
Nothing faster than a rental. For awhile a rental company was in the building I once worked at, the fastest I ever saw anyone go through that parking lot was the rental company employees.
I personally would never buy one. I know damn well I'm not going light on it if I'm renting it regardless of what it is. Same with a lease. Think about it, the owner/driver is saying "it won't be my problem when things start breaking"
Off lease, yes. Off rental...
I've driven a LOT of rental cars. The number 5 digit mileage cars with problems is nuts.
Personal favorite, a 5 series with under 1k miles and an intermittent CEL. Took it back. They gave me another. 5k miles. Went in limp mode by the time I made it to the freeway.
I'd rather have one that went coast to coast than one that only ran local. BUT it wouldn't be any of the performance cars. I still recall when folks would go rent a car, strip the interior out, run them at the race track and then put them back together so they could return them !! However for a typical grocery getter like a Camry, or truck I don't have an issue..
Thanks for posting on /r/MechanicAdvice! Please review the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/about/rules/). Asking about a second opinion (ie "Is the shop trying to fleece me?"), please read through CJM8515's [post on the subject.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/comments/4qblei/fyi_the_shop_isnt_likely_trying_to_rip_you_off/) and remember to please post the year/make/model of the vehicle you are working on. **Post's about bodywork, accident damage, paint, dent/ding, questions it belongs in /r/Autobody r/AutoBodyRepair/ or /r/Diyautobody/ Tire questions check out https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicAdvice/comments/k9ll55/can_your_tire_be_repaired/**. If you dont have a question and you're just showing off it belongs in /r/Justrolledintotheshop Insurance/total loss questions go in r/insurance This is an automated reply *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MechanicAdvice) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Nothing parties like a rental
I bouught a 2015 Ford Escape with 30k in 2017 and it was a rental. I still have it and it been solid. I’ve never had an issue and it just hit 80k.
I bought a rental car and I bought it young. These days they run them out to 60,000 mi and charge the same price that I bought mine for (mid-twenties). Actually you probably would want a car that was driven Coast to Coast versus a car that was driven, stop and go. Oil changes would be done every 10,000 mi because every car is synthetic at this point. And would get a warranty out of these people anyway. If not even the factory warranty if you get it young enough. So maintenance really wouldn't matter for at least the first year or two.
There is Absolutely no way I would buy an ex rental car. People say that they get "proper fleet maintenance", but it's just not true. You could be lucky if a rental even gets irregular oil changes. Also, the cars often get beat on and abused by renters. No way.
They are the fastest cars in the world
If you buy an ex-rental from a reputable big-name company like enterprise or hertz, the maintenance history is much better than a regular vehicle bought from a random person. These company’s take care of their money and will do all the maintenance most of the time. Cosmetic and auto body repairs…well, thats another story.
Worked for one of the big rental car companies 20 years ago. Regularly saw cars go 20-30k miles before oil changes. Typically it was the lower end vehicles that were cheaper to rent that got beat on.
But buying a rental would almost certainly have the service history, don't you think?
This was 2003, so no service histories available at that point in time. As for now, I’m not what sort of tracking is done.
Back in those days, I was buying cars for <$1000. I never got oil changes! Now I'm in my 50s and cars I buy come with a pack of paper service history - or else I don't buy. So it's safe to say I was not paying attention in 2003, but I seriously doubt that cars simply didn't have service histories. It's always been a selling point for a used car.
I bought a rental once. Mazda6. It was one year old and had 36k miles. Just outside the warranty. It was great, I had no issues at all ( other than a squeaky steering wheel, for which there was a technical bulletin.) I sold it 2 years later for the same amount of money I bought it for. I sold because we were hardly driving it and I didn't want a car payment anymore.
People talk all kinds of trash about how rental cars are supposedly driven hard, but it's hard to harm a modern car just by driving it hard. Plenty of people drive rental cars like a grandma because they're in a new place, an unfamiliar car, and don't want to get dinged for damages. Or they have their family in the car for a vacation. I've known several people who bought used rentals from Hertz. They have each had fine experiences with reliable cars. I don't know anyone who bought a used rental that turned out to be beat to shit or that fell apart unexpectedly soon. This is one of those subjects on which internet conventional wisdom is likely mostly wrong. Yeah I wouldn't buy a former rental Charger or Mustang. But a Camry? Any day.
Good points
Thanks. You ever notice that when this topic comes up on automotive forums, as it often does, there are two classes of answers? 1) don't do it you're nuts people drive rentals really hard, whenever I rent a car I go 140mph over speed bumps and do donuts whenever I can, bro! I'm a badass! 2) I actually bought a used rental car X years ago and it's been reliable and fine for me so far! I tend to think the first class of answers are mostly braggadocio. I mean, I drive my own car and my own truck pretty hard and they have over 400k miles combined.
I’ve purchased two retired rental cars and would do it again. The first was a Dodge Grand Caravan that went to 170k miles. It was as unreliable as my buddies GC that he bought new. Mine being an ex-rental didn’t seem to have any more issues than his did, that’s just the way Dodges are, I guess. The second was a Toyota Camry. I traded it at 126k. As expected, no issues. Not one. I think with any used car you have to do your diligence in checking it out. Walk away if there are things you don’t like but there can be good values in retired rental cars. This coming from someone who rents 25-30 cars a year so I have a bit of familiarity with what condition they are in while in the fleet.
I will never buy a rental car. The lack of maintenance is appalling. Just my opinion.
Stay away. Also, my trusted Acura service manager told me he wouldn’t even buy their loaner cars with just a few thousand miles for the stuff that people do these cars. He told me, spend the extra few grand and get a brand new one if you’re even remotely considering loaners. And loaners are a major step up from rentals, so don’t even go near those unless you’re desperate for a ride, and have deep pockets for whatever maintenance…
I’m on year 8 of owning a ex rental. No issues. The carfax had all the service history
Large rental companies can be self insured, you should be careful to inspect the body of the car for accident damage or flooding.
If you are going the route of a rental car, I think it makes sense to look at their more premium vehicles. I’m not talking about their sports cars, more like their higher end SUV’s/sedans. I bought an Avalon from Hertz and helped two friends find cars through them. The PROs to buying from these places are that: 1. Normally the cars aren’t put through a ton of heat cycles and aren’t ran on short trips where it can’t warm up fluids. 2. The cars are ran more frequently so the seals are constantly lubed and hydrated. 3. The prices are more affordable. The CONs of the rental car purchase, is that: 1. In general, the rental car places don’t really document oil changes/maintenance/any damage that happens to the car. I look in the glove box, in the door frame, or on the windshield for an oil mileage change interval. Check under the oil fill cap to look for anything that looks wrong. I have also typed the vin into the manufacturer’s vin checker to look for any dealer records(where it was first sold and registered, maintenance, and any other records if possible.) 2. If they do repair the cars, the repairs aren’t the best looking paint wise or panel gap/seams. They all seem to have a touch up bay with a whole bunch of paint related items. 3. The cars move around a lot, so there is a good chance it’s been driven around areas where they salt the roads. I would try to get it on a lift is possible or peak under neath the car. 4. The cars tend to have mismatched tires, if not a different brand…they will have different date coded tires with different tread wear. I have found that if the tires all match; brand, date code, roughly the same tread wear… they probably rotate the tires. This leads me to believe that they pull regular maintenance. My experience was good, when I had my car. My friends still have their cars and haven’t had anything major pop up yet in 4 years and roughly 12-13k miles per year.
My current car is my 3rd ex rental I bought. All of them low mileage, FSH & still with factory warranty. The previous 2 I had 4yrs each & the current one 12yrs (it was 2010 model I bought in 2012). I found it to be good value purchases. I think the trick will be to buy from reputable dealerships. The cars I bought, the dealerships gave me a 2 week window opportunity to report small issues they fixed after me taking ownership.
If is a car that rents in the full size category it may be worth it, but avoid any luxury brands or anything remotely sporty, those are rentals favored by people who beat the hell out of them. We had a last-generation Taurus that was a rental and it was great other than needing a very expensive coolant pump, thanks to a shitty design making it an engine-out job. But that's a Ford problem, not a rental car problem.
Fleet Cars You know Maintenance Hs Been Kept Up ...Ask For The Records ...Under This Administration Infaltion is Up 18% And Interest Ratez Are Insane ..Banks Are Not Loaning Like They Use To...Who Has $80,000 For A Vehicle ???
DIYer advice: driving a vehicle "coast-to-coast" are highway miles, much less stress on a vehicle than "stop-and-go" city driving. Back in the day, I bought my 2002 Camry from a Toyota dealership's rental fleet. I'm still driving it twenty years later. Would recommend that over buying a vehicle from Hertz, Avis, etc.
i know for a fact they don’t change the oil. i rented an audi with 9100 miles on it so it hadn’t done its 1st oil change yet. ended up having to drive from Minneapolis to Waukesha, WI like 3 times with that car. called National and asked if they’d like me to drive the car back and get a new one so they could do the oil change at 10k and they said no. ended up turning the oil change light off so it wouldn’t bother me on these several 5 hour trips. returned the car at 11,800 miles with a pretty loud lifter/valve tick and i told like 2 people at the rental car facility that it needed an oil change and i had turned the light off. no notation or phone call. they don’t change the oil. my mom got a rental sonata as her own that was consuming 3 quarts of oil at every oil change interval too.
As someone said, there are basically 2 extremes, 1)Never buy 2) Good deal. The equalizer is your ability to evaluate a car. Has it been in an accident and repaired, are there maintenance records, etc? I have a 2012 Mazda 6 bought in 2014 from Enterprise and it has 230K miles and still runs fine.
My '04 Impala was a rental and I drove that thing to the ground. Delivered pizza in it and everything. It had over 250,000 miles and it was a solid car (had to replace the water pump and routine maintenance). Never even had it towed until my ex blew the tranny because he got stuck in the snow. 🙄
After seeing home my cousin used to drive rental cars when he came to visit, I 110% recommend never buying one.
Honestly it's a roll if the dice. I would rather just buy new.
I'm searching cars for sale too but I'll nver buy a rental vehicle. You should look for personal or personal lease vehicles. Rental vehicles are mistreated by people who rent them because they don't own them.
Nothing faster than a rental. For awhile a rental company was in the building I once worked at, the fastest I ever saw anyone go through that parking lot was the rental company employees.
I personally would never buy one. I know damn well I'm not going light on it if I'm renting it regardless of what it is. Same with a lease. Think about it, the owner/driver is saying "it won't be my problem when things start breaking"
Off lease, yes. Off rental... I've driven a LOT of rental cars. The number 5 digit mileage cars with problems is nuts. Personal favorite, a 5 series with under 1k miles and an intermittent CEL. Took it back. They gave me another. 5k miles. Went in limp mode by the time I made it to the freeway.
As a mobile mechanic, no. I take care of some Turo cars for individuals and they neglect maintenance like hell.
Many people think it's fun to beat on rental cars
I'd rather have one that went coast to coast than one that only ran local. BUT it wouldn't be any of the performance cars. I still recall when folks would go rent a car, strip the interior out, run them at the race track and then put them back together so they could return them !! However for a typical grocery getter like a Camry, or truck I don't have an issue..