Buying a car that was a rental...?

[TeamG]

Early 2000’s, I was on a military trip via Frankfurt airport and picked up a hired Opal Vectra SRi. The chap at the desk said “It is not insured if you take it to ze Nurburgring”. Naturally, on our day off, we took it for four laps of said Nurburgring. The brakes had literally melted by the last lap and the engine stank of burned oil. I would never buy a hire car.

[Forg]

Originally Posted by TeamG

Early 2000’s, I was on a military trip via Frankfurt airport and picked up a hired Opal Vectra SRi. The chap at the desk said “It is not insured if you take it to ze Nurburgring”. Naturally, on our day off, we took it for four laps of said Nurburgring. The brakes had literally melted by the last lap and the engine stank of burned oil. I would never buy a hire car.

My dad had gotten sick of old unpleasant cars (like 240's with their weak aircon & Ford Fairmonts needing banana-skins in the diff), so in 2006 I went looking for ... well something large & comfy that wasn't too expensive.

Found a Nissan Maxima, large but comfy barge of a thing (with startlingly good acceleration for something so ... "relaxed" in terms of steering & suspension). It was an ex-rental from the Hunter Valley, a wine region north of Sydney, and it really wasn't the sort of car anyone would bother to attempt to race as well as not being in a place where it was likely to be used for much apart from driving around relatively locally (short-medium trips as it's in the country). Apart from some of the interior trim being a bit scratched-up and typical country-car stone-chips, there really was nothing wrong with that car, it was 18 months old & Nissan were selling a factory warranty extension so Dad bought it for half the new price with 6 months more warranty than it had had when new.

It never had any problems that were related to it being a rental. It had one problem relating to the alternator, which was fixed for nix at the local Nissan dealer, but it was fine for the next 5 years until someone went through a red light & ran into the side of it & did enough damage that it wasn't financially-viable to repair.

I don't think I'd buy, say, an ex-rental Mazda MX5 or Mustang though ... nor any of the small cars, someone driving a n/a 1L Mr Bishi Mirage when they're used to a proper car is going to spend their whole time with the right foot in the firewall ...

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by AndyJudge

All depends on where the rental company had it.

Used to see thousands of ex-rental cars passing through the auctions at Blackbushe many from the Channel Islands where Max Speed is 40mph & let's face it the Islands not big enough to cover long distances.

Every time I've been to the Channel Islands I've hired cars size wise from a Corsa all the way up to a Minibus (When we used to take Scouts over on summer camp). All the cars were low mileage & in decent nick the hire companies (The Large Ones anyway) shift them on at the end of each season. Last time I went we had a Focus with about 3000 on the clock. That was in September so my guess with the season soon to be ending the car would have been off to auction in a couple of months.

The other issue with ex-rental cars is the majority of them have a number of "smart repairs" - i.e. bumper and panel dents and scratches with localising filling and painting with cellulose paint. They nealy always fade more quickly or the paint/laquer peels within a few years.

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by XC90Mk1

Have you guys not seen the way rental cars are driven. I would not buy one no.

Exactly...

Would you consider dating an ex-prostitute? It's the same thing really, countless people have paid a few quid to give it a good thrashing and then hand it back when it needs cleaning and servicing..... yuk.

[tofufi]

Originally Posted by TeamG

Early 2000’s, I was on a military trip via Frankfurt airport and picked up a hired Opal Vectra SRi. The chap at the desk said “It is not insured if you take it to ze Nurburgring”. Naturally, on our day off, we took it for four laps of said Nurburgring. The brakes had literally melted by the last lap and the engine stank of burned oil. I would never buy a hire car.

I'm aware of a company hiring cars to do their (advanced) driver training on a closed track.

Pre Covid, I used to get a fair few hire cars for work. Those cars get a hard time, including lots of hard stop starting work.

I went to one (large OEM) manufacturer who had a BMW i8 in their workshop. I asked what it was doing there, and they said they'd hired it for a month to take it apart and do evaluation testing before returning it. Entire car was stripped down and being fitted with sensors when I saw it

It's probably true that there's no car faster than a hire car... and the state that some of them used to be delivered to me in backs up a history of neglect. I had one delivered missing a wing mirror and with a non-functioning horn. Another with a door stoved in.

I wouldn't knowingly buy an ex-hire car. But everything I buy is on condition vs price, rather than age or mileage.

[DaveNP]

So given that a lot of PCP cars don't get bought at the end of the term are they just 'hired', and are they equally awful to buy secondhand?

[Clan]

Originally Posted by DSK

A rental, no I wouldn't. It will have had all sorts of people in it leaving their germs and crap ingrained deep into the interior, people will treat it with less respect as its not something that they own and in fact, people most likely drive them worse deliberately. I'd also be wary of the quality of the upkeep in the rental companies ownership. Despite this, there will be odd reasonable one in the mix.

If its another beetle, its probably been used as a courtesy vehicle and to be honest most blokes would refuse a Beetle loan car. I personally used to insist on something like a Golf/Passat equivalent at the least. Its probable used as courtesy car by women customers who will not necessarily want to test it out at every opportunity to see how long the wheel spin marks are or its g-forces around corners. So I'd just go and treat it like any other car and assess it.

Volvo sell and buy back a lot of rental cars they are all immaculate , low mileage and well looked after .. things have changed in the last 30 years ...

[Existential Crisis]

Picked car up yesterday, EML light on today, goes back to dealer Tuesday. Daughter loves it though!!

[Rocinante]

Originally Posted by Existential Crisis

Picked car up yesterday, EML light on today, goes back to dealer Tuesday. Daughter loves it though!!

Apologies for being preposterously pedantic, but your E.ngine M.anagement L.ight light was on ?

[Whippy]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

Apologies for being preposterously pedantic, but your E.ngine M.anagement L.ight light was on ?

Probably a clogged D.P.F. filter then. 🤣