Buying From Hertz

[gfh77665]

I don’t understand why a person would intentionally beat up a rental car. Why would you do that?

Some get their "fun" by abusing or destroying others property. Its a sad, sad reflection on THEM.

 

[gfh77665]

I worked for several rental companies over the years. I would never consider buying a used rental, especially a pick-up truck. 80% of renters drive like they normally do, the other 20% are like giving a car to a **** head who just watched Fast and Furious. Nobody rents a truck to drive empty- it's gonna get loaded and often overloaded. Lots of them came back with a trailer ball on the bumper even if pulling trailers was supposed to be prohibited. It was not unusual to have problems on trucks like transmission, suspension, wheel bearings, and brakes worn out early. These are not normal and show they are rode hard. Once had a truck returned with broken leaf spring and bent frame, renter was a brick mason and carried 2 pallets of bricks in half ton truck. Find another truck-you get what you pay for.

I once rented a 1/2 truck for a week and I fully disclosed what I was going to do, pull a lightweight trailer on a 2000 mile round trip. The company agreed, and I took possession. I treated their truck better than I would treat my own. Even changed oil for them although I did not have to.

 

[JW2 Innovations]

My dad many many years ago bought a Toyota Tercell rental with low mileage. Basic basic car. Had it for years with no real mechanical issues. Alternator went out at ~175k, and other normal stuff like brakes and tires at normal intervals. Was a good back and forth to work (40 miles one way) vehicle.

Myself however, I wouldn't buy a rental car. Like others mention here, I know some of them get ran into the ground/abused. And I've had simple maintenance issues with rentals that have left me is waiting situations when the rental company is coming with another one to swap with. Stuff I wouldn't let happen to my own vehicles, does happen to theirs. So I personally would stay away, even with seeing my dad's experience.

 

[Jeepwalker]

I find this whole topic amusing. I bet there's a ton of owners (maybe some of the "I'd Never Buy A Rental" guys) who've bought used cars which were previous rental vehicles, or used in a similar manner, and never knew it.

Besides the normal rentals from the big companies, dealers also rent car sometimes, then sell them as "used". If it's handled in-house there might not be any record of it being a 'rental'. Large companies have their 'fleet cars' for employees to drive which are essentially leased but more or less the same as rental cars ..and they wouldn't be tangged as a 'rental car'. Contractors and other companies buy pickups which end up on corner used car lots. They go to auction and dealers buy them. ..and so on. And what about off-lease cars? Were they treated any better?

When you go to dealer car auctions, the longest line/s of cars going through are rentals, fleet and off-lease cars. Usually there are 3 bays or more with an unbroken line of cars flowing through. They sit there on the bid floor for a grand total of about 10 seconds, the bid is done, ...and they're out of the bid bay and next car in its place. Dealers don't look them over other than a quick walk-around.

Those are some of the 'clean' cars and trucks at your town's used-car corner or dealer lot. People buy them all the time and never know one thing about their history. And generally speaking they work just fine.

 

[PolarisCobra]

Has anyone here purchased a formal rental, and would up sorry they did, because of problems with it?

Seems to be lots of examples in this thread of people who had a fine experience, and got a reliable car/truck at a reasonable price, but I don't remember reading about someone who bought one, and had trouble.

Lots of people who have not bought one have strong opinions about why it's a bad idea, but I am not seeing real world experience to back that up.

 

[Govtman]

My 19 Classic Bighorn was an Enterprise truck. Had 23k miles and paid $23,900 for it. Dealer had went through it so it was a Certified pre-owned and came with 100k mile warranty.

 

[Random_Walk]

One doesn’t know the history usually of most preowned cars. If you like it and it checks out write the check. Personally I would a search on Autotrader, Car Gurus etc. I just picked up a 17 RAM 1500 Longhorne a month ago with onlyb46k miles on it.

I can toss in a vote for CarGurus - that's where I researched and found mine. Much easier to surf around, narrow it down to 1-2, then go look at and test-drive the finalists.

 

[06 Dodge]

Until my resent vacation I thought buying one would be safe, after seeing how people drive/treat a rental vehicle I would be hard pressed to buy one...

 

[22hemi13]

I’d buy a rental all day any day. Sure it gets beat on. But it ain’t all gunked up and idling all day. I rag mine hard and it’s fine 165k miles.

 

[Random_Walk]

I’d buy a rental all day any day. Sure it gets beat on. But it ain’t all gunked up and idling all day. I rag mine hard and it’s fine 165k miles.

Still under 70k here, but yeah... I beat mine up harder than most. Homesteading will do that.

(besides, after I put that dent in the front driver-side quarter-panel, I breathed a huge sigh of relief that I'd never have to worry about denting it again. I keep threatening to pop that dent out, but nah...)