Can you give me your thoughts on buying ex rental cars. I need another car and one has come up but it is ex rental and has had one owner since then. 225,000ks on it.
NZTools,
Jan 18, 11:39am
225,000 ks of highway driving, and regularly serviced. Cant be a bad thing.
cuda.340,
Jan 18, 11:43am
just make sure i never rented the car. i give all rentals a good work out. at least we don't have an Autobahn, my peugeot rental couldn't handle 90mph for 2 hours solid.
twink19,
Jan 18, 12:43pm
ex lease cars are worth a look have bought a couple from Orix
kcf,
Jan 18, 12:48pm
Depends totally on the rental car company.Back in the day [rocking chair] with the little company I worked for, the cars got really well looked after and never ever missed a service.I've owned a couple of ex rentals from the company, and since i was the one servicing them, of course I knew the service history.
Some of the other companies (from other cities) who used our branch to drop their cars to on the other hand were diabolical.Cars 40k past a service etc.Not good.
Ask to see copies of the service history before you make a decision, and if possible look at the car at their premises.If it's super neat and tidy that's a good sign usually.
countrywidemoco,
Jan 18, 1:09pm
Generally they are ok, however there are always exceptions to the rule. Take every car on its own merits. 225km isn't really much these days.
electromic,
Jan 18, 2:30pm
I always thought rental cars were thrashed but well serviced. Noticed a Hiace yesterday from Budget rentals being thrashed in town, driver trying to do burnouts, might skip that one. I'd go ex-lease over ex- rental.
kcf,
Jan 18, 2:53pm
Relatively rare to get the rentals thrashed, most people who have rentals are sensible tourist types on holiday, or people on business trips.Judging from tyre wear rates and brake pad wear rates, I found that the rental cars at the company I worked for were treated pretty well on average.We were getting huge miles out of tyres and brake pads, and if the cars were routinely being caned, we wouldn't have done so.
That said, we refused to rent to couriers, as they tended to be very rough on machinery.
vtecintegra,
Jan 18, 3:34pm
Rental companies do tend to fit rock hard budget tyres and massively over inflate them though.
redmouse,
Jan 18, 3:54pm
Buyng an ex rental is like marrying a whore IMHO, lol! do you really want to own something that has been well used and abused buy every Tom Dick n Harry!
carstauranga001,
Jan 18, 3:59pm
Thought you were going to say rooted by everyone.
redmouse,
Jan 18, 4:04pm
Or had the ring thrashed out of it, lol.
redmouse,
Jan 18, 4:16pm
High milage, chassis reasonable, had regular servicing and fluid changes, big end is loose, still used daily, offers.
kcf,
Jan 18, 4:28pm
We ran perfectly normal Firestone rubber and ran them at 30 - 32 psi.
thunderbolt,
Jan 18, 8:51pm
Most people I know that rent in NZ are reps who fly& drive their area. And like me, they drive them like they stole them.
And even the big companies have cars that run well past their service intervals as they get moved at the wrong times.
Some of the late model Toyota (Rav4 etc) engine failures in rental cars were caused by 40k plus without servicing.
wrong2,
Jan 18, 9:18pm
& youd be sensible for doing so
tgray,
Jan 18, 9:33pm
I would say it depends on what type of car it is. I'm surprised no one has asked yet! As long as you do the normal checks before purchase and it checks out, it's probably fine.
scotty20001,
Jan 19, 12:16am
take it from somebody in the industry don't buy one, they get a very hard time there is a reason why major rental companies flick their cars off at max 75,000k and also they only service them every 15 to 25 thousand kms if they are lucky, it is quite common to send cars out well past their service intervals etc that do another 3,000ks around the south island on oil already due for a change, you really don't save that much from buying ex rental anyway and most of them are stripped out poverty packs that the company buys cheap in bulk.
ema1,
Jan 19, 12:18am
I've had a couple actually,both Toyota's . Toyota Avalon with 150,000km and a Corolla with just short of 200,000km when I bought them, had brilliant runs from both of them. I recently sold the Corolla and while I had it I did about 35,000km with no problems what so ever. Both cars were virtually unmarked condition wise and had a very comprehensive and proven service history andI'm fussy with my cars. Pays to check them over thoroughly just like you would any other car.simple as that. My daughter bought one a while back that was also a rental .Ford Focus and it has been brilliant only thing it needed was a thermostat( jammed open) as heater wasn't heating up!
ema1,
Jan 19, 12:23am
Not stripped out poverty packs in the ones I have got now and my daughters one as well wasn't a poverty pack either as you put it. I wouldn't say a Ford Focus with all the drama and leather interior as being a stripped poverty model. My Avalon is an up market VXi version as well with all the extras that most cars don't have as standard fitting. Admittedly the Corolla was a base model but a hell of a lot of them were besides the ones rental companies had. I fitted power steering to the one I had other than that it was bog stock ex factory.
hfc2,
Jan 19, 12:26am
We bought a 2003 XR6,x rental with 80000 on clock had no issues, great car.
stevo275,
Jan 19, 12:29am
crap the reason they turn them over is to keep there fleet modern. who wants to rent a car thats over ten years old
scotty20001,
Jan 19, 12:59am
because they run out of warranty at 100,000 clicks so they sell them off beforehand i work in the industry i know what goes on, ema1 that's really surprising all the Ford Focuses we rent are stripped out pov packs with manual windows we have about 2 Corolla GLX's and thats about it the rest are GL models, it is common for vehicles to miss the service intervals, and being a big corporate the cars are just there to make money, they dont look after them like a private owner should, i could tell some stories about the condition some cars were returned in, just be careful that's all, something like an XR6 can take a hard time but its not only the engine you have to worry about.
scotty20001,
Jan 19, 1:01am
what is the make and model!
stevo275,
Jan 19, 1:35am
wellno different to any joe bloggs selling a car .my best mate owns a rental company i ve brought 2 of his fleet vehicles no probs. but we all know any second hand car is a lucky dip aye
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