I see a ton of cars for sale and many have the notation that they were part of a fleet or rental program.
Specifically, there’s two 2005 G35x near me for $4,500-$5,000 that appear to be very clean.
Part of me thinks the rental companies kept up with oil changes and other maintenance and updated all the TSB’s. The other part of me reverts back to the notion that all rental cars get beat to E36 M3....
What do you guys think in general?
In reply to ebonyandivory :
Yes, our T&C is ex-Enterprise and I'd gladly buy another one of their vehicles. They do a better job with maintenance than most individuals, and I figured if it hadn't been destroyed by 18-months of abusive renters it would likely survive my own. It has with aplomb.
Thanks for that. My only experience so far was with a police Bronco and I know it had the trans updates done. At 196,000 miles, the oil was still clean at changing time and it hadn’t used much if any.
My small brain tells me good maintenance trumps hard miles in many cases.
I bought a '97 Camry in '98 from a Toyota dealer. It was a rental. I forget which one, but one of the big rental companies. It had about 30K on it. No complaints at all. Sold it off last year with 225K after the squirrels built a nest over the exhaust manifold and the resulting fire damaged it more than I cared to berkeley with.
Yes, ERAC does a better job than many average owners in caring for the cars. Yes, they are often used hard, but I'd have no problem buying one.
However, I doubt a G35x was an ERAC car. More likely a corporate fleet vehicle, maybe for an executive or something. Not only that, it was 13 years ago and probably left the fleet 10 years ago. So if it was gonna blow it, would have happened by now.
I considered a three year old rental car Impala for a sales vehicle before I bought a truck.
And I tend to drive rental cars hard.
Klayfish said:Yes, ERAC does a better job than many average owners in caring for the cars. Yes, they are often used hard, but I'd have no problem buying one.
However, I doubt a G35x was an ERAC car. More likely a corporate fleet vehicle, maybe for an executive or something. Not only that, it was 13 years ago and probably left the fleet 10 years ago. So if it was gonna blow it, would have happened by now.
Would you clarify your last sentence for me? And I’m curious if that was a conditional “yes” or a “no”.
I worked for a Chevy dealer who would buy a trailer load of Cavalier rentals. I think the we had to replace the brake pads on one.
Worse thing was the scratched up trunk lid.
I have heard of the horror stories of what some people will do to rentals because "berk it, it's not my problem". (And MAN does that level of irresponsibility tick me off)
On the flip side, I had a customer who bought an ex-Enterprise Focus and it was one of the most reliable cars he ever had. He bought it in '07ish and he still has it, although it's getting kinda rusty now. No major problems ever.
Additionally, according to the PO, my S60R was some sort of fleet lease vehicle when it was new. I guess that means it was a company car for execs to tool around in. It appears to have been taken very good care of over the years.
And this forum does seem to have the hots for ex police cruisers, which are the ultimate form of fleet vehicle.
Hopefully the vin isn't an omen! JNK 
I bought my wife a '14 Dodge Journey in '15 that had been a rental.
8000 miles, spotless inside and out and about 2/3 the price of new.
I would do it again.
Or this one: more money, two fewer owners, not a fleet vehicle and fewer miles.
I have taken a lot of chances when buying cars. I could get into a rental or fleet vehicle, but unless the price was near the value I'd get from parting it out, I'd really have to give it a thorough pre-buy inspection.
Concerns:
Other potential abuses such as:
http://www.ag.auburn.edu/users/parmega/articles/neon/
In reply to AAZCD :
Yes, that’s a possibility, but Is it a probability? Not really. Most people who rent cars have more important things to do than flog them to death.
At least for the normal appliance type cars. I would think twice before buying an ex-rental Challenger, or Mustang GT. But I wouldn’t worry about it with a Malibu or Civic.
So I went to look at both Infiniti’s and both were encased in ice from three days ago. Couldn’t even test the power windows, one had just a key with no fob to lock/unlock or pop the truck and the other cars fob was dead AND the cars steering wheel was locked and they couldn’t get it to unlock for me.
This is a freaking BUSINESS! Am I crazy or should I be able to start the cars I’m interested in?
There are oddities to them. We looked at rentals when we were looking for our Mazda5. Every single one within 200 miles had the crap scratched out of the paint on the top of the doors, and not light scratches, some were almost to the primer. According to the sales manager, there was some compatibility problem with the Mazda5 and the automated washing machine at Detroit Metro airport, and since pretty much every rental cycles through there, they were all damaged. The interiors were usually in pretty rough shape too. We ended up buying private party for about the same price with a stack of maintenance info, a better trim package, low mileage and in 1000X better shape as far as the interior/exterior are concerned. Obviously, your mileage may vary, but I probably wouldn't try it again.
ebonyandivory said:Klayfish said:Yes, ERAC does a better job than many average owners in caring for the cars. Yes, they are often used hard, but I'd have no problem buying one.
However, I doubt a G35x was an ERAC car. More likely a corporate fleet vehicle, maybe for an executive or something. Not only that, it was 13 years ago and probably left the fleet 10 years ago. So if it was gonna blow it, would have happened by now.
Would you clarify your last sentence for me? And I’m curious if that was a conditional “yes” or a “no”.
There are no guarantees in anything obviously, but if the car was going to blow up from being a fleet car (again, I doubt it was actually a rental, probably a company car) I would think it would have done it by now.
We have bought two previous rental/fleet cars. Both were less than two years old when purchased, a 99 Grand Caravan and an 04 Eclipse. Both looked very good when bought and ran well and both needed just regular maintenance during our ownership. My experience with cars for the past twenty years is that it is usually worth spending good money up front if you want to avoid alot of repairs or just buy something really cheap and know you are going to have to get it fixed. So go for payments on a nice car or hope that the clunker you choose goes a month once in a while not needing repairs. For a DD I think I'd go for the cheapest newest econbox. Put the money you save on gas towards the payments or a bank account for the purchase of a toy at a later date.
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