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Purchasing Rental & Program Vehicles
Does anyone have an opinion on buying a rental?
I know they typically have a certification program but they are rentals. I also know that the dealerships buy most of their used cars from the rental companies. Would it be smart getting it from the source? I guess it would make sense for them to select their better batch and wholesale the rest to the dealers that sell it back to me, anyhow.
I know they typically have a certification program but they are rentals. I also know that the dealerships buy most of their used cars from the rental companies. Would it be smart getting it from the source? I guess it would make sense for them to select their better batch and wholesale the rest to the dealers that sell it back to me, anyhow.
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Comments
Hertz Resale. The cars look good and the price is
too. Do you have any experience with this kind of
purchase or any opinions? Thank you for your
input.
For two reasons:
Well let's put it this way, when you buy a used car (rental or privatly owned ) it's a gamble. However, Hertz has a pretty good reputation for taking care of their cars, with regular scheduled servicing and oil changes. My boyfriend's folks just bought a car from Hertz, they were able to look at all the service records from day one.
And: Even from a dealership, you often have not idea where it's been and how the prior owner took card of it. Listen to all the posts here from people that bought used cars from dealerships only to find out later that it was a leased/rental car vehicle anyway. At least with the Hertz vehicle you know what your getting and have access to all the service records. Even when the car has been owned by "one owner / little old lady," without the service records, it's still not a gaurantee that the vehicle was well taken care of.
As far as people not "taking care of rental cars." I would be curious to some documented statistics on that, compared to how people drive their own vehicles, before I believe that line. I have rented numerous cars, and I've alway taken care, and am perhaps more cautious than when I'm driving my own vehicle. Consider the psychological factor of not wanting to be liable for damages... for a 20,000+ vehicle that doesn't belong to you, that's always in the back of my mind whenever I rent a car. Of course that's just me. Bottom line, when you buy a used car, I think it's more important to have access to all the service records... that would give me more peace of mind than knowing whether it was a rental car or not. Just my opinion.
My parents just bought a Sebring Convertible from Hertz - against all my arguements. Sure Hetz may change the oil, but I for one am a rental abuser - why - because I can - it's not mine, I don't care, "let's see what this baby can do." Years ago, I took a fishing trip with a friend to Colorado, had reserved a subcompact, but when we saw the mountains, asked if we could get a Jeep. It was going to be 4x's as much, so we kept the subcompact and got the CDW. Driving through fields at 80MPH is a real kick if you are used to commuter city traffic and you don't care what happens to whatever you are driving. Thattrue story may be an extreme, but I don't think most people care any more about the rental care they drive than the grocery cart they borrow at the supermarket.
BTW, my parents have brought the Sebring back 3x's already, steering wheel still vibrates at highway speed even though cars has less then 12k on it. They'll never do it again.
When shopping used, people like "Original Owner" cars, they figure they can asses if that 1 owner cared or not about the car. Would you want a used car advertised as having "Over 200 Owners - but well maintained"?
It's better to buy it to original owner with meticulous maintenance record plus you also get better price. Just don't make a mistake of not having a mechanic checkout the car. It will save you alot of headaches down the road.
The agent and I go over the car with a fine-toothed comb before he hands me the keys, and I am aware that I pay for ANY scratches, dents or abuse that shows up while I have it. So I treat it pretty well and drive VERY defensively. On the other hand, the business about just jumping in the cold car and taking off is true, and that is a major reason for engine wear. But - I know a lot of one-owners that jump in and take off, and think that changing the oil every 3000 is a gimmick - 8000 is fine!
Most people don't rent cars to go from Detroit to Florida. They fly; and it costs much less to fly.
Also around here (florida), it's rare that you ever see the tourists in rental cars even going as fast as the normal speed limit(55 mph). They're always slowing down and blocking traffic, as they're reading their site maps and looking for their turn offs.
Also, not all car owners follows that "break-in" schedule either. At least with Hertz, you know they changed the oil changes and routine services. Matter a fact, there service records are much better than my prior vehicle service records.
Thank for your response to my post.
Acctually I am a student and have never gotten a chance to buy a brand new. I heard from one of my friend who recently got a job and bought a '98 Camry how tedious the break-in driving is. Need to drive under 50MPH for 500 miles and let the car run in each gear. I am not sure what a percentage of new car owners do not follow the break-in schedule and cut budget to the service of their brand new vehicles which are bought by hard-earned bucks. I asked our secretary who has a Bravada, how she did break-in to it. She said she intentionally drove it in town for the first several hundred of miles. I guess most of the car renters, including myself, will put the rental vehicles in highway or freeway and will not always drive under 55MPH. If the rental vehicles happen to be brand or very new and the renters happen to have interest to what they can get outof it.
For the cost effective affair, a car has 5 to 6 seats and a van has more than that. Acctually last Christmas break my friends working in Detroit rent a van and drove it to FL, my friends in IIT (Chicago) rent a pretty new LeSabre and put almost 8000 miles on it.
The demo car is an extreme example, my friend once test drove a '97 Mercury Saber and ...
Great comments! I see where all of you are coming from. There are many angles here. I have rented many of vehicles and done all of the above!
David
Back to the original question. Do you think Hertz resale is a good buy?
The fact is, when you buy used, you never know what you're getting, PERIOD. Read some of the posts here from people that bought a used car from a local dealer, only to find out the car was a previous rental car, anyway! With a Hertz resale, you at least know it's a rental car, and you can take the extra precautions to thoroughly inspect the car, weigh the all the factors; and then decide for yourself if the discount is worth it or not. For many people, that are on a limited/fixed income, such as my boyfriend's retired folks, it was a "great deal."
The average Hertz car is driven by hundreds of individual business people on one or two day business trips. When you're lost in a strange city, you're not likely to partake in stoplight racing. The Hertz lots are full on the weekends, indicating that they don't get steady local business from casual renters off the street. Chances are L8_Apex rented the GrandAm from Enterprise when his car was in the shop (they usually rent outside of airports).
I've rented long term at Alamo (I'm not the typical 2-day traveler). There, when I wanted to keep a particular car beyond the maintenance limit of one month, the manager would just punch some numbers into his computer and...whoala, instant maintenance. At Hertz, no dice. They are the favorite company for business travelers because they are more professional and streamlined than the others, albeit more expensive. When your company picks up the tab, its Hertz. When renting for a joy ride, whatever's cheapest.
Would I buy from Hertz, well, not exactly.
At the time I bought the car, I had just graduated college and wasn't in a position to buy a car as nice as a Taurus new. I got an excellent deal (around $11,000 at the time) for a nearly-new car with 20,000 miles left under warranty. It's probably not something I'd do again - I bought my first completely new car this past March - but it's a good option for folks who can't quite swing the full new car price and don't want to settle for a lesser car.
My recommendation to anyone considering buying an ex-Hertz vehicle: go for a more sedate vehicle like the Taurus. I've rented dozens of Tauri from Hertz, always on business trips, and never drove them "hard" - I just didn't have time to fool around. On the other hand, I have also rented Mustangs from Hertz, either on business when I knew I'd have time to kick around, or on holiday. While I wouldn't say I ever abused these cars, I certainly drove them enthusiastically - and judging from their condition (rough-shifting transmissions, etc) I'd wager others had done the same.
If the vehicle was a SLOW pig then rarely did it ever see third gear.
When I returned these cars they looked fine (except when I hit a vulture at 70+mph) and typically showed little outward symptoms of having been severely beaten and abused.
Oh my god, memories of youth, never buy a rental.
-RMB
You drove a Hyundai and loved it??
Okay, Hyundai would not be my first choice, but not everyone can afford a Honda. And, actually, Hyundai does make a much better product than it used to. I drove an elantra the other day; it was pretty decent... the interior/seats were attractive/comfortable, and the ride was smooth. byw, seats are comfortable than the Accord...;-)
nynik888
If you're going to buy a rental car from Enterprise, see if they can show you the service records. I know that Hertz will do that.
As for possible prior abuse, sure there's no guarantee that the car may not have been abused..., however if that were such a common problem as speculated by some of the posts here, I'm sure we'd be seeing more topic subjects at town hall on this very matter; and coming from ACTUAL car rental/resale owners... right? So far, I have not seen a singe topic here about: "My rental car resale is a lemon because of prior abuse..." The only posts about this concern are from people speculating... and reminiscing about their wild youth... and their own rental car abuse.
If you want to guarantee that your car has had not prior abuse, buy a NEW car. A well made car is made to take a certain amount of abuse..., I'd be more concerned about the reputation of the Make/Model. Have a mechanic inspect your prospective car carefully, and check out the service records. If the price is right, go for it.
> to Florida.
Correct; they drive their own.
> They fly; and it costs much less to fly.
Also correct--if you have a Valentine One it should only cost you the price of the detector.
BTW my dad and two coworkers got crammed into a 1996 Accent in Chicago while there for training (company picked the car). Of course it was full with luggage and 3 big guys but it eventually made it up to 80 mph on the interstate, at which point the person in the passenger seat violently jerked the parking brake... nothing happened. Go figure.
How true. I own a previous Hertz car ('93 Mazda MX-3; 12K original miles) and there was not any sign of abuse. The odometer just turned 122,000 miles and the most expensive repairs thus far have been the 60K timing belt changes (roughly $600 to pull the head off this 4 cylinder) and the 7K in damages when a Mercedes hit my parked car back in '95. You can't go wrong with buying previous rental cars because they sell them with a major balance of the warranty still intact. If any big problems arise, just leave your checkbook at home and drop it off at the dealer.
I've rented many cars from Enterprise Rent-A-Car and found most cars are in average to below average condition. One car didn't eve have a gas cap!!!!!! The "best" rental car I drove was the '98 Maxima which convinced me not to buy a new Maxima. I bought a new Accord instead. I kinda wish Honda would sell more cars to rental cars so I can rent them but that would also lower the resale value like it has to Taurus and Camry. 50% of Taurus sales are to fleet (rental co.) compared to 15% Camry and only 5% Accords. No wonder Taurus has horrible resale value and Accords have the best in its class.
I'm sure what you say is true about some "rental car companies" ...but this topic is about Hertz resales. And they provide complete service records with all their resales.
AND: They are different than many of the other rental car sales.
I believe Hertz was sold by Ford few years ago, so it's no longer owned by Ford.
Most of the big rental companies like Avis, Enterprises, etc get all their new cars from the factory too, so Hertz isn't so special.
However, you're entitled to believe whatever you want to believe. Hey, it's a free country.
AND don't really want to waste any more energy on this issue accept to say that I have first hand knowledge and experience with Hertz resale; I recently helped my boyfriends folks buy a Hertz resale, and I was with them through every step of the sale process. My knowledge of Hertz goes a little beyond "hear say" and a phone call "to a local office." ;-)
At the time I bought the car(I don't know if the situation has changed) Consumer Reports had highly recommended buying from rental car companies because they usually kept meticulous records and made sure the cars were maintained. Maybe my experience was unique but I would have no hesitancy in buying a used rental, especially from National.
If you get a normal life out of a rental...
consider yourself lucky.
Even taxi cabs can have one owner, which might make them a better bet!
I believe that rental agencies take better care of the cars than allot of people who lease them. People who lease figure they can get buy with as little as possible...same goes for those who trade in every few years.
Now someone paying to rent a car would not tolerate this, they would want that their rental car to be running SMOOTHLY; this would require proper maintenance. Also, rental car agencies have another factor to think about that also motivates proper maintenance: safety & public liability.
Sure, there's that occasional abusive rental car driver, but overall, I would take a Hertz rental car any day, over a privately sold used car that did not come with all the maintenance records.
was wondering if anyone has purchased an automobile
from Hertz Car Sales. They have 1998 Chevy
Luminas, Malibus and Monte Carlos with around 25K
miles with many options for just under $12,000 (at
just about the limit of my budget). They also
provide you with all of the service records of the
cars.
From the research I have done, this seems to be a
good deal. Does anyone have good/bad experiences
shopping at Hertz? Are these prices good deals? I
live in Raleigh, North Carolina. Thanks for your
input and advice in advance.
Cheers,
Shawn
My family has purchased several cars from Hertz. All the cars have been in great shape, and have lasted a very long time. My sister just bought a 99 Suburban for an outstanding price. The fixed a few things that were "wrong" with the car. They removed a few door dings, and put new tires on the front, as the wear pattern was not normal, they aligned the car too.
I would recommend that you buy the extended warranty. Even though there is some manufacturer's warranty left, the Hertz plan is pretty good and worth the money.
Good luck.
Around here, Hertz takes them out of service in the low 20K mileage and offers a limited one year/ 12K warranty. A somewhat reasonably-priced extended warranty is also available.
I don't know about the other Hertz locations around the country, but the one in Honolulu has a lot of GM (Grand Ams, Luminas, Cavaliers) and Ford (Escorts, Contours, Mustangs) vehicles, plus Camrys, Accords, 626s, and Proteges every so often. An unusually wide selection and they've got their competition beat on prices, too.
It wasn't Their car - so let's see what it can do.
Hey Bill -lets take that speed bump at 90 MPH.
Hey Joe - watch these doughnuts.
Hey Steve - watch I can put it in reverse going forward at 35 MPH
you get the idea. I'm sure that most drivers (myself) included would never abuse a car. It's just those few. Would you really want to buy a car knowing that some of the above incidents had happened to YOUR car.
The other thing about rental cars is that they really are no great value. Take off 10 or 15 cents a mile and compare it to the price of a new car with all of the rebates and all. The rental cars that I have seen have from 17 to 40 k miles and are really not discounted enough to reflect their mileage and (somewhat inferior) condition.
As far as the dealers story about only getting the "best" rentals - keep in mind who you are talking to. Do you ever wonder where all the less than best cars go. Well, They don't all go to the older car lots.
I'd say pass on this deal. There's plenty of new car deals to be had these days.
ps. I've even noticed a lil trick of dealers putting "Single Owner" to the previous rentals as well!!!
As far as "Single Owner" cars at dealers, I would be wary of any car that is less than a couple of years old. Another Red flag, Rental cars get lots of miles on them so they tend to have many more miles on them than is appropriate for their age.
To be fair On the other hand - Drive the car. If it drives OK and doesn't have steering/suspension problems and it shifts all right. Then it is probably all right.
At most your risk is some suspension work or a transmission or differential rebuild. The car certainly still has many good miles left.
I check out the history and take some extra time to make sure the seats haven't been all burned out, carpets haven't been re-placed, someone hasn't been in and out of the trunk with a chainsaw, fluids, paintwork and looking for any skid marks on the frame .. "sometimes" they can be a Great deal. Spending an extra $100 or so at a real good service dept can save you some money and grief ...
Terry.
2) Then the ultimate question, as jasmith eluded to - how do YOU drive a rental?? A 30,000 mile rental has the wear and tear of most 80-100K private cars.
...and I don't see how these used rentals are such great deals anyway...all the ones I have seen are pretty pricey, and the market is so competitive right now...why not just buy private party? Or buy certified from a dealer.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Terry.