tamir@ucbvax.ARPA (Yuval Tamir) (06/22/85)
The major car-rental companies operate their own used car lots. Rental cars are driven hard but the companies maintain them pretty well and offer a warranty. I would like to hear people's experiences/opinions regarding the purchase of used cars from car-rental companies. How badly are the cars damaged by the treatment they get from renters ? Are they priced competitively ? Do the companies live up to the warranty ? I think there was a discussion of this topic within the last two years but I was not follow it then. If anybody out there kept an archive of the discussion, I would appreciate receiving it. If I get interesting responses, I will, of course, post a summary on the net. Yuval Tamir ARPANET/CSNET: tamir@Berkeley UUCP: ucbvax!tamir
tamir@ucbvax.ARPA (Yuval Tamir) (06/29/85)
Attached are all the responses that I have received for the following query: >The major car-rental companies operate their own >used car lots. Rental cars are driven hard but the >companies maintain them pretty well and offer a warranty. > >I would like to hear people's experiences/opinions regarding >the purchase of used cars from car-rental companies. >How badly are the cars damaged by the treatment they get from renters ? > >Are they priced competitively ? >Do the companies live up to the warranty ? My summary is: Yes, rental cars do get abused more than other cars. The few people who have actually bought cars from rental companies got reasonably good deals. It is nice to have the warranty. As always, caveat emptor ! Yuval Tamir ARPANET/CSNET: tamir@Berkeley UUCP: ucbvax!tamir --------------------------------------------------------------------- My father recently bought an '84 Toyota Corolla 4DR. Hatchback from Hertz in Philadelphia. He is very happy with the car. The price wasn't the best but wasn't bad either. He had a problem with it right after he bought it, it wouldn't start, but Hertz fixed it for him right-away so he is satisfied with their service. The body had a couple of very small flaws and the carpet on the drivers side shows some wear. Make sure that if you buy from a rentel company that all of the stuff is in the trunk, like the jack spare etc.... --------------------------------------------------------------------- I know how I drive rental cars. I would not recommend buying one. I have found out what happens when you put an automatic in reverse while moving forward. (Lot's of noise and a sudden stop, no apparent damage). You probably are safer with a full sized car, instead of a sports car. --------------------------------------------------------------------- As I have heard it, and it makes sense, is that the rental companies do NOT take particularly good care of their cars. The cars are used much more heavily than a regular owner's car, and so for the same model year you will get a car in worse condition. The cars are sold when they are likely to start costing too much to maintain for them to be worthwhile to be kept by the rental company. All in all, I would not buy one from a rental company. My source for these is the book others and I have been mentioning on and off on net.auto, by Remar Sutton. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Four years ago my wife and I bought a car from Budget Rent-A-Car. It was a year old and appeared to have been kept in very good condition. There were no rock chips or scratches in the paint. There did not seem to be any signs of body repair. The engine was in fine shape. Budget replaced a defective seat belt retractor and a couple of burnt-out instrument panel light bulbs. The car looked as good as new. Better than new, it had all of the first-year mechanical bugs worked out and repaired. The price was at the low end of Blue Book. They offered a reasonable warranty, but we had no opportunity to see if they honored it (I have no reason to believe that they would not). We will probably buy our next car from one of the rental companies. However, be careful and ask a lot of questions. We saw a Toyota with a burnt engine on another rental car lot. The mechanic had drained the oil but had forgotten to fill it again. They were planning to replace the burnt bearings, etc, and sell the car for a higher price because of the low mileage! --------------------------------------------------------------------- You have to remember that rental cars are often abused. The one clear example I remember was when a bunch of us were going out for beer and my friend offered to drive in his rented car. We were driving along at about 40MPH and he went back and forth across the PRNDL (automatic transmission). The one comment I remember was, "Hear that clicking? That's the parking pin trying to go in!" --------------------------------------------------------------------- In 1979 I bought a '78 Datsun B210 from an outlet in Everett Wash. owned by Tropical Rent A Car of Hawaii, and aside from having sand in the rug, it was in good condition. I had it for 5 years and had no problems. BTW, it had an automatic transmission. Manual transmissions may receive more abuse from rental users. ---------------------------------------------------------------------