last car I rented was out of SanFran--a Sonata with 48K on it!!
Ran like a top
Ran like a top
Rental cars and oil changes
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Originally Posted By: Dave424
Well, I have personal experience with this. A family member used to work for a shop that serviced cars from Ent. They would often get cars with 20+K miles with factory fill. When he went to E to pick up the cars the sales guys said that cars were always booked and they couldn't get them serviced in time. The shop owner also instructed not to change oil filters after the first change. If they had their own filter on the car they would not change it at all. Another thing, no matter what oil car required, they always pupmped it from a non branded black oil barrel that probably had the cheapest conventional as far as I know. I'm sure not all places are like that, but I would not take my chances.
Exactly, my local Enterprise wants to make the maximum profit. This means they will usually rent out returned vehicles, even when they need an oil change. I've had multiple rentals with the TPMS light on because tires had little or no pressure, but when I filled them with air they stopped leaking, meaning the tire pressure is rarely checked. Customers? Many of them will thrash the engine and transmission hard, knowing that it probably won't break down until long after they return it. Rental car companies know their sales vehicles are ticking time bombs.
Well, I have personal experience with this. A family member used to work for a shop that serviced cars from Ent. They would often get cars with 20+K miles with factory fill. When he went to E to pick up the cars the sales guys said that cars were always booked and they couldn't get them serviced in time. The shop owner also instructed not to change oil filters after the first change. If they had their own filter on the car they would not change it at all. Another thing, no matter what oil car required, they always pupmped it from a non branded black oil barrel that probably had the cheapest conventional as far as I know. I'm sure not all places are like that, but I would not take my chances.
Exactly, my local Enterprise wants to make the maximum profit. This means they will usually rent out returned vehicles, even when they need an oil change. I've had multiple rentals with the TPMS light on because tires had little or no pressure, but when I filled them with air they stopped leaking, meaning the tire pressure is rarely checked. Customers? Many of them will thrash the engine and transmission hard, knowing that it probably won't break down until long after they return it. Rental car companies know their sales vehicles are ticking time bombs.
This is the problem with the Country we live in today ^^^ CORPORATE GREED!
I was tempted to buy a low-mileage rental from enterprise car sales dot com I think it was.....apparantly they got a big lot over in Orlando, they send all their low-mileage cars to, for sale....I asked them about maintenance, and they said they do change the oil every 3k.....or, if the car is rented out during that 3k, obviously it's changed out when it comes back in......they do vacuum the vehicles out and wash them when they get turned in. Probably not the "clay bar"-esque detailing you'd do to your "own" car.....but eh...lol.....
Funny though, cause I got a Toyota Prius when I was in my accident with a Nationwide customer.....(Nationwide paid for the rental, of course....) and the Check Engine light was on when I got it....and this was a low mileage Prius.....think maybe 20k on the clock, 08 or 09 Prius.....
Showed it to the guy when we did the pre-inspection and he just shrugged it off, and "notated it".
What an ugly car
But oh lord did I love the 50 mpg I was getting! haha...according to the on screen display statistics anyways Only filled up once, when I turned the car in...heh
Funny though, cause I got a Toyota Prius when I was in my accident with a Nationwide customer.....(Nationwide paid for the rental, of course....) and the Check Engine light was on when I got it....and this was a low mileage Prius.....think maybe 20k on the clock, 08 or 09 Prius.....
Showed it to the guy when we did the pre-inspection and he just shrugged it off, and "notated it".
What an ugly car
But oh lord did I love the 50 mpg I was getting! haha...according to the on screen display statistics anyways Only filled up once, when I turned the car in...heh
My 2000 Camry began its life as a rental car, until I got it in early 2004. It had ~42k miles on it (in four years!), came with a stack of receipts that were signed off on by a local Toyota Dealer's Head Mechanic, and even came with a sheet that was essentially a Summary of the car's life up to that point (had month/year it was made, which plant, all specs and options, and what surprised me most was it had things like Avg Trip Length, Longest Trip, Average MPG, Total Times Rented, Total Repairs - Mechanical, Total Repairs - Body, and like a dozen other things like those, apparently it was stored on computer and then printed out for car's sale).
If it hadn't of come with that, I would have been more hesitant, but combined with Carfax and service history, I knew: zero accidents, average rental period was 4 days and 342mi, its tires were only 199 miles old, it had the oil changed every 2950 miles with Mobil 1 Dino and "Toyota Premium Oil Filters", air filter replaced with OEM part every 6k miles, headlight bulbs replaced with Hella bulbs at 39.5k, then lastly belts, trans fluid, oil/filters, plugs, fuel filter, brake pads/fluid, and coolant changed at 41k, about 600mi prior to selling. It was a smaller chain, and they had like 20 Corollas, 20 Camrys, 15 Avalons, a mix of Toyota SUVs, and about 10-12 total of Lexus ES300/LS400 and lastly about 5-6 3rd Gen MR2s with one lone 90s SC400. They had some deal with the Toyota dealership where they buy exclusively and they get discount but have to service at dealership, because the invoice for my Camry's original sale was $4k less than a no-option base model yet it is an LE with in-dash CD player (Fujitsu-Ten, aka Eclipse) and a handful of other options.
I tried to get them to sell me the SC400 knowing I could turn it into one wicked luxury sports cruiser, but the owner said that when they retire it, he is going to keep it.
Anyway, point is, I got lucky I think in that I had full records and they are also all on the dealer's computer. Not to mention I got a 4yr old car with 42k miles (with all service for the next 30k aside from oil and filters done, and brand new Toyo tires) for $5k.
I still have it, too, and that car has been beaten on and at 191k miles or so, runs hard. The engine is sludgey, but it is a 5S-FE, that is what they do.
So, I have about 0.8qt MMO in the crank with some "whatever" oil, and after the MMO has steamed/evapped off, I will add a half-dose of Seafoam and drive 150mi then dump that nasty gunk.
I have a 5.1qt jug of 5w30 Pennzoil Platinum and MobilOne (me? Mobil 1? Surely it cannot be!) Extended Protection oil filter sitting here waiting to go in. After however long I feel like, I will dump it and gradually use stronger cleaners every other change while continuing to use Very strong cleaning-power synthetics (PP/PU, T6, RP maybe, etc) between cleaning cycles (during which, depending on what is called for, I intend to use T5 and/or Pennzoil conventional).
All in all, eight years, not a single breakdown, cheap to maintain, and still.running hard... If I had to do it again, I would've been more convincing about the SC400, lol, but I would not hesitate to do it again.
However, that was what I consider a very lucky score. I will not ever buy a former rental again, except perhaps for a kids-first-car or something and only if it passes MY inspection, my mechanic's inspection, and my friend-who-owns-his-own-body-shop inspection.
If it hadn't of come with that, I would have been more hesitant, but combined with Carfax and service history, I knew: zero accidents, average rental period was 4 days and 342mi, its tires were only 199 miles old, it had the oil changed every 2950 miles with Mobil 1 Dino and "Toyota Premium Oil Filters", air filter replaced with OEM part every 6k miles, headlight bulbs replaced with Hella bulbs at 39.5k, then lastly belts, trans fluid, oil/filters, plugs, fuel filter, brake pads/fluid, and coolant changed at 41k, about 600mi prior to selling. It was a smaller chain, and they had like 20 Corollas, 20 Camrys, 15 Avalons, a mix of Toyota SUVs, and about 10-12 total of Lexus ES300/LS400 and lastly about 5-6 3rd Gen MR2s with one lone 90s SC400. They had some deal with the Toyota dealership where they buy exclusively and they get discount but have to service at dealership, because the invoice for my Camry's original sale was $4k less than a no-option base model yet it is an LE with in-dash CD player (Fujitsu-Ten, aka Eclipse) and a handful of other options.
I tried to get them to sell me the SC400 knowing I could turn it into one wicked luxury sports cruiser, but the owner said that when they retire it, he is going to keep it.
Anyway, point is, I got lucky I think in that I had full records and they are also all on the dealer's computer. Not to mention I got a 4yr old car with 42k miles (with all service for the next 30k aside from oil and filters done, and brand new Toyo tires) for $5k.
I still have it, too, and that car has been beaten on and at 191k miles or so, runs hard. The engine is sludgey, but it is a 5S-FE, that is what they do.
So, I have about 0.8qt MMO in the crank with some "whatever" oil, and after the MMO has steamed/evapped off, I will add a half-dose of Seafoam and drive 150mi then dump that nasty gunk.
I have a 5.1qt jug of 5w30 Pennzoil Platinum and MobilOne (me? Mobil 1? Surely it cannot be!) Extended Protection oil filter sitting here waiting to go in. After however long I feel like, I will dump it and gradually use stronger cleaners every other change while continuing to use Very strong cleaning-power synthetics (PP/PU, T6, RP maybe, etc) between cleaning cycles (during which, depending on what is called for, I intend to use T5 and/or Pennzoil conventional).
All in all, eight years, not a single breakdown, cheap to maintain, and still.running hard... If I had to do it again, I would've been more convincing about the SC400, lol, but I would not hesitate to do it again.
However, that was what I consider a very lucky score. I will not ever buy a former rental again, except perhaps for a kids-first-car or something and only if it passes MY inspection, my mechanic's inspection, and my friend-who-owns-his-own-body-shop inspection.
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