Where are these cars coming from?

[01rangerxl]

quote:

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Originally posted by brianl703:
I think the average rental car probably gets better maintenance than the average privately-owned car.

As far as the driver itself, I see plenty of people abusing cars I'm fairly certain are theirs (or the banks, anyway). Lease cars are probably the worst. I remember a statement from a PDF file published by 76 about API SL oil and how the oil was designed for longer drain intervals because "manufacturers want to protect their investment in leased vehicles".

Translation: Leased vehicles are neglected and the manufacturer wants a car that will still be running when the lease period is up.

I posted a link to that PDF file here a while ago.

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I agree. Leased cars probably get the worst treatment.

I am the third owner of my 2001 Ranger. It was originally a lease vehicle and I found out later that it had been repossessed. If they could not make the payments, I am sure they were not dumping money into maintaining it. It showed when I started replacing things like the transmission fluid, fuel filter, coolant, etc... Everything was clearly original. Only the motor oil, air filter and tires had been touched at 48,000 miles. The rear diff fluid in this truck is supposedly good for 150,000 miles, so I guess I can't fault whoever leased the truck there, but everything else was overdue.

I have to say though, at 76,000 miles I have never had a problem with the truck. I guess I caught it before any real damage was done.

Oh, and when looking the brakes over after I got the truck, one of the rear drums was way out of adjustment...I guess one of the previous owners decided to smoke the tires a little by doing a brakestand before passing the truck on to someone else.

 

[ChromiumSteel]

I don't know about rental cars getting maintenance. I was kinda p***ed off when I discovered that a Toyota 4runner rental car didn't have any windshield washer fluid in it. Of course they were happy to reimberse me for the price of the 20/10 I had to buy. But even a rudimentary underhood check would have shown the need for fluid. Or oil.

 

[The Critic]

Funny how both cars in the family still have the factory washer fluid...still nearly full.

Why? Never found a use for that stuff. It doesn't work at all...instead it smears all over the place.

 

[ChromiumSteel]

Same here. But we were at the beach and got splattered. Driving through the waves didn't help clean the window. But it did drop some old mans jaw!

 

[toocrazy2yoo]

If they are dealer cars on the dealer's lot, wouldn't they have to be demo's that the salespeople drove?

 

[AndyH]

quote:

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Originally posted by The Critic:
Funny how both cars in the family still have the factory washer fluid...still nearly full.

Why? Never found a use for that stuff. It doesn't work at all...instead it smears all over the place.

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Clearly California driven

I went through two gallons of washer fluid this past winter on a drive from Boston down to Philly during a snowstorm.

 

[The Critic]

No, most dealers have a separate fleet for their in-house "service" loaners.

 

[brianl703]

quote:

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Originally posted by The Critic:
Funny how both cars in the family still have the factory washer fluid...still nearly full.

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Must be nice to live in an area where it never snows, so there's never any pools of salt water on the road to splash all over your windshield leaving a film of salt after it dries..

 

[Zee1]

quote:

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Incidentally, 25 is when most insurance companies start to drop your rates.

I have no idea what is so magical about that age..

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I have no idea either, I know of people that are 24 that have absolutely clean records that pay 4 times what someone who is in their 30's with 4 dui's and 3 accidents pays.... WITH an SR-22... I think the federal government runs insurance companies, they just have to with that kind of logic.

 

[JavaMan]

"Many rental companies will not rent to anyone under 25.

Incidentally, 25 is when most insurance companies start to drop your rates.

I have no idea what is so magical about that age.."

I'm guessing age 25 is from statistical data regarding probability of unsafe driving.

 

[BrianWC]

I've only bought 1 new car out of the 5 that I've owned so far. I still have trouble walking after my one new purchase. I'm driving my second eBay car. The first one I wrecked after putting 90k troublefree miles on it on top of the 100k the original owner had done.

 

[Auto-Union]

I sorta moved up the ladder from type 4-3-2 cars, but you guys O-C-D'ed me into a new car purchase this time, not my 1st new car, I had a 2002 Audi A4 and a 1990 Turcel (neither did I keep very long). I kept my last car pretty long, 85k on top of the 30k the 1999 Audi Avant I bought @ 3 years old. I felt the need for a new car for a coulpla reasons, lack of time/enthuisiam for repairs and hearing all the horror stories about cars coming into the service shop w/o oil. Running low on oil is the bane of used cars, for me. I brought a quart of oil to the last few cars I looked at for myself and friends. My 1999 V6 was 1q low, that did not bother me. Now, if I looked at a used car that was more than 1q low, pass. Oil that's too fresh and clean is a yellow flag too.

 

[widman]

Rental cars are often sold early either for marketing reasons (Hertz used to advertise you will never get a car with less than 15,000 miles) or TAX laws (When I lived in Ilinois, if they sold it before 12 months they never paid sales tax).
I bought a car from Hertz in 84. My wife drove it for 5 years with nothing but oil changes and an AC compressor - In Florida the AC gets as much use as the engine.
Now I "buy" vehicles from whoever owes me money and has nothing else to offer. I've got some farm equipment and soybeans to sell too.