Would you buy a rental car?

[JTK]

Hertz has a couple of cars coming up for sale that interest me. 2018 models with less than 50k miles. Would you buy a car that was used as part of a rental fleet?

I've done it many times. My most recent was my 2019 Ram 1500 and our 2019 Nissan Pathfinder. This was all pre-covid though, when you could buy a one year old ex-rental with 12-30K miles on it. It would have to be a really good deal for me to buy a vehicle that saw ~4yrs and 50K+ miles of rental service.

 

[DriveHard]

Kind of makes me want to start another thread...

Why would you NEVER buy a rental car - how do you treat them?

 

[StumblingElk]

Kind of makes me want to start another thread...

Why would you NEVER buy a rental car - how do you treat them?

I think the BITOG crew isn't really representative of your average person who rents a car.
Most of us probably have more mechanical sympathy than the average person.

 

[The Critic]

Nowadays, probably not. The fleets used to keep them for 10-30K. Nowadays they seem to keep them for 70-80K. Big difference in wear and potential for missed maintenance visits.

My sister's Corolla was a former rental. It is holding up well with no signs of mechanical issues related to its former rental life.

 

[4WD]

I rent often enough to feel they age in cat years …

 

[The Critic]

I rent often enough to feel they age in cat years …

You mean doggie years?

 

[4WD]

You mean doggie years?

No, I think they were the passengers …

 

[wag123]

Insurance companies report accidents on the vin number of a vehicle. This is how dealers will promote cars as no "reported" accidents.

Negative.
No insurance company reports accidents or any other information about their customer's vehicles to Carfax or Autocheck. Insurance companies don't report because this would be a privacy violation and subject to a lawsuit by their insured party. Carfax and Autocheck records come from... police reports, state DMV records, many body shops (especially the chains), auto auctions, dealers, and maintenance/repair facilities.

 

[StumblingElk]

Negative.
No insurance company reports accidents or any other information about their customer's vehicles to Carfax or Autocheck. Insurance companies don't report because this would be a privacy violation and subject to a lawsuit by their insured party. Carfax and Autocheck records come from... police reports, state DMV records, many body shops (especially the chains), auto auctions, dealers, and maintenance/repair facilities.

And just to add to this: This is why so many Car Fax reports can be 'clean' when the car has previously been wrecked. This is fairly common.

 

[skyactiv]

Negative.
No insurance company reports accidents or any other information about their customer's vehicles to Carfax or Autocheck. Insurance companies don't report because this would be a privacy violation and subject to a lawsuit by their insured party. Carfax and Autocheck records come from... police reports, state DMV records, many body shops (especially the chains), auto auctions, dealers, and maintenance/repair facilities.

Police reports that include the VIN number are public record and will most always show up on Car Fax. Like a reported accident stolen vehicle or vandalism.

 

[HondOtaChOrd]

Most people treat their own cars like garbage. How do you think they treat a rental? This thread has a lot of success stories so that is good.

 

[wag123]

And just to add to this: This is why so many Car Fax reports can be 'clean' when the car has previously been wrecked. This is fairly common.

Yes, and this is one reason why a purchaser should get a professional inspection done on a used vehicle PRIOR to purchase.

 

[Tdbo]

It would depend on price, condition, and acceptable maintenance documentation.

 

[panthermike]

I've done it with no issues. In addition to what has been mentioned with maintenance and Carfax, if the vehicle has an MPG monitor check that out as well. More than likely nobody resets it so you can get a feel for what kind of fuel economy it's gotten over its life. Really bad fuel economy equals really hard driving!

I had a rental Ford escape that read 12 MPG

 

[alarmguy]

Negative.
No insurance company reports accidents or any other information about their customer's vehicles to Carfax or Autocheck. Insurance companies don't report because this would be a privacy violation and subject to a lawsuit by their insured party. Carfax and Autocheck records come from... police reports, state DMV records, many body shops (especially the chains), auto auctions, dealers, and maintenance/repair facilities.

There can be no police report but still show up as accident damage, this wont happen with a rental company who is self insured.

https://www.quora.com/Do-insurance-companies-report-accidents-to-Carfax?share=1

and regarding the insurance companies =
https://brokensecrets.com/2010/08/23/how-does-information-get-on-a-carfax-report/

Also a maintenance and repair facility does accident repairs. The point of my post is seeing no accident or damage repair on a rental vehicle is more than possible vs the general public but maybe I am wrong, it was just something told to me by a rental company. He was very upfront about it is all I know.

 

[KGMtech]

I think the BITOG crew isn't really representative of your average person who rents a car.
Most of us probably have more mechanical sympathy than the average person.

This is the most elegant response ever! Only 57 posts and this guy has us completely summed up!

 

[Elkins45]

14k for that car is really really good. Does Hertz have special auctions for these or just on their website?

As far as I know only the website. They say it’s no haggle pricing.

 

[wag123]

There can be no police report but still show up as accident damage, this wont happen with a rental company who is self insured.

https://www.quora.com/Do-insurance-companies-report-accidents-to-Carfax?share=1

I don't care what it says in this Quora thread, Carfax and Autocheck DO NOT have access to this insurance information.
If an rental company uses a body shop to get accident repairs done, particularly if it is one of the body shop chains (common), a vehicle can in-fact have an accident report showing on it's Carfax and/or Autocheck. Furthermore, if a rental car has gone through an auto auction it can also show an accident report because auction sellers are required to disclose accident repairs.

 

[AZjeff]

Would you buy a car that was used as part of a rental fleet?

Only if they could prove that @DriveHard never rented it.

 

[alarmguy]

I don't care what it says in this Quora thread, Carfax and Autocheck DO NOT have access to this insurance information.
If an rental company uses a body shop to get accident repairs done, particularly if it is one of the body shop chains (common), a vehicle can in-fact have an accident report showing on it's Carfax and/or Autocheck. Furthermore, if a rental car has gone through an auto auction it can also show an accident report because auction sellers are required to disclose accident repairs.

Well, we can agree to completely disagree with each other is all I can say.

"
Owned and operated by LEXIS-NEXIS, the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange is not well-known outside of the insurance industry. It’s a way for insurers to track claims on your autos and property.

Companies like Carfax get data feeds that show the claims that are made against the serial number of the car."

https://www.carfax.com/company/vhr-data-sources
and clearly in CarFax own statement a mention is made indicating a relationship with ins companies and "other sources" that you are discrediting from the other link I provided.
"
* Does CARFAX get total loss data from insurance companies?
Yes. Some insurance companies report total loss information to CARFAX.

CARFAX also uses other sources to determine if a vehicle was declared a total loss by an insurance company."