So there you are searching for a nice pre-owned car that is only a couple years old that has reasonable mileage and a nice price. Then you spot the perfect car, but upon further reserch you find out that it was previously a rental. Then you wonder if buying a car from a rental company is such a good idea. It looks good, the miles are right and the price is exactly the amount you were hoping to spend.
Then you start thinking about how people talk about rental cars and more importantly how they drive them. You know that people never take care of a vehicle that they rent the same way that they take care of their own automobile. They hit the potholes and don’t think twice about hitting railroad tracks. So when it comes right down to making that decision you are torn because the car is exactly what you were looking for but, you don’t know if it’s wise to buy a car from a rental company.
Thoughts on Buying a Car From a Rental Company
I can tell you first hand that I have bought cars for dealerships to sell as used cars that were once rental cars through the auctions. I would like to give you some truths about the vehicles that rental companies buy to use for rentals. First off rental companies buy in bulk and I am not talking about 3 or 4 cars. I am talking about lots of cars.
When they buy a large quantity of vehicles to put in to rental service they receive substantial discounts from the manufacturers. The kinds of discounts they get make it feasible for them to rent these cars for a short period and still sell them at a good price. Those discounts make it very attractive for the public to buy a car from a rental company. This also allows them to keep fresh automobiles in their rental fleets because people like to rent current model vehicles.
I will admit that I was apprehensive about buying a car from a rental company for resale, but after a careful inspection and test drive I decide to give it a try. I found out that most rental companies have a very rigid maintenance schedule for their vehicles that rival or do one better than the average auto owner. They are very serious about keeping their fleets in great shape because their customers can easily go to their competitors to rent a car. They keep their cars very clean, serviced, and inspected on a regular basis and maintain precise records of service and repairs. Then after they have been in service for a year or eighteen months then they are sold. If they didn’t take good care of their cars nobody would buy them.
My professional opinion about buying a car from a rental company is that you should go ahead and take the plunge as long as you look the vehicle over closely with a $2, thoroughly inspect the vehicle for premature wear, perform your own market evaluation, get a vehicle history report and go for a test drive. If everything checks out to your satisfaction go ahead and pull the trigger.
One thing to keep in mind if you are going to buy a car from a rental company is that only a very small part of the people that rent cars drive them recklessly because they know that either their insurance or they will have to pay for any damage. And frankly most insurance companies won’t cover damage caused by the renter. In most cases you can get a very good automobile at a fair price when you are buying a car from a rental company.