would you buy a rental car?

[rnln]

I am looking for a minivan and found many of them are at good price, even high mileage. 50k or so in a year or two. I guess they are rental cars. What you guy think?

[fingpilot]

No way. I have seen several of them driven by people who have an agenda.

[svandamme]

hell to the no.

[rnln]

alright guys. No rental car. I sensed the same. A reason to keep my 911 a little longer.

[BeyGon]

It seems that every rental car I get, Hertz, Budget, Enterprise, has a light on, Check Engine or Change Oil Soon. So, I don't think the companies keep up with the maintenance. I'm driving an Enterprise car now with Change Oil Soon flashing.

[sammyg2]

My dad has bought several used rental cars over the years and has had extremely good luck with them, no problems at all. I think the key may be the type of rental car. He buys lincolns and Cadillacs. Not too many irresponsible punks or hot-rodders rent those kinds of cars.

Now I'd bet a compact or mustang or something like that will probably be seriously abused, but blue-hair cars are usually driven very carefully.

[Moses]

Heard this phrase once; "He's been riding her hard, like a rental car on the road to Hana."

[peppy]

Originally Posted by Moses

Heard this phrase once; "He's been riding her hard, like a rental car on the road to Hana."

That was one of the first things they told us at the rental car place on Maui. "You can not take the Blazer on the road to Hana."


I would most of the rental car places are very strict on the abuse of the cars.

[BeyGon]

On Oahu, we rented a car and took it to Kiena Pt. At the time the road was dirt all the way. The rental people expressly forbid us to drive out there. When we brought the car back they knew exactly where it went. Boy were the waves big out there.
In Costa Rica I rented a Dihatsu and drove it to Witches' Rock, that was a tough road and when I brought it back it had a couple dents in the sill area. I had a Ford F150 4x4 there and I wouldn't take it on that road.

[Z-man]

We bought my wife a Toyota Corolla with around 20k on the clock from Enterprise Rent a Car. Had no problems with the car for the 5 years we had it, and actually gave the car to her brother - he finally sold it after it hit around 200,000 miles.

It was a basic car - no frills. I believe it was rented long-term to a medical company through Enterprise. That's probably why the car wasn't beaten to death.

-Z-man.

[Dantilla]

I once bought a 5.0 Mustang Convertable from a rental company. It came with a stack of reciepts, and turned out to be a very reliable car. It was my wife's DD for quite a while when we first married.

[azasadny]

No! Same category as used cop cars...

[GH85Carrera]

I guess I am just a car guy. My last rental was a Hyundai Sonata in Portland OR. I had to park right under a spot where sea gulls thought would make a good roost. There was a ton of bird crap all over the roof. I just had to stop and hose it off. I did not do a real wash job but I could not let that mess sit on the paint of any car. I just don't understand destroying anything just because it is a rental.

[Hugh R]

I might for a pedestrian car used mostly by business men. Hertz, Avis, et. al. keep to pretty good maintenance schedules, or at least they used to. I'm a typical business man rental car guy, I get in, I drive. I'm on company business, so I'm not going to be hot rodding.

[Schumi]

After knowing what I've done with some rentals in the past... no f way.

[rnln]

When I drive a rental car, I drive normal. 1- because it's not fun to drive a stock standard/basic or minivan at all. 2- I don't want to put a dent on the car and have to pay extra for it. 3- I just simply don't have the fun in someone else's cars. But I have heard many do crazy things when it come to a rental. On the other side, I also heard many people had good luck with high mileage rental cars, since most of the miles are highway cruising miles. Undecided again.
The thing I don't know is if the rental car companies would take care of those maintenance well enought, or they just let it drive and auction them. I do know they get driven a lot. I am looking at some 2008 Sienna and they most have between 30+k to almost 50+k miles. My cars usually get between couple miles to alot less than 10k miles per year.
If it'll be a dd to work, I might not care, but this will be a family minivan; therefore, I want a trouble free one.

[juanbenae]

not one ive rented....

[MFAFF]

Interesting...

Iused to rent cars a couple of times a week for work.. the drive I needed to do was a hoot.. and I enjoyed them immensely...but I drove in the same way I'd drive my own car...my time and money were precious and to 'waste' either by trashing the car was not in my interest...

Mind you I wouldn't have bought the car I hit a wild boar with....but I would have been in the same place, same time, same speed with my own car...

[myamoto1]

I bought a rental mini van (Kia Sedona) w/ around 15k miles on it. I paid the extra for the extended warrantee and have been very happy w/ the car. We've had to bring it into the dealer several times for minor issues (A/C, blinker, idler pully, etc) but it's been covered under warrantee every time. I think total out of pocket expenses have been under $50 in over 3 years and $20 of that was for a "special" Kia blinker bulb. That doesn't include basice maintenance like a tranny flush, oil, filters, etc... Overall, it's been one of the best cars we've had. Much more room than the Expedition we traded in and more horse power and about twice the gas mileage.

[Slantnose Steve]

Anyone old enough to remember when Hertz Rent-a-Car had Ford Shelby GT350's available to rent? I should have bought one of those, even though they got used and abused with abandon...