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+--- Thread: anyone buy a car from a rental car company/hertz? (/showthread.php?tid=189085)
anyone buy a car from a rental car company/hertz? - robfilms - 03-14-2016
i am seriously thinking about buying a used car from hertz.
it is a 2016 with 20k miles.
it has been in service for 9 months.
there are plenty of hertz horror stories on the web.
they usually break into two sections: the car stinks/hertz stinks.
hertz offers a 3-day "test drive" so you can bring the vehicle to your mechanic.
i was going to bring it to the dealership which also sells this brand/car and get an opinion from a friend's buddy who is a mechanic at the dealership.
the vin number already checks out and the car has never had an accident if you believe carfacts. the mechanic will obviously look for any damage the hertz might have fixed internally.
the hertz stinks complaints is usually about hertz financing.
if i did purchase, i would pay cash.
all rental vehicles have liens so that is an administrative hurdle i need to deal with.
ugh ;-(
buying a used car is a drag.
ymmv
be well.
rob
Re: anyone buy a car from a rental car company/hertz? - ztirffritz - 03-14-2016
My wife's Camry was a rental. It's pushing 200k+ miles now. I'm going to start calling it 'the cockroach' because it won't die. I REALLY hate that car. It's so utterly mediocre and vanilla.
Re: anyone buy a car from a rental car company/hertz? - JoeBob - 03-14-2016
Bought a Ford Taurus and a Mazda 626 from Hertz years ago. Taurus (03) is still going,
despite the neighbors kid that has it now abusing the heck out of it. Many trouble free miles from that car, several cross country trips.
The Mazda did well, but when it decided to go, it fell apart quickly. The ex-wife could break an anvil, so there is that.
Re: anyone buy a car from a rental car company/hertz? - C(-)ris - 03-14-2016
Are you saving that much money that it is worth it? Generally speaking, if the car you are looking at is one of the super popular fleet vehicles it will have crap resale value so make sure you are getting a really really good deal on it. Hertz paid far less than the MSRP or even the dealer invoice to begin with. Also, make sure to double check that it has all the same options and features that a car on the lot would have at that trim level. Many times the fleet/rental vehicles will be missing features that are standard on a trim level. Sometimes it is programming differences in the ECM, sometimes there are physical things different. Examples might be that on a normal LX model sold from a dealer the heating/air conditioning controls are electronic with dual zones, but on the fleet version of the LX it is manual with no zoning. A lot of times the passenger seat will be manual on rental cars instead of power. Other things to look for is what you can access/is available on the control screens. Rentals sometimes have very basic information instead of the full featured list.
Re: anyone buy a car from a rental car company/hertz? - space-time - 03-14-2016
My friend bought a Nissan Maxima a few years ago and recently bought a second one for his wife. yes, do the 3 day test drive, and they handle the paperwork for you, smooth process.
Re: anyone buy a car from a rental car company/hertz? - Buck - 03-14-2016
My last several vehicles have all been rental fleet units. No problems at all. Now all are between 100-200K miles.
Do you really need a new car? It's almost always cheaper to keep fixing the old beater. Who cares about looks? As long as it runs fine.
Re: anyone buy a car from a rental car company/hertz? - jh - 03-14-2016
In the past I have purchased three vehicles from Enterprise car sales. The credit union (now it's called a financial institution) I use has an agreement with them on prices and they did all the paperwork for the financing with my institution. I get a break on financing if we purchased from them. Signed paperwork and drove off. Vehicles were fine. On two vehicles we bought from them I pointed out chips in the windshield and they replaced them free of charge with no questions asked. They supposedly "pick the best of their fleet" to put on the lot but you know how that goes. I also think if they need vehicles to fill their lot they go out and buy from auctions. I have not purchased my last vehicles from them but when we did they have a buy and drive 7 days and you can return it for a refund if not happy.
I say refund but we exchanged for other vehicles. Mrs jh, in my opinion, the queen of returns to stores returned two (that's right) two vehicles on different occasions to Enterprise and they exchanged them for other vehicles without any hassle. I think they also or did, offer 1 year of road service if memory serves me.
Re: anyone buy a car from a rental car company/hertz? - Robert M - 03-14-2016
Rob,
I wouldn't bring it to a dealership or regular mechanic. I'd have a "lemon checker" go over the vehicle. In our area, one I know and have used multiple times over thew years is Auto Critic. They specialize in inspecting used and preowned cars and have always done right by me. I even had them go over one my own cars (Jeep Cherokee).
I'd bought the Jeep used and knew it was nearing time replace it. I needed to know what was necessary to keep it running for another year or so. Auto Critic gave it a once over. I had the list of necessary repairs. Got them done. I kept it long enough to qualify for Cash For Clunkers, traded it in and got my Mazda. The costs for Auto Critic and the repairs was _far_ outweighed by what I got for the Jeep under Cash for Clunkers.
Robert
Re: anyone buy a car from a rental car company/hertz? - Spiff - 03-14-2016
JoeBob wrote:
The Mazda did well, but when it decided to go, it fell apart quickly. The ex-wife could break an anvil, so there is that.
:ROTFL:
Re: anyone buy a car from a rental car company/hertz? - TLB - 03-14-2016
Taurus wagon from Hertz in FL way back in 1989. Great deal when these wagons were quite popular and rather rare. Easy, painless transaction and we kept it for 15 years.