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buying a rental car

  

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Scotty,

I see Avis is selling 2020 Toyota Rav4 LE models with around 20-24000 miles on them for around the $22000 price range My wife wants to get one, my question, is buying a previous rental vehicle a good choice or not?

Thanks for your insight on this,

Your loyal fan

Jim Anderson


7 Answers
2

You would be better off getting a used 3 4 year old one with low miles that is not a rental car. Now my family bought an SUV 12 years ago from a rental car place and it is still going strong but you don't know how hard its been driven. If you do want it, have a mechanic check t out.


2

I used to work at Enterprise Rent a car

 

NO!!!


@joec
I'm assuming you guys cared more about renting the cars out rather than their maintenance? Do you mind sharing why you say no with your experience at Enterprise? I'd love to hear.


2

It’s a crapshoot. You could hit big. But you could also crap out. 

If it were cheaper, I might take the risk. 


2

Buying used cars from rental companies can save you a ton of money. Rental companies often sell in large quantities, and they need to sell them quickly. The prices reflect this fact, and are usually well below market value.  Rental companies are really struggling right now thanks to lock-downs, which discounts the prices even further.

 

On the downside, the cars typically have higher mileage, and more wear and tear. They are also typically base models.

 

I think if the car condition is acceptable to you , then you should consider it. With 20,000 miles, the maintenance history doesn't matter too much, and it should have a lot of life left in it.  Make sure it gets an inspection first. It's not a bad choice.


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Eh, not really a good idea. A whole bunch of random people drive those rental cars, it's like the equivalent of saying it had a ton of "owners" so to speak. And rental companies do the bare minimum when it comes to maintenance...they only take the car in for maintenance when the dash has a service light on.


1

I would pass simply because you just don’t know how it was driven and maintained.  Yeah it is 20,000-24,000 miles but those could have been “hard” miles.  In any event, I would keep looking.


1

Generally it is not a good idea to buy a former rental car as rental cars tend to live a hard life and the people who rent them tend to abuse them.


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