I should start this off by saying I've never bought a car in my life. I had the same early 90s Volvo I inherited from my parents for almost 10 years until my recent move to Canada that required me to sell it because it was too much hassle to import it. So no idea what I'm doing.
Since I now live in an apartment where working on cars is strictly prohibited, I need to find something that's going to be well within my price range of about 13k CAD out the door that will be reliable enough that it won't need any major maintenance done until a few years later when I hopefully move somewhere with a garage so I can do it myself.
I'm looking at getting a 2013 Ford Fusion SE.
I have a few concerns, that I'm not entirely sure what to make of:
There seem to be a large number of recalls on this year model, however, the Carfax report doesn't address this at all, and more concerningly shows no service performed by a Ford dealership, which I assume is the only way the recalls could be corrected. Putting the VIN into the recalls page on Ford's website only shows a single result.
The fact that there's very little information on the recalls is concerning to me.
In addition, the Carfax report shows that the car was a rental for the first 15k km of its life. While this is a pretty short amount of time, I have always heard it's unwise to buy a used rental.
Aside from that, this is one of the few cars that's within my price range, accident free, and still new enough to likely have some life in it without major maintenance being needed any time soon.
Should I give this a shot, or avoid it like the plague?
Hello! I would avoid it. Rental cars are pretty much used hard from day 1. It doesn't take long for a couple of bad drivers to cause premature wear to the suspension, brakes, etc. Also, many rental companies work with body shops to get accident repairs completed "off the books", meaning they never show up on the history report. This keeps their insurance premiums low.
Also keep in mind that Ford no longer sells the Fusion, so dealer support may be hard to come by in the event of problems. You are correct that a dealer would be the place to repair recalls as only official dealerships can be reimbursed by Ford for the parts they use for warranty repairs.
My personal advice? Keep looking. You don't want to risk your hard earned money on any vehicle that ever spent part of its life as a rental unless you absolutely have to. And if that is the case, DEFINITELY get it checked out by an ASE Certified mechanic before purchase.
