[timeshifter]

We've got our eyes on a 98 Taurus SE with 76,000 miles. Duratec, dark blue exterior with leather interior, good tires, body looks good, etc.

According to carfax it spent it's first 18,000 miles as a rental vehicle. Apparently owned and driven as a private owner car since then -- a total of two owners.

In previous threads everyone has advised not to buy a car that was a rental (or maybe fleet too). Why is that? I thought rentals are well maintained, etc, although probably not carefully driven.

So, what do you think?

P.S. - here's the carfax detail:

QUOTE

Not Reported      NICB
Vehicle manufactured and shipped to original
dealer

 
04/17/1998      Colorado
Motor Vehicle Dept.
Aspen, CO
Registered as
rental vehicle
(major car rental company)

 
04/23/1998  15  Colorado
Motor Vehicle Dept.
Aspen, CO
Title #57E159915
Title or registration issued
First owner reported

 
06/24/1999  18,101  Auto Auction
Sold at auction
in Mountain Region
Listed as
a manufacturer vehicle

 
06/29/1999      Dealer Inventory
Louisville, KY
Vehicle offered for sale

 
06/30/1999  18,133  Dealer Inventory
Louisville, KY
Offered for sale
at dealership

 
09/15/1999  18,888  Dealer Inventory
Louisville, KY
Vehicle offered for sale

 
11/23/1999  19,013  Kentucky
Motor Vehicle Dept.
Cincinnati, OH
Title #993270560849
Title or registration issued
New owner reported

 
01/08/2004  76,029  Auto Auction
Sold at auction
in Southeast Region
Listed as
a fleet vehicle

 
01/08/2004      Auto Auction
Sold at auction
in Southeast Region
Listed as
a fleet vehicle

 
01/19/2004      Dealer Inventory
Louisville, KY
Vehicle offered for sale

 
01/20/2004  76,138  Dealer Inventory
Louisville, KY
Vehicle offered for sale[/b]

 

[Twilight]

If you get it checked out, it should be okay. Chances are the last two owners suffered the blunt of the problems as an ex-rental.

 

[Guest]

Originally posted by timeshifter@Feb 6 2004, 07:55 PM
In previous threads everyone has advised not to buy a car that was a rental (or maybe fleet too). Why is that? I thought rentals are well maintained, etc, although probably not carefully driven.

Yeah, its definitly the driven part. You can imagine what people do when they have a car that isn't theirs or anyone they know. For example, not slowing down for bumps, its easy to get lazy when the car isn't yours. One thing you can be sure is that they are well maintained, but I did have a focus once where the brakes were really shot, that my foot when get a massage anytime I had to use the brakes. But you may have better luck with tauruses since they are a premium rental, so it is more likely someone more responsible would rent one. I'm sure you ahve heard stores from other people about the abuse on rentals.

My cousin had a grand marquis, his friends drove that thing on the beach, through the water, etc. He also had a geo metro once and one of this friends who didn't know how to drive, tried to drive it and hit another car. There was hardly any damage on the other car, but the geo's bumper fell off.

 

[Damon]

Originally posted by XLSuruaT+Feb 7 2004, 12:05 AM-->QUOTE (XLSuruaT @ Feb 7 2004, 12:05 AM)

<!--QuoteBegin-timeshifter

@Feb 6 2004, 07:55 PM
In previous threads everyone has advised not to buy a car that was a rental (or maybe fleet too).  Why is that?  I thought rentals are well maintained, etc, although probably not carefully driven.

Yeah, its definitly the driven part. You can imagine what people do when they have a car that isn't theirs or anyone they know. For example, not slowing down for bumps, its easy to get lazy when the car isn't yours. One thing you can be sure is that they are well maintained, but I did have a focus once where the brakes were really shot, that my foot when get a massage anytime I had to use the brakes. But you may have better luck with tauruses since they are a premium rental, so it is more likely someone more responsible would rent one. I'm sure you ahve heard stores from other people about the abuse on rentals.

My cousin had a grand marquis, his friends drove that thing on the beach, through the water, etc. He also had a geo metro once and one of this friends who didn't know how to drive, tried to drive it and hit another car. There was hardly any damage on the other car, but the geo's bumper fell off.

[/b]

Well since I used to work for a rental company (Enterprise), I can tell you that people do tend to beat the crap out of rentals. Fortunately, its usually the cheaper ones that get beat up on, and believe it or not, the taurus is classified as a full size car, which makes it kinda pricey to rent. Therefore, you dont get the cheap morons who rent the escorts and pound the crap out of them.

I would get it checked out, and if it checks out, go for it.

As for others looking to get rentals, dont buy anything low end, cause those are the ones that are driven the hardest and rented out the most to people who dont care.

-Damon

PS - Now rentals get their oil changed every 6000 miles, which is not good enough if you ask me. Also, its not uncommon to see some cars with 10,000 or even 15,000 miles since their last oil changes. I have seen it before. The individual branch managers would rather put out as many cars as possible with the least amount on the lot so their "numbers" look better, rather than have a car sit at jiffy lube for a while.

 

[detroit_raver]

well... 1 person owned my 97 before we bought it. so we thought. at 54,000 miles we had to get the tranny rebuilt. drive shaft broke in half. than i got a carfax report and learned that my car was a rental car before the last owner had it. it was a rental for about 20,000 miles.

 

[timeshifter]

How much $ did that set you back?

 

[rocketfast321]

my grand am was a rental. No mojor problems. Only the common grand am problems that brake, like the power windows, bad brakes

 

[detroit_raver]

Originally posted by timeshifter@Feb 6 2004, 11:43 PM
How much $ did that set you back?

$1900 for a rebuild. still haven't payed it off. and i think the tranny is gonna go again any day. its starting to slip a little bit.

 

[2FST4U2C]

Originally posted by detroit_raver@Feb 6 2004, 11:39 PM
well... 1 person owned my 97 before we bought it. so we thought. at 54,000 miles we had to get the tranny rebuilt. drive shaft broke in half. than i got a carfax report and learned that my car was a rental car before the last owner had it. it was a rental for about 20,000 miles.

Our car was also an ex-fleet car. At around 106k miles the pump shaft cracked where the two pieces were supposed to be welded together and boom no more forward motion. At first my father wasn't sure exactly what happened but I think that the transmission was going to need to be rebuilt. If we had immediately turned the car off the transmission might not have gotten any worse than the initial damage. Alas it was not to be since it had failed in February of 2003, about one year ago, and the motor had to be kept running because it was far too cold to just sit in the car without heat. There was apparently a lot of damage to it once it was torn down for the rebuild. It had cost us $1680 iirc to fix our car. Unfortunately my father only saved the pump shaft from the pile of replaced transmission parts, otherwise I would have had more information on what happened to our transmission. What I felt was strange was that the car had been recently paid off, and my dad had just received partial payment for a project that he was working on.

 

[afi292]

my girl friend bought a rental suburu legacy....and she got it with 8k miles on it..and the dealer said the oil was changed...she waited 3k miles after that and it turns out that the car actually never had its oil changed..lucky the thing didnt start on fire!

 

[jj57]

If it was a rental or fleet car, don't even consider it. I hate to say it, but

Rental Car=PARTY CAR

I had the Sable in the shop twice so far and they gave me an 04 Sable Loaner (Vulcan)... no big deal, and then a 04 Grand Marquis Loaner.... There is nothing like loading up the torque converter with a few thousand RPM's and taking your foot off the brake while continuing to push the gas to the floor!!! Just make sure the traction control is off or it's all for nothing

So yea, I go to BRAKE it in

Or should I say "Break" it in!!!!

 

[dant98]

My dad has a '97 that was a rental I think. It may have been a fleet car. Either way, it's still running strong. No problems, just regular maintinence for the most part.

-Dan

 

[firespirit]

I have my '97.. She was a rental car. I forgot for how long though.. My mom was it's first real owner. We have had no problems dealing with that. Just my fault

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[biteableniles]

*fleet car here.* No problems that would be caused by fleet usage (30k miles, now ~117k)

Makes me wonder what kinda fleet buys cars like mine <_< JBL sound, sunroof, leather...I wanna work there!

 

[kjw86ca]

Originally posted by biteableniles@Feb 7 2004, 12:25 PM
*fleet car here.* No problems that would be caused by fleet usage (30k miles, now ~117k)

Makes me wonder what kinda fleet buys cars like mine <_< JBL sound, sunroof, leather...I wanna work there!

My 2000 was a fleet vehicle and it was an SEL. Had the Duratec, leather, cd, adjustable pedals, t/c...and all that. I wanna work there, too. Lol.

 

[LineNoise]

I don't know what mine was. But it was something the ppl beat the hell out of because I only paid 9g's for it.

I've had 2 rentals, a nissan sentra, you can really make the tires spin in that car. and a dodge stratus. I beat the hell out of that car for about a month. I did whatever the hell I could to it that I could think of.


Rental = Not yours = beat it! (or, drive it like you stole it)

 

[firespirit]

Originally posted by LineNoise@Feb 7 2004, 07:43 PM
drive it like you stole it

DONT say the Dodge lingo in this forum!!!

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[Guest]

I had a Lancer rental while my bull was getting fixed a few weeks ago after I slid into the curb <_< and I must say, that Lancer had an incredible emergency brake.

I broke it in

 

[jj57]

RENTAL RULES:

-Turn off the traction control
-Place car in lowest gear
-Hold brake
-Load up Torque Converter with a Few thousand RPM's
-In one motion release the brake and floor it!!

Those are the rental rules!!!