Would you ever buy a rental car?

GIVEN that it only has 3,000 miles and it's the current years' model.
I know people have said that people treat rental cars like crap but the price on this car is about $7,000 less than if i were to buy it at the dealers.

Carfax is clean too:
http://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistory/p/Report.cfx?partner=EBZ_0&vin=1ZVBP8EMXB5126688

Thanks

[Edited on November 22, 2010 at 2:39 PM. Reason : carfax]

11/22/2010 2:31:54 PM

no

11/22/2010 2:44:41 PM

any reasons why?

11/22/2010 2:47:50 PM

Some cars are more of a safe bet than others.

My mom drives an ex-rental camry, and it was in spotless condition when she got it, and been swiss-watch reliable in the last five years.

This, however, is a Mustang. People that are likely to pay rent it, are more likely to beat it than a camry. On a good note, it has only been a rental for a couple of months so maybe not much damage done.

11/22/2010 2:50:24 PM

I'd be highly skeptical about why a rental company would buy a car, rent it for less than three months, and sell it at an auction. Sounds fishy to me.

11/22/2010 2:56:57 PM

3 months of rentals .... Sometimes carfax takes longerthan 3 months to show an accident.

11/22/2010 3:23:57 PM

Pictures on their site looks like no accidents, but it does sound "too good to be true"
They been posting 3 ads a day on CL

11/22/2010 3:31:23 PM

Take it for a test drive, and have a good mechanic check it out. It does sound odd, but who knows, maybe they are closing up shop somewhere and it's cheaper to just liquidate them than move them.

11/22/2010 3:49:26 PM

I bought and drove a Hertz car for a few years. no problems, interior was immaculate, body was good except for a few minor scratches, came with complete maintenance records and I got a pretty decent deal.

11/22/2010 4:53:44 PM

Does it come with a warranty? If yes, and its not some cruddy 60-day rubbish, I'd go for it.

11/22/2010 4:58:02 PM

A subaru?

no

11/22/2010 6:15:18 PM

Not unless it comes with a good warranty. I've driven many rental cars, I know what happens to them. 3000 rental car miles equals at least 30,000 regular miles.

11/22/2010 6:46:22 PM

so i called the dude, he said it wasn't a rental but some guy traded it in at an audi dealership, but doesn't know why it was listed as a "fleet" car.
He said it'll be gone in about a week.
Only if i had the Money right now..

11/22/2010 7:34:46 PM

don't fall for that "it will be gone in a week" bullshit, its the oldest salesman trick in the book.

11/22/2010 9:01:42 PM

you should get it, it'll probably be gone in a week

11/22/2010 9:09:10 PM

Better hurry up...All the other customers are waiting in line with cash for when they open at 9:00 in the morning. If you're lucky you'll get to buy it though, lol

Ok, so let's pretend it wasn't a rental car.
Then we get to the "it was traded in at an Audi dealership" line.
Which is lie #2 because the Carfax says it was sold at an auction.

The dude is lying to you. I can just about guarantee that if he's lying about these things and selling it for $7k less than any other dealers it is to cover up something far worse than just having been a rental car. Whoever buys that car is the sucker of the year for that dealership. You should go kick that dude in the nuts for the betterment of society.

Do you really think it's a good deal if they can't sell it to a local customer after posting 3 ads a day and listing it for $7k less than it's worth? That car would be gone in 1-2 business days if it was legit. More than likely it would be gone in hours rather than days.

There is a slight chance that Carfax and your gut instincts are wrong, but the burden of proof is on the seller to prove otherwise. Listen to your gut...You said yourself it sounded too good to be true. It is.

[Edited on November 22, 2010 at 9:22 PM. Reason : s]

11/22/2010 9:14:30 PM

if it's a mustang at an audi dealership it probably will be gone in a week. they'll send that shit to the auction.

11/22/2010 10:03:38 PM

I hate it when they get my hopes up!

Here's the link to it:
http://miami.craigslist.org/pbc/ctd/2072270799.html

one detail i find that is missing is the side pony badge which is really weird

11/22/2010 10:29:31 PM

Those badges are like $25 each. I'm sure the repairs are quality if someone was trying to save $50 on a practically brand new car.

11/22/2010 10:53:42 PM

My 4runner was a rental when I bought it 5.5 years ago. nothing but scheduled maintenance for the last 100k miles that i've put on it.

I did buy an extended warranty just in case, but didn't have to use it. Saved about 5k from the same year and trim level from anywhere else at the time.

11/22/2010 11:30:25 PM

The car being listed as fleet doesn't necessarily mean anything troubling. My folks' 97 Crown Vic was listed as having been a fleet car when they bought it back in the early part of this decade but it only had 33K miles on it at 5+ years old. Could have been corporate ownership (i.e. corporate/govt motor pool or a company car), could have been the personal car of someone who also owned vehicles for their business, could have been a courtesy car for a dealer/shop, any number of options.

This particular situation sounds fishy as hell though. A car that far under blue book that hasn't gotten snapped up immediately has to have some major issues. If you go look at it be extremely thorough and don't buy without having a mechanic look it over.

11/23/2010 8:47:34 AM

Quote :

"I bought and drove a Hertz car for a few years. no problems, interior was immaculate, body was good except for a few minor scratches, came with complete maintenance records and I got a pretty decent deal."

Same story for me and my Sentra. It's a 2003, I bought it in 2004 and 6 years later it's still going strong.

11/23/2010 11:27:24 AM

Quote :

"Those badges are like $25 each. I'm sure the repairs are quality if someone was trying to save $50 on a practically brand new car."

They probably just debadged it on purpose. I've known a couple of people that took all the stick-on badges off of their vehicles to clean up the sides and back.

11/23/2010 3:46:31 PM

Take it to a body shop to look at.

Ask the car rental place to print you out a history report.

11/23/2010 4:04:23 PM

you should have stopped looking as soon as you saw that it's a convertible which my 3yo daughter calls a "woman car".

11/23/2010 9:14:25 PM