2017 car bought in July 2020

Rental cars are replaced usually 6-12 months

Maybe the car is an employee company car.

I have had 2 ex-rentals both did 90K having bought with a few thousand on the clock - both were reliable after 1 warranty claim very early on.

I "bought" a 10-month old 2015 Hyundai i30 for my daughter-in-law from the Hyundai approved car scheme - the dealer had bid for it unseen based on a detailed description - I was there to see it being unloaded from the transporter and it did have just the 3 bodywork blemishes in the description, which the dealer had already said would be rectified before sale - I knew full well that it would be either an ex-rental or ex-management* - since then the car has be exemplary with no faults so just routine servicing.

*ex-management includes any car provided by a car manufacture, not just to their managers - specifically it includes pool cars, press demonstrators and celebrity "grace-and-favour" cars

Some rental companies do long term leases just like other lease companies. In which case it is just a regular ex fleet car.

There is no value difference so can't see you could prove any loss so haven't got much to claim IMO.

I think bargains can be had if chosen wisely. Back in 1994 I made a major 'investment' (£13,000) in a well appointed ex-rental Passat 2.0GL auto estate to replace our old Passat GL5. It was less than a year old with 4,500 miles. (Actually, thick carpets and velour upholstery was perhaps not so wise for many years of child and teenager use). The sort of people who rented this type of car probably drove carefully, and auto transmission protects from ham hand and footedness. It worked hard and well for us till 2004 and 242,000 miles (investment cost 5.5p per mile) when we downsized to a Focus estate.

In my limited experience, cars (lease, rental, 'management', whatever they may be called) are withdrawn about the time the first service falls due. The best ones reappear on franchise dealer's forecourts, having been serviced for resale. You haven't told us the miles on this car, but 3 years seems a long time for a first service, tho I suppose if it is 12K or even 20K, that may not invalidate the maker's warranty.

My current car was ex-rental at 8 months old and 13K on the clock. It's been one of the most reliable cars I have owned, so you need to have a reason to presume that it will be bad news.

Sorry, 17k miles. First service at 10k by the rental company, second service pre-sale at teh dealer.

If the renter has covered the miles too quickly its not uncommon for it to go into storage for several months after defleet, helps keep values steady.

Thanks everyone

I've had a look at this in a bit more detail, and particularly the Europcar letter. The car was new in September 2017. The Europcar service was carried out in July 2018 at almost 11k miles. That level of use would support the suspicion that it was a rental. It then had only another 6k miles put on it in the following 2 years. The dealer has another identical i30 on the forecourt now with a registration number almost the same, so it looks like ours is from a batch of rental cars bought back.

The other irritating (but not a significant issue) is that the car smells strongly of cigarette smoke now that the valeting products have dissipated.

Bought a Hyundai i10 ex rental car - had done 6,000 miles when I bought it when it was 9 months old. It's no 7.5 years old and done 130,000 miles and not missed a beat.

As Fullchat says, detaikls of previous keepers aren't disclosed any longer, for data protection purposes. This can be to your advantage when you come to sell the car: no-one will know.

Does that also apply to ex police cars i wonder, traditionally worth a fraction of equivalent private or company owned cars.

I think the issue here is who serviced the car and is the servicing up to Hyundai's requirements re warranty.

As Fullchat says, detaikls of previous keepers aren't disclosed any longer, for data protection purposes.

Can anyone give a date for when this change happened ? Not many years ago I got a full history from DVLA for a J-reg 205. I tried again fairly recently and was told my reason for asking had to have a legal basis.

And presumably any car sold with its V5 will show a registered keeper. Some traders manage to 'lose' those from habit.