|
I have rented about a score of cars, in Europe and the USA, and have never had one with more than 13,000 miles on the clock. Only one showed signs of abuse and most were in new condition. How come they are sold off so soon?
|
Sell them before some fall apart - sell them before they have to spend money @ service - guaranteed buy back price from Ford/Kia or whoever @ a specified mileage.
I bought an ex-rental with 2000 miles on clock and went to trading stds about it as I had been misled on its origins.
Copy of Mazda invoice to the Leasing agent saw RRP of £22K reduced to £11K+VAT.
Auctioned the dealer bought for £12K+VAT and I bought for £15.8K inc VAT.
So day rental company made a profit on re-sale after getting such a heavy discount upfront.
|
The manufacturers insist on it as part of the deal, rental company gets a huge discount, manufacturer buys it back for their "approved used" scheme and sell it on as Ford Direct or Network Q etc. It keeps the factories going, without it they'd produce far fewer cars.
That's also how they keep their showrooms stocked with 6 - 12 month old used cars, not many other people/companies actually change their cars that quickly. It often amazed me that some people bought the "ex-management" line when looking at cars I was selling, how many cars do they think that the managers can drive?! Don't get me wrong, some of them really were owned by Ford and leased out to their managers, but many were rental and it was all but impossible to tell the difference, even for me.
It wouldn't put me off buying one mind as they're all pretty much fine.
|
|
|
|
Happened to me too. Trading standards waste of space, councils could save ££££'s in these times doing away with them. Trader happy to sit on my money while it went to court, and would probably refunded the day before hearing. Managed to get them to convert into a new car. Still leaves a bitter taste.
|
|
|
|
I just hired one on Madiera. It had done 128,000km. There were so many dents on it that the guy at the desk just put a large cross over the whole plan of car damage and said "you no worry"
It had a buckled wheel, the washers were full but didnt work, no aerial, the rear wiper was missing.
It was quite a relief driving a hir car abroad, where you didnt have to worry about any slight stone chip or parking graze you gave it.
|
|
One of the big rental companies used to have their own dealership in London and they could sell cars at 9mths or so for more than they paid for them.
|
|
|
I just hired one on Madiera.
I hired one on Santa Maria in the Azores this summer. Eight years old (Portuguese cars have the year on the plate). The mileage wasn't very high as it couldn't go very far, but it was certainly a bit dog-eared. At the end of the hire 'just park it at the airport with the keys in the ignition'.
|
I had two hire cars last year from Europcar, both had stickers by the odometer stating, "This car MUST NOT exceed 14000 miles, contact head office for a replacement in good time".
|
|
|
|
|
I had about a year in hire cars when the company I was working for were re-doing their company car policy and had a hold on new purchases.
I was covering between 1-2k every week, so Vauxhall hire would change the car every 4-5 weeks on average. This seemed to coincide with them getting new batches of Vectra's in, so I would normally get a call asking me what colour I wanted this month! Got quite friendly with the rental manager, as a result and now she is SWMBO and we have a couple of kids!
Only downer was that without fail I would end up with a new windscreen within the first week! Have never had to have a replacement screen since, so not sure why I always used to get chips and cracks in the new cars screens!
|
|
|
:no_upscale():format(webp)/https://cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/fc8d5aaa396b844550aafd1dd5657c52/d6773cab48c576b027b0654146b4cfa0.jpg)
:no_upscale():format(webp)/https://cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/67291e97457e4516706f50547aa77fdc/20caa8d113fe311330ebefb8dea45b14.jpg)
:no_upscale():format(webp)/https://cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/3ed63eff6048f7197b1d37de9aa1d02f/f7cf41d30f691f5bdf89cdc8bfbe08b6.jpg)
![2023 BMW 1 Series 118i [136] M Sport 5dr [Live Cockpit Professional]](https://img.common.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/unsafe/trim/90x60/smart/filters:quality(70):no_upscale():format(webp)/https://cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/f9d7c7180692796d5dc5710722cf3d37/65938069c93282c11daf15feca66da59.jpg)
