Would you buy an ex rental Yaris?

[hobojon]

I see that Enterprise and Hertz sells their old rental cars. They both have 2007 and 2008 Yais rental cars for sale. Would you consider buying an ex-rental car?

[KCALB SIRAY]

what's the milage on both? What's the price?

[at3GG]

NO! As immature as it sounds, I know full well what I have treated rentals like. Its not worth it. Its not like buying a normal pre-owned car, where people had some reason to treat it decently. I would really look elsewhere, it would be very worth the extra 1-2k IMO.

[PreciousPups4U]

My dad used to buy former rentals and never had any problems. He felt from a rental company he could be sure the car had been properly maintained. I would stay aways from any with very high miles though just to protect your value.

[hobojon]

There are many Yaris cars to choose from, especially through Enterprise. Most have under 20K miles. You can look at them on their website. I'm looking for a 5 dr lb. All I've seen for sale as far as rentals go are the 3 dr LB.

[PreciousPups4U]

The 5 doors did not exist here until 2009, which means they have not been out for very long. I doubt they have rotated any out of the fleet yet.

[hobojon]

I just watched some youtube vids of people trying to thrash rented yaris's. I can see your point. It seems Enterprise still wants top dollar for their cars anyway. I imagine being branded as a rental if not on the title then in the carfax report may kill the resale value some down the road as well.

[Thirty-Nine]

Beaverton Toyota (here in the Portland area) does a lot of rentals. They have several Yaris S sedans for around $14,000 list. Since they're rentals they're all automatics, and they all have the power package.

However, people are typically pretty hard on rentals, but if the mileage isn't too high, I probably wouldn't have a problem.

[UTVitz]

Despite how some people my drive a rental car, they are usually not in the car for more than a few days. And more people than not drive a rental with caution due to being in an unfamiliar car and maybe not knowing for sure where they are headed to. Most important is that the car was cleaned regularly and the maintenance and any repairs were taken care of. If you like the car and way it looks and drives it can be the best value on the market-and they almost always have a lot of the manufacturers warranty left.

[MadMax]

Actually, the first Yaris I drove was a rental sedan in Tampa. It is what convinced me to buy one myself (but a HB!). Whereas some people will abuse any rental car they get, I think the majority treat them alright; and the ones more likely to be abused are the more performance cars than the subcompacts.

Also, if I am not mistaken, the rental sales do come with a warranty; so you have some protection. But from my experience the rental sales I have seen haven't been that great of deals, and you can probably find something better if you scan the personal sales sections of the auto classifieds or Craigslist...

Cheers! M2

[supmet]

Originally Posted by UTVitz

Most important is that the car was cleaned regularly and the maintenance and any repairs were taken care of.

It's 36 dollars a day to get an economy car. After paying for the car and labor and all that jazz, that leaves about 2 dollars a day for maintenance.

Do you REALLY think, you can fix 24 hours of donuts and burnouts with 2 dollars? or even the full 36 dollars?

My girlfriends less than smart brother bought a rental truck. Transmission blew in less than 5k miles.

[IllusionX]

I've always seen very bad maintenance on rental cars. And i believe they do check their things, and sell the car before they need any major maintenance. I've dealt (and still do) with Discounts for the company's rental vans. They hardly care at all on the oil change.
Chevrolet Uplanders have automatic detection for when oil change is required. I often have to reset it (so it stops annoying me about oil change) and continue driving it until they judge it needs some maintenance.

I tend to drive normally (i have light foot) with rental cars, but i know it's a rental, so i do not always take care of it. But the majority (~60%) of the people i see on the road (with rental cars or not) have very heavy foot, and i'm never able to keep up unless i rev my yaris past 3krpm. :(

[hobojon]

My buddies rented a car in FL after we finished bootcamp. After a night of drinking, one of them threw up all over the dash and it ran down the defroster ducts and through the speaker grilles. The driver hit the highway taking it back to the airport and I remember they left the car in low (it was an automatic) and just kept it floored until it started to overheat. I still remember what the engine sounded like as it was redlined bouncing off the rev limiter going down the highway for about 15 minutes. That was 20 years ago. I don't remember what kind of car it was, I just remember it was a compact car.

[nemelek]

My wife has gotten pissed at me for hitting speed bumps at 30-40 mph while in a rental.

[LtNoogie]

I've never abused a rental because I need it to take me from points A to B while I don't have my own car. I'm sure that some people do abuse them but I do not.

For that matter, how do you whether any used Yaris has been abused? Would you buy a used Yaris from anyone on YW that has modded it? We keep reading about driving WOT, people to drive theirs at the track, etc. etc. A little Fabreeze and ArmorAll can divert attention from what happened with the accelerator and brake pedals.

[firemachine69]

Unless it was for a really steep discount, I wouldn't.

[dg4rez]

I valet park cars for a living here in vegas, at a major casino, so I drive plenty of rental cars (over 100 a day easy) and unless they are selling them for like 5k or less, noooo..ooooo way! trust me, the people that drive them beat them up, and us valets do to. You are getting the most abused cars ever.

[BLAZINBLUEVITZ]

Originally Posted by dg4rez

You are getting the most abused cars ever.