Buying year old Rent a Prius?l

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

There is a member here who purchased a rental Prius, not sure how he's doing with it, maybe he'll see this post and comment.

Personally, I would not want a rental just because of the condition of some of the rental cars I've had recently. Seems they have all been abused! Not sure what type of refurbishment might be accomplished before they are put up for sale, but judging from the last few rentals I've had, I would not take a chance on one. Pleanty of pre-loved Prii out there to choose from to have to resort to one that may have been abused...

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

Cash is a great way to buy a car and sets you up for the future. Assuming that prices remain the same, $20K is close to the price for a new package II Prius, although you'll also need to anticipate sales tax and insurance. If you are patient and can get by with your current transportation, perhaps you can reward yourself with a new Prius by saving for half a year longer.

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

Unless you're driving a gas hog lots of miles waiting is better.

Keep the faith brother. I paid cash for both of our cars. We're in the black and it feels good.

I'm already saving to replace our cars in 2018 and 2019. I'm hoping that when the time comes it'll be optional but that the new cars available will be so much more efficient it'll be worth it.

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

Buying used almost always makes more financial sense than buying new.
However (comma!) I would never even consider buying a former rental unit, especially if I were planning to keep the car for a long period of time.
Nothing handles like a rental car!
You can hit potholes at any speed without regard to bending alloy rims, and park the car anywhere you want to without sweating runaway grocery carts or 4x4 doors opening on your car (been there...) You can flop large suitcases atop the roof without considering paint scratches, and ford impossibly deep water obsticles without worrying about engine damage (done that...) and if you're fortunate enough to get a brand new rental car, with 10 miles on the odometer, you can drive it like you stole it without worrying about those silly break-in restraints that are in the owner's manual (got that T-shirt... )

True story:
My G3 is a fleet unit. Corporate fleet, not maritime fleet...
The wrench swingers called me up one day when my car was 6,000 miles old and informed me that it was time to change the oil in my car. They took the car and changed the oil (without rotating the tires btw...)
I called the service manager and asked if they knew about Toyota's oil change intervals, etc...
THEY informed me that this was only the second Prius that they had ever worked on, BUT my company has service guidelines that state you have to use this type of oil, and change it every 5,000 miles---regardless of vehicle type. They use the same oil, from the same 55-gallon drum, that they use for our service trucks!! (I want to say that it's 20W50, but I'm not sure... )
I had to fire off some urgent, "Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot" messages to the folks in the head-shed to get our units back-hauled and the right oil (maybe, maybe not... ) put into our "dainty little fereign cars."
I was (maybe) lucky...my Prius only had about 250 miles with the wrong oil in it.... My supervisor drove his for a month that way!!!
That's just one small gezample of why I would never consider buying a Prius used, except from maybe an owner that has all maintenance paperwork...a solid CARFAX history, and an independent inspection.
By the time you do all that.......you might as well buy a new one.

Caveat: this is for the G3, in 2011...a few years from now, you can probably get a clean, pampered, one-owner G3 considerably cheaper than a new PHV, G4, or whatever is the "new" best hybrid hapens to be at that time. Maybe....
I personally buy my cars new. I pay a few thou more to eliminate that one word... "maybe".
Izat smart?
I do not know.... Maybe!

Get a used rental???

No way, man!!!

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

Most rentals have option package I (meaning no cruise, SKS etc) - very useful options... Also, as pointed out, *few* rental fleets do good maintenance - and you can *bet* they did not use 0w20 / 0w30 real synthetic oil.......

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

I would never buy a rental. There are too many people who just don't give a damn and are relay hard on rentals. I've known too many people who have taken the cars racing both on and off-road and even installed temporary nitrous systems just to mess with people's heads at a stop light. A Prius would be an obvious target for such abuse by knucklehead kids who want to make a statement against environmentalists. *shrug*

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

I bought a fleet vehicle once and would do it again. Most people who've actually bought them do fine, despite some anecdotes here and there about people trashing them. I would definitely want a healthy reduction in cost, though; e.g. if it's $20k open market then I'd want to pay no more than $18,500 for the same if it had been a rental. But really is it worth $1500 less? Almost certainly not. MOST people rent cars on business or other trips and do not trash cars, so virtually all miles are exactly the same as if you had driven them (unless you trash cars).

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

Depends on The Rental Fleet.
I worked in Rental Cars for a year, and we had Corporate fleet and Private fleet.

The Corp Vehicles were Generally a Package 4 (the few we had) and the 1 Private fleet was a package 5. Corp are usually a Lease from Toyota for So many years or miles. at or around that time they get turned back. Private Fleet are purchased by that location, and they can rack up as many miles as they want because they own them.

I know they are all to be well maintained because they get less at turn back for them. and sometimes saddled with large fees (and have to send them to auction or something)

Personally I would buy a well taken care of rental gas car over a hybrid car. the electronics and the fact that i had to educate almost every renter i gave the prius out to on how to drive it keep me Leary.

I would give the car a really good look over for interior damage/dirt. as well as check the paint on the back bumper. They are always scuffed up from peoples luggage.

I also loved how peoples back seats would be all dirty from dragging their suitcases through the salt/snow (which would then melt) and leave dirt/salt on the seat. and of course this would be MY FAULT for not giving them a clean car, even though it was clean until you tossed your luggage back there.


That is all.

Best of Luck!

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

I use to work at Enterprise Rent A Car and I would say.. NO way for buying rental vehicles.

1. Everyone beats on them
2. Who cares about what you run over, potholes, pits, off road.. whatever
3. Sometimes smelly smoke, or some disturbing odor
4. Stains, cigerette burns
5. Scratches, Dings, Dents
6. 100+ people using the car before you actually do.

But other than that, I know they do take care of the cars with 3-5k oil changes.

But aren't prius bought from rental companys the prius 1 with no options?

I would rather buy from a 1-2 owner person and backed of course with carfax!

Sometimes even I find that the price difference between a new and used is like 3-4k.. I would rather talk the dealer down to get a new one. Atleast you'd be more happy about it

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

The people that abuse rental cars are not typically interested in renting a Prius
So although in general I agree with the sentiment to avoid buying rentals, the Prius I think is an exception to the rule.

20k for a rental which is almost certainly base ? Way overpriced. If you keep track of when the rental agencies dump their year old cars on to the secondary market you can pick one up at auction through an agent for 15 -16k for the car, and another 500-1000 to the agent.

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

If you are going to keep your car for a long time (over 5yrs), then I think you would be better advised to buy a new one. That way YOU get to determine how it's maintained. No 20W30, whatever oil used, giant pot holes, etc. BTW, I have rented 3 2010 / 2011 Priuses (sp?) recently from my local Toyota dealers Rent - a - Car division, and found all but the first one to be cleaner than most any other rentals I have had in the past. But I agree with other posters that buying from the regular rental companies may get you an abused car.

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

pfft.

I want 20 years out of my cars. Less than 15 is a lemon in my book. My '04 Prius is still a baby; my Subaru exits lemon risk this year and heads into the golden years

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

Agreed. I'm sure there are cases where somebody buys a rental vehicle and has no issues, but the odds are very much against it.

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

I bought a new 2011 after testing out a used 2010 with 27,000 miles on it. The difference in price was only $2000. The blue book value is increasing every month on used gas sippers.

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

Mine was exactly the same case when I bought it - one year old rental car with some 38000 miles on it. It was in top-notch condition, fully loaded "executive" version with nav, leather, smart key etc. The dealer offered a bargain price - they gave me 40% discount from the price of a new one, so I could not resist - I could never afford a car like that if it was new, and this one looked almost like new and at almost half the price of new .

Maybe I was lucky, but I never regretted the decision - in two years of ownership, the only thing I had to "repair" was to change a 50 cent bulb in the rear left lamp . Otherwise, it runs strong and like new. It was the best acquisition of my life (talking about cars, of course ).

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

So, to sum up, would I do it again or recommend others to do it? Depends - if the car looks great and the price is good, I would definitely go for it and do it.

But again, I have to stress that in my case, the car looked excellent, only very minor visible wear and tear, no smoke or other odors whatsoever, it had a proven record of regular maintenance at the dealership where I bought it (they showed me their records about the car in their database), was Toyota certified, and the discount from the price of a new one was 40% - after only one year - which I still consider a bargain.

 

Re: Buying year old Renta Prius?l

I have never, ever been deliberately hard on a rental car. I just drive it as normal. I suppose a lot do but just as many don't. If the rental car you're looking at buying looks good, no dings or dents etc and the interior is nice then it might have had an easy life. You will probably get a gut feeling for it.

Equally, if you're keeping the car a long time you might want to wait that little longer and get yourself a new one. I know you lose money on new but there's nothing nicer than a brand spanker sat on your driveway looking good.