Buy a Prius from a Rental Company?

need more info. year, package? you should get pricing from dealers and/or elsewhere to compare. not sure i would trust a rental car. batteries are under a long warranty and should last 1-200,000 miles barring a major defect. how much more to go new? good luck!

 

One of my coworkers had a good experience buying a minivan from a well known big national chain rental company. His theory was that the rental company keeps the car in good shape to avoid law suits from customers. If I were to buy from such a rental company I would still do all the due diligence just as buying any used car.

 

It's a base, a rental, nearly 3 years old, and almost out of warranty. Given the discount you can get off a new model Prius right now (around $1000 off a base), I don't think that's a good deal at all on the previous model. Buy a new one.

 

Check kelly blue book, you'll be in for a surprise. www.kbb.com

 

Assuming excellent condition, per kbb.com:

Suggested retail = $18.9K
Private party value = $16.5K
Trade in value = $14.5K

So I would say $18K is not a wonderful deal considering this is a rental and that fact will accompany the car's VIN whenever a CARFAX is run.

 

$18,000 seems pricey for a rental car. I bought a 2008 rental with 55,000 km for $18,000 and we pay a lot more for our cars in Canada than you do in the U.S.
I have a friend who owns a used car lot and he found it for me. One of the other taxi owners found a 2005 with only 55,000 km for $12,000 last week.

 

I don't see why you would want to avoid a rental company.
They have a vested interest in keeping their cars in good
condition. One that is poorly maintained will garner
customer complaints and/or suffer from non-revenue
producing down time.

As an aside, my first real life exposure to a Prius was
a rental, and the positive experience led me to eventually
purchase one.

The downsides to a rental car purchase is that these cars
typically have a greater than average mileage for the year
or so they are in service; and, even though customers
aren't supposed to, some do smoke in the cars.

At the end of the day, it's still up to you to do the due
diligence of seeing whether a given car meets your needs
and has been properly taken care of.

As to the price, the $18K is in the "fair" range, but I
also suggest you look at similar models on eBay and
Autotrader, to see both prospective alternatives and
what the going rate is for similar cars.

In terms of new vs used, new has all the new bells and
whistles, used (especially recent models) can save you
a lot of money while still being protected by most of
Toyota's warranty. I decided on used myself, because I
didn't like the new interior design of the 2010.

 

Last month we bought a 2008 toyota certified prius with similar mileage that was also a rental. We got it for 15,500...you can do better than what they're offering.

 

we paid $20,000. for our base 08 2 1/2 years ago. seems pricey. we have 20,000 miles now, perfect condition, i doubt it's worth $18,000. i thought new base models were 22,000?

 

how much is a new genII? are there any left on the lots?

 

toyota of bristol (va) is advertising a new 2010 at $ 21883. package un known