Would you purchase an ex rental car?

Captain Chaos · 11 Sep 2017 at 07:16

As per the title.

Looking round to buy a 3 series M Sport at the moment.

I have looked at a well priced 320d x drive msport with quite a few options on top. However it is from a car supermarket (I have always bought from main dealers previously) and after a bit of investigation it turns out to be an ex hire car.

Its less than 2 years old (so balance of bmw warranty on it) and has just been serviced at BMW. There are a few cosmetic marks but have been assured they can make good.

So the question is two fold really

Would you buy an ex hire car?

Would you buy from a car supermarket?

Nikumba · 11 Sep 2017 at 07:59

I would not buy an ex-hire car.

I had a BMW rental earlier this year for 3 weeks, and I was not kind to it, on the basis it wasn't my car and I was handing it back, granted could look at it as if I should have treated it like I treat my own car, but it was a rental, meant I could have fun with it

Kimbie

mjt · 11 Sep 2017 at 08:05

I'm sure not everyone drives rental cars like I do, but I certainly wouldn't purchase an ex-rental. Many, many drivers and god knows how they have been driven. Avoid.

sovietspybob · 11 Sep 2017 at 08:13

When you say rental was it like Hertz or similar or was it a lease vehicle?

But if it is a rental i don't think i'd buy it personally given how i drive rental vehicles..

Captain Chaos · 11 Sep 2017 at 08:26

I believe its an ex Enterprise hire car. To be honest I have walked away at the mo and looking at a slightly less spec and higher mileage car from a main bmw dealer (approved).

Before I go look at the main dealer car I thought I would see what others thought. However by the looks of things you are all thinking the same as me haha.

Semple · 11 Sep 2017 at 08:49

You've not said how many miles are on it?

I.e. 10k on a 2 year ex-rental probably isn't so bad. 60k on a 2 year ex-rental is likely to be a no-no.

Captain Chaos · 11 Sep 2017 at 08:56

12k miles, 18months old

Dr Who · 11 Sep 2017 at 12:00

I have picked up many ex-rental cars and taken them back to BMW/Mercedes/VAG and Jaguar. Many "approved used" cars are ex rental and you would never know.

Nasher · 11 Sep 2017 at 12:03

Lol no.

Have you seen how people drive rental cars? The engine will almost certainly have been threashed from day 1. Also probably bent alloys and suspension parts from hard curbing by people who can't drive properly. A guy I used to work for would do burnouts and J-turns in the company carpark with rental cars (rolled one once, what a nutter)

If your buying used rep mobiles from dealers or big car sales places the chances are they are ex-fleet or rental cars. I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

GravyMonster · 11 Sep 2017 at 12:03

Captain Chaos said:
Would you buy an ex hire car?

As a man who has ragged the life out of rental cars before, no I would not buy one

Captain Chaos said:
Would you buy from a car supermarket?

I wouldn't touch car supermarkets with a barge pole.

robj20 · 11 Sep 2017 at 12:08

Got our current car from Motorpoint, cant fault it or them. It was 7 months old with 8k on the clock.

wedrum · 11 Sep 2017 at 12:10

If the price was really good yes.
Then find any little issues you can with it and let bmw deal with it.

Randomface74 · 11 Sep 2017 at 12:12

I had one. It was cheap and worked out fine. Wouldn't recommend it tho.

Skidder · 11 Sep 2017 at 12:45

Isn't there an argument that it would have always had anything it needed done immediately? Not saying I would buy one though

Dan103 · 11 Sep 2017 at 12:47

personally no but depends on the price and saving involved against potential problems.

Nasher · 11 Sep 2017 at 12:49

Skidder said:
Isn't there an argument that it would have always had anything it needed done immediately? Not saying I would buy one though

They do the bare minimum to get it through MOTs.

Terminal_Boy · 11 Sep 2017 at 12:50

It would have to be very cheap and I'd sell it on before the BMW warranty runs out.

As others have already stated, this car has been caned from cold every day of it's entire life along with being curbed regularly.

Captain Chaos · 11 Sep 2017 at 12:53

Dan103 said:
personally no but depends on the price and saving involved against potential problems.

Have been reading up on this and quite a few people do indeed seem to think that ex hire cars are ok to buy, some would even argue still that they are better due to being expected regularly, serviced etc.

Some would argue that they may have been thrashed, smart repaired numerous times and to avoid.

I suppose 2nd hand is a minefield overall as you just dont know what you are getting.

The deal im talking about like for like, if it was from an approved BMW dealer would most likely be another 3 - 4k in total. Its an auto without the paddles so rules out massive damage to the clutch I suppose.

Oh, and the one I was going to buy from the approved dealer was sold yesterday!!!!!

Nasher · 11 Sep 2017 at 12:58

Used BMWs expecially are a minefield, owners love to clock them. You need to be extra careful.

wesley · 11 Sep 2017 at 13:05

I had an ex rental car. It was 2 years old ford focus 1.6l manual. 40k on the clock. Full ford service history. V5 shows Hertz as previous owner. Costed me £5k from local ford dealership

The car was about £2-3k less than non ex rental car. It was spotless, no scratches, everything was working. I couldn't tell it was an ex rental.

Had it for 3 years, put in about 40k miles. Part exchanged it for £3.5k at dealership.

Most likely it was rented as a lease car to a customer for 24 months.

It was a risk I took but luckily it was a good car