Ex rental prefix registrations

[Baldchap]

I personally wouldn't buy an ex rental. There is a subset of renters who actively abuse them on purpose. You surely don't get that even with private leases?

[Chucklehead]

Auto810graphy said:

Chucklehead said:

No, but I have ten years experience of actually working for them. And you?

Can I forward this to “JS” (ERAC remarking)? as I am sure he would have an opinion on your statement.

Whatever floats your boat! I'd love to hear the reply.

[MikeM6]

Baldchap said:

I personally wouldn't buy an ex rental. There is a subset of renters who actively abuse them on purpose. You surely don't get that even with private leases?

Does anyone actively abuse rental cars? Or do 99.9% just drive them as they would any car?

All of the rental cars I have had over the last 12 months have been good, never any sign of abuse. Some were higher mileage (20k plus). I generally get a different car each week and they are all in good mechanical order.

The only minor issue I have had is the occasional wheel balancing or alignment, but a quick call to Enterprise to let them know and they take them to ATS or KwikFit down the road.

I did have the infotainment system on a c200 completely crash and restart as I was entering Birmingham once, but that is hardly down to abuse.

This week's car has a prefix of MM by the way, but I've had so many different prefixes I doubt they are rental specific.

[Blue Oval84]

Baldchap said:

I personally wouldn't buy an ex rental. There is a subset of renters who actively abuse them on purpose. You surely don't get that even with private leases?

It's all a game of chance really isn't it?

A privately leased, or even privately owned car may have had one driver who's treated it with no mechanical sympathy whatsoever for 2 to 3 years. The rental car may have had ten drivers who've treated it equally badly for a week or two each, and thirty drivers who were fine.

You can only really judge and buy on condition.

I've had ex-rental before and it was absolutely spot on.

[untakenname]

Seeing people get in their cars in the morning then floor it from cold in sub zero conditions I don't think it matters if it's PCP'd or rented.

[leonardfell]

...... 2 posts later

Edited by leonardfell on Sunday 19th January 11:23

Edited by leonardfell on Sunday 19th January 11:26

Edited by leonardfell on Sunday 19th January 11:26

[Toaster Pilot]

leonardfell said:

Many years ago (more than 20) when working as a race engineer in F1 i flew to Paris with a colleague. We collected a rental at the airport and drove to South of France for a tyre test. My colleague absolutely trashed the rental everywhere - changing gear without using the clutch etc. At the track it was passed around and several others hammered it round the test track. Car got the same treatment on the way back to Paris. Back at base there was always discussion, "that one needed a new gearbox" etc etc. I personally treat rentals like my own and i wouldn't buy an ex rental.... just saying.

The ones that have been ruined by idiots don’t end up on main dealer forecourts, generally - there’s different grades in the remarketing process. Some stuff goes to salvage if it’s really rough - South West Salvage always have a stock of battered ex-Enterprise vans that aren’t battered enough to be write offs but have had a hard life clearly!

[Wooda80]

leonardfell said:

My colleague absolutely trashed the rental everywhere - changing gear without using the clutch etc.

??? I change gear without the clutch all the time in my own car - VAG syncromesh is amazing!
In what other ways did he "abuse" the car? Going over speed bumps rather than around them? Not putting his brakelights on when passing a speed camera? Turning the radio up loud?

[38911]

This subject comes up regularly.

A very large company I know of, regularly use hire cars for employee business trips. We’re talking at least 10 cars hired each week across the different sites, sometimes more. They have a “preferred supplier” which changes every 6 months (probably to chase a cheaper deal) and it’s usually a nationwide rental company.

There is absolutely no ‘come back’ on the drivers for any damage caused. Because of the volume of business, the rental companies tend to “suck it up” rather than ps off a lucrative customer. And any accidental damage is dealt with by their Fleet department. So the notion that drivers drive rental cars carefully because they are scared of any damage excesses is non existent in this case. Other companies who rent a large volume of cars also operate this way.

I know for FACT that many of the employees thrash these cars to oblivion - they red line them from cold, crash the gearbox with forced gear changes without using the clutch, go over speed bumps at full speed, clutch dump wheel spins, over-rev the engine with over speed down-changes - I’ve seen pictures of rev counter needles literally off the dial. I’ve seen pictures of brake discs glowing orange from heat. I’ve seen turbo housings and exhaust manifolds glowing red hot. The level of abuse is disgusting.

I’m sure the majority of rental cars are treated fine - but I know a significant number aren’t.

Couple of tell-tale signs of an ex-rental : occasionally enterprise write ‘serviced xxxx miles’ in white pen on the air filter housing. Look under the boot mat for a damage sticker. Look for non-main dealer stamps in the service book. And cars sold at (or just before) 1 year old - think about it, not many private buyers but a brand new car and only keep it a year.

Oh and the old phoney that dealers like to spin “it’s a <insert manufacturers name> ex managers car” is usually bullst.

[mmm-five]

av185 said:

Enterprise are generally the worst rental cars to buy used as they are rarely serviced and if they are it will be 'in house' comprising of an oil change and that's it.

This will automatically void any manufacturers warranty.

One of my rentals had a 'service overdue' light on when I was checking it over.

Mentioned it the assistant so that it could be noted down on the docs and they simply said that they don't service them at all, as it's cheaper to take the hit on the lease than to have it off the road for the day. But they usually get the warning disabled so that the customer doesn't see it.

Although they did ask me to return a 320D Touring 5 days into my 'round Britain' tour last year - was supposed to be in my Z4MC, but that had issues, so the 320D was a last minute replacement - as they'd realised it was due to go back to the lease company during my hire period. I told them I'd happily swap it for a similar car if they'd like to drive the 300 miles from where I picked it up in Liverpool, to where I was now (Skye) - or even from their Inverness branch if that made it easier for them. I was told they'd ring me back, but I guess due to a combination of them not bothering, and me being out of mobile phone blackspots, it never happened, and I returned it about 2,200 miles later.

[Toaster Pilot]

I’m sure one of the car salesmen on here will correct me if I’m wrong but I think the “ex management car” trope is dead now - they need to declare it was lease/hire and may have had multiple drivers

[Auto810graphy]

Toaster Pilot said:

I’m sure one of the car salesmen on here will correct me if I’m wrong but I think the “ex management car” trope is dead now - they need to declare it was lease/hire and may have had multiple drivers

I don’t believe you need to openly declare unless asked but some dealer groups and manufacturers are now adding the information to adverts.

[Trevor555]

Toaster Pilot said:

I’m sure one of the car salesmen on here will correct me if I’m wrong but I think the “ex management car” trope is dead now - they need to declare it was lease/hire and may have had multiple drivers

Correct, they shouldn't say it.

Something along the lines of "they shouldn't with hold info that may have affected your decision to buy the car".

But proving it is difficult now that we don't get the previous keepers details on our new V5.

And many dealers now hide behind the data laws saying they can't show you the current V5

So I guess they'll just keep on with spouting any old crap to sell us a car

[Toaster Pilot]

Auto810graphy said:

Toaster Pilot said:

I’m sure one of the car salesmen on here will correct me if I’m wrong but I think the “ex management car” trope is dead now - they need to declare it was lease/hire and may have had multiple drivers

I don’t believe you need to openly declare unless asked but some dealer groups and manufacturers are now adding the information to adverts.

Wasn’t there a court case involving one of the big groups or something?

[scjgreen]

We bought a Kia Rio that was Ex Rental

Had Full Kia SH and touch wood hasn't put a foot wrong!

[Wooda80]

Toaster Pilot said:

I’m sure one of the car salesmen on here will correct me if I’m wrong but I think the “ex management car” trope is dead now - they need to declare it was lease/hire and may have had multiple drivers

Many dealers seem to have a disclaimer along the lines of "ex-lease / hire and may have had more than one driver" . When dealers buy cars at a manufacturer closed sale or from a leasing company it's not always possible to know whether the car was seconded to one person, was a pool car or was a long term or daily rental but the risk ( whether real or perceived ) of it having more than one driver is the same in all of those cases so that disclaimer catches all possibilities.

If it's important to disclose that information when the car is nearly new then surely it's also even more incumbent on the second and subsequent owners to declare that when they re-sell the car. Or can years of careful private ownership rejuvenate worn dampers, crashed gearboxes and over-revved cranks rather like re-homing an abandoned pet?

If the alleged detriment is real then surely it's shedders that are most at risk from an ex-hire car. When checking out that 10 year old 120000 mile Punto or Volvo don't forget to ask the seller if he can prove who the first owner was, and if he can't then run a mile....

[legless]

Something to bear in mind for those of you concerned about abuse of the drivetrain.

I used to work in powertrain development for one of the major OEMs, and the test procedures for prototype engines were eye opening to say the least.

They'd be subjected to the very worst abuse you could imagine, including multiple cycles of being chilled down to -50°C, then started and immediately held at the redline under load for hours on end, repeatedly being overrevved by a couple of thousand RPM, being switched off while being worked so hard the manifolds were glowing - you get the idea.

After the equivalent of 150k of being totally thrashed and abused, the engine was disassembled and inspected. Any parts that weren't within the original manufacturing tolerances were deemed to have failed the test and then redesigned until they passed.

The point here being that if you have the odd rental user who gives it a bit of a caning for a few days, it's not really going to make any measurable difference to the overall health of the car.

[av185]

As already mentioned alot depends on the car.

An ex daily rental Corsa from Enterprise having had 300 different drivers in 12 months is far more likely to have been badly abused than a 'premium' vehicle rented out on longer term hire say to an insurance company claimant.

In contrast to Enterprise btw and further to the above, we also acquired high end vehicles through BCA from the likes of Helphire and Accident Exchange including M3s 911 Carreras and a few Ferraris and these were invariably perfect with full main dealer histories.

[myvision]

I'd happily buy an ex rental what's the chances of it being flogged to hell and back?
Most rentals get someone from A to B and that's it.
My company car goes back in June 2016 A6 50k looks like it came out the showroom still so as it gas a lease company name in it people would not buy it?

[Earthdweller]

Gojira said:

Wooda80 said:

Gojira said:

I'd probably think twice about an ex-press car though

I sold a 991 GT3 last year and proudly showed the purchaser the clear HPI report upon which all the previous private number plates were listed, including 911GB!

The thoughts on that would be:

1, I can't afford it
2, SWMBO would probably kill me!

I bought an ex BMW press car a few years back, one that was used in an Auto Express photo shoot

It was a massive spec, had 4K on the clock and was very well priced

It ran like a dream, I put 50k on it and px’d it back to BMW

On the spec sheet it had “press prep” listed

I believe that it meant that the cars were given extra attention before they left the factory to ensure they were absolutely spot on, so kind of an enhanced quality check

They would also be given a thorough check/exam between each loan

In any case it was faultless for four years I had it and in mint condition when I got it