Ex Rental Cars Represent A Good Deal

Wednesday, 7. October 2009

A couple of weeks ago the Telegraph, like most of the media tend to do from time to time, headlined an ill informed, inaccurate and misleading article about ex daily rental cars suggesting that buyers of these cars had not been told that when buying these cars from dealers that they had been ex rental cars. The article suggested that the cars, most of which were well under a year old and usually with no more than 5,000 miles recorded, were considered to be sub standard and as some of the cars that had been used as daily rental cars had been registered in the name of an unrecognisable parent or holding company you couldn’t tell that the cars had been used for daily rental, which meant that the new buyers had been misled. I didn’t feel the desire to comment at the time but as the BVRLA have commented on behalf of their members I felt I should have my two penneth! First of all, knowing who owned the car previously, whilst interesting, should only have a minor bearing on the decision to buy the car. You have the choice to test drive the car and have it independently inspected. The days of having to ‘run in’ a new car for 1,000 miles are gone so new cars don’t have to be treated with kid gloves, they can take a bit of a thrashing without any worries. Not that all daily rental cars are thrashed, they’re not. With 3 year warranties these days it is probably more important to check the interior for any damage than to have a check on the gearbox. The BVRLA take up the argument by pointing out that up to 90% of rental vehicles are bought by the rental companies on a buy back arrangement so most cars on main dealer forecourts that are under 12 months old are most likely to have been registered as a new rental car and bought back by the manufacturer then distributed out to main dealers for re-sale. Having worked with a number of rental companies I know that the vast majority of the rental cars are in absolutely tip top condition, after all it’s how they make their money. Supply a dirty, poorly maintained car to a rental customer and the chances of him returning to rent another is zero. Around 300,000 to 400,000 ex rental vehicles each year find their way into the market, as they have done for years, in exactly the same way. Glad to see that the Telegraph is on top of all things current. My advice, don’t worry too much about ex rental cars but if you are concerned have a full inspection carried out or walk away and look for another. By Graham Hill