Buying an ex-rental car with doubtful service history

Moneyer

I'm thinking of buying a Kia Carens 2.0 CRDi from a franchised Kia dealer in a major chain. The car is ex-rental, 2 years old, 43,000 miles, for what seems a good price reflecting condition and mileage.

Sticking point is: there is no service book. The car should have three years left on the manufacturer's warranty, but only if correctly serviced to date. Dealer told me they would "100% guarantee" that the car had been serviced on schedule and that the manufacturer's warranty was in force. When I asked for evidence, they showed an email from Hertz, which showed they had serviced it every 12,000 miles: the specified interval is 10,000, but the dealer insists this is "within tolerances" and will not affect the warranty.

I was on the point of signing, but they refused to let me note the assurances they had given on the purchase contract, on the basis that "because they are a major PLC, I can't tell them what they should put in their contracts".

My prior experience is mostly with backstreet car dealers, and my instincts would normally tell me to run a mile. But am I nitpicking unreasonably, given that it is a franchised dealer?

gilbert_and_sullivan

I'd want something in writing to state the previous servicing, and to the effect that warranty conditions are satisfied on this car.

If you should move or the dealer goes out of business i forsee problems ahead for you, Hertz will probably have used a mobile service van, some rental companies do this, so there will be no record of your vehicle's servicing on Kia's dealer network books.

Simple letter to you from the dealer, nothing in writing forthcoming?, i'd walk.

harveybobbles

Who owned it after Hertz? As rental cars are only kept for upto 12 months.

also if by any chance it has been serviced by Kia then they should be able to see on screen which dealer did the servicing.

ROY47

walk away unless you get it in writing

flashg67

+1 for the above, unless it's cheap enough for you to stand any repairs that may not be covered under warranty. Unless you can prove service history, you'll struggle to get warranty repairs covered.

Moneyer

Re who owned it after Hertz: nobody - it seems they run these for two years. (Dealer says they probably would have leased it out long-term as a company pool car, rather than used it for consumer rental, if that makes a difference).

sheslookinhot

As said in another post, Kia should simply be able to review the cars history from it's database, assuming Kia network carried out the service. If they didn't they should put in writing that the warranty will be honoured by the garage/dealer.

If not then walk away.

marlot

I walked away from two ex-Hertz Toyotas which were in the showrooms at 1 year/12,000 miles. Toyota's service intervals are also 10,000 miles. I couldn't get a straight answer on whether the remainder of the warranty was still valid so walked away.

marlot

Moneyer wrote: »

When I asked for evidence, they showed an email from Hertz, which showed they had serviced it every 12,000 miles: the specified interval is 10,000, but the dealer insists this is "within tolerances" and will not affect the warranty.

I was on the point of signing, but they refused to let me note the assurances they had given on the purchase contract, on the basis that "because they are a major PLC, I can't tell them what they should put in their contracts".

Trust your instincts. I'd ring Kia and ask them whether it would be covered.

KTF

harveybobbles wrote: »

Who owned it after Hertz? As rental cars are only kept for upto 12 months.

Hertz run them for 2 years/40k miles. I have had plenty of KIA from them that are nearing this limit. Dont know what sort of reconditioning they go through after that but all the rentals I have had have collected a few battle scars along the way so check carefully.

If the registration begins LCxx then its is an ex-KIA UK car so if you call them up they should be able to pull the history and confirm the warranty status.

Jakg

I thought Hertz ran them for 1 year / 10k - but maybe they have longer terms available.

I would also imagine that Kia would of done the servicing - so they should have a record.

Personally, irrespective of what the dealer said, if there was no proof of servicing I'd walk away.