Anyone Ever Bought An Ex Hire/courtesy Car?

movieman

When a friend of mine used to hire cars in Florida, he liked taking them for 360 degree spins in the sea. And his friend who worked for a car hire company there had some real horror stories about the state some of the cars came back in; at least here in the UK yours probably won't have a string of bullet-holes down the side.

As mentioned, a hire car is probably well serviced, and before they sell it they'll probably remove the dirty nappies that the last person who hired it left stuffed under the seats, but you've no idea what people have done to it in the past. You might get a good one... or you might not.

Pegleg2001

SWMBO bought a Golf from fow.co.uk.

It was an ex-Hertz rental. 1-yr old with about 12,000 miles on the clock, Very pleased and car shows no sign of undue stress or wear and tear. It is an automatic so we have assumed that the more 'sedate' drivers out there would have opted for this car (and it would be nore expensive to hire too putting off boy-racers).

Elliesmum

xzibit wrote:

External, the bodywork yes. The internals to the engine, clutch, gearbox no lol. :rotfl:
Every hire car I've had has been thrashed to an inch of it's life. If I have been given the car you may be buying, I feel sorry for you lol

In a nut shell! Used to work for Europcar and yes they are thrashed and that's just by the staff :rotfl:

They are serviced well and checked over at the end of each rental I also very much doubt they have been run in well

HTH's
EM xx

moggins

We bought an ex-fleet car nearly 4 years ago with a complete service history, basically if the car as much as coughed it went in to be sorted out. The last three years have been the most trouble free driving I have ever had and I've only had to pay out £10 in MOT repairs in that time.

cindyhove

moggins wrote:

We bought an ex-fleet car nearly 4 years ago with a complete service history, basically if the car as much as coughed it went in to be sorted out. The last three years have been the most trouble free driving I have ever had and I've only had to pay out £10 in MOT repairs in that time.

where did you get it from?

bazza1603

Hi,

Ford sell these cars to hire companys and agree to buy them back at a certain price to supply as second hand. I have had 2 ex hire cars and had no problems with either. Spend time looking for faults (usually trim) and get the dealer to correct them under warranty.

They do 2 different 1.6 petrol engines in the Focus. The more powerful is far better and doesnot like the petrol as much!.

Regards

Barry

wolfehouse

we bought a year old ex-rental fleet automatic astra. arnold clarke repaired all bodywork before we bought (although we did see the damage and had it checked out by a mechanic) and provided a good warantee for a year. it was so much cheaper than we could get otherwise. i agree with previous poster- automatics may get trashed a lot less.
reminds me of the old joke:
Q:what is the fastest car in the world?
A:a rental car.

wilsarno

The problem is with ex hire cars, AA cars, fleet cars is that you don't know how many people have driven them and did they give a s**t when they did.

Ford Direct is all ex hire cars. You will get some bull about it being an ex demonstrator car but how many do Ford have of these???

Ford sell them to hire companies and agree a buy back price. When they have done about 8-10K they are cleand inside and then polished on the outside and then put on the Ford Direct system.

How much are they really worth!!! would you buy a car if you knew it had abt 200 people drive it before you did. A lot are thrashed. We got a better deal on a new car at another dealer then we would have done at Ford. Also dealer look at used car value on the glass.co.u* guide. You can do this free through the AA website if you are a member.

My advice stay clear...

harveybobbles

3 years old this post......

Kilty_2

Holy thread resurrection! :rotfl:

I'll post anyway given that people will read it now it's been bumped - I'd consider an ex hire car but I'd be extremely wary of it.

I've made a fair mess of a hire car in the past.