Bought a Ex hire car without knowing?

POPPYOSCAR

GlynD wrote: »

What's wrong with it being an ex hire car? The hire companies generally only keep them for 6 months and they never put more than 10,000 miles on them. I wouldn't have an issue with this.

I agree.

My car was 6 months old and an ex hire car.

I love it so much that even though it is now 14 years old it has given me great service and I do not want to part with it.

Grimezy

Did you not find it strange that it had so many miles for its age? I know that many people use insignia's to commute or have sales jobs travelling the country but alarm bells would have definitely been ringing. Average Joe drives around 10,000 miles a year. Cars that do 20,000 a year are normally either: 1) Travelling salesman or similar role - Normally provided with a company car rather than using their own. 2) Very rare people unfortunate enough to have one hell of a commute. 3) Hire cars.

With 2 of those options, it would have been clear in the V5 if it had belonged to a company or had been a hire car.

It is unfortunate what has happened but like others said, it wasn't about doing 'homework', it was simple steps that even myself as a 19 year old would have known to do when buying a car. Always check the V5 and all documents provided with the car. If it was a 2 year old car then there can't have been THAT much documentation with it as it won't have needed an MOT in its first 3 years but there may have been 1 or 2 service receipts. There is no excuse as to why you missed it. Heck, my mum doesn't even drive and she stopped me from buying a car because the previous owner in the V5 had lived near the sea and therefore it could be likely to rust quicker. That's a little less obvious than checking the previous owners name.

Anyway, this isn't helping the situation. I wouldn't be too put off by the amount of drivers. Hire companies tend to service their cars frequently and although someone mentioned earlier that people don't look after hire cars, I imagine most people would not like to crash any car that they're driving and really what's the worst that could have been done? Maybe doing 90mph up the motorway? That would have happened no matter who previously owned it. It's not like people physically go out of their way to destroy every hire car they drive.

GlynD

I don't think its an ex hire car. I think it's either been a company car or on contract hire. Regardless of that and even if it was an ex hire car what Grimzey says in post #23 is right. Hire cars are well looked after, as are company cars and contract hire cars.

securityguy

Stephb1986 wrote: »

It's on a 60 plate and I bought it January 21st 2012 with around 41,000 miles on the clock.

That doesn't sound like a hire car, unless you're the third owner. Hire companies never keep them more than ten or twelve thousand miles, and even that would be unusual. Hire companies work hand in glove with car manufacturers to keep a healthy supply of nearly-new cars in the dealer channel: they bulk-buy cars from the manufacturer at a huge discount, put five thousand miles on them, and then sell them on into the dealer network. Dealers want to have something at every price point, so six month old cars for 20% less than the new price are perfect for people who can't quite bring themselves to buy a new car.

What it sounds like is a fleet car. ERAC do fleet management, so it's presumably something they do. To have done 41K miles in at most eighteen months it's been doing at least 500 miles per week. Probably an employee with a perk car who commutes a serious distance, possibly a rep. In either case, a fantastic buy: expense no object maintenance, probably spent most of its time in top gear on a motorway, presumably you got a deep discount for the mileage and if you're doing a low-ish mileage yourself, it'll slowly drift back towards a more normal mileage by the time you sell it.

Insignias are fleet cars par excellence. Has anyone, anywhere, ever bought one new with their own money?

mwbrown

Im on my 2nd ex erac uk car, first was a ford fusion on a 56 plate and the car was immaculate when I purchased it - car had 6000 miles on the clock and was 9 months old...guessing this was a hire car for ERAC. only thing I spent money on the car in the 4 years we owned it was servicing/tyres/etc and it had the EGR valve replaced under the ford warranty.

We traded the car in almost 12 months ago and again purchased a 2010 Hyundai I10 with 15k miles on the clock (One owner, so im guessing that it was a staff car for ERAC rather than a hire car due to the mileage).

Would I buy another ex-hire car, hell yes - great bargain, all prepared well by the selling dealer.

When I purchased both cars, I knew straight away when I was looking at the vehicles (both cars had ERAC on the number plates at the bottom), so I knew exactly what I was buying.

Mike

Stephb1986_2

securityguy wrote: »

That doesn't sound like a hire car, unless you're the third owner. Hire companies never keep them more than ten or twelve thousand miles, and even that would be unusual. Hire companies work hand in glove with car manufacturers to keep a healthy supply of nearly-new cars in the dealer channel: they bulk-buy cars from the manufacturer at a huge discount, put five thousand miles on them, and then sell them on into the dealer network. Dealers want to have something at every price point, so six month old cars for 20% less than the new price are perfect for people who can't quite bring themselves to buy a new car.

What it sounds like is a fleet car. ERAC do fleet management, so it's presumably something they do. To have done 41K miles in at most eighteen months it's been doing at least 500 miles per week. Probably an employee with a perk car who commutes a serious distance, possibly a rep. In either case, a fantastic buy: expense no object maintenance, probably spent most of its time in top gear on a motorway, presumably you got a deep discount for the mileage and if you're doing a low-ish mileage yourself, it'll slowly drift back towards a more normal mileage by the time you sell it.

Insignias are fleet cars par excellence. Has anyone, anywhere, ever bought one new with their own money?

With the part ex of my car I paid around £12,500 for it so I don't there is any discount for the mileage.

I hardly do any miles as I work from home.

Steph

Chopper_Read

Stephb1986 wrote: »

With the part ex of my car I paid around £12,500 for it so I don't there is any discount for the mileage.

I hardly do any miles as I work from home.

Steph

That again is down you as you agreed the price.

securityguy

Stephb1986 wrote: »

With the part ex of my car I paid around £12,500 for it so I don't there is any discount for the mileage.

I hardly do any miles as I work from home.

Steph

So buying a high mileage car is perfect. It's been properly run in, well maintained, cheap, and when you sell it you will have converted it back into an average mile car. High mileage cars are inevitably fleet, because for practical purposes no-one buys a car new with their own money, bangs forty thousand on it, and sells it at the worst possible time for depreciation.

You bought a fleet car. You didn't look at the price, the V5 or the service history, but it looks like you got a reasonable deal. Anyway, you were happy with the price at the time and it's been reliable since. What's not to like? Did you seriously think a car that's been doing more than thirty thousand a year would be privately owned?

Time was when the best possible car you could buy was an ex-fleet Mondeo, two years, 60K miles. An ex-fleet Insignia is, provided you like the car itself, probably even better, as you get a rather handsome car, the cheapness of ex-fleet, plus all that rock-solid Russelheim build quality. Enjoy it.

Stephb1986_2

Chopper_Read wrote: »

That again is down you as you agreed the price.

They wanted more for it I got around £1,500 knocked off the price.

They must of seen me coming that day.

Steph

Grimezy

Stephb1986 wrote: »

With the part ex of my car I paid around £12,500 for it so I don't there is any discount for the mileage.

I hardly do any miles as I work from home.

Steph

Was there any need to buy a £12,500 car then...? If it's a diesel it's likely to have DPF filter which unless you do consistent motorway miles or run it for 20min+ periods weekly in the highest gear then the DPF filter will clog up and can cost £1000+ to replace. I assume it's a diesel if it was doing that sort of mileage. I also assume the dealership didn't explain DPF filters?