Used car & BVRLA mileage data

WellKnownSid

londonTiger wrote: »

50% is really high. I'm going to assume that is correct

Private sales of new cars increased from 823,000 to 929,000, fleet sales increased by 0.6% to just over 1m

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jan/07/uk-car-market-biggest-growth-since-2001

londonTiger wrote: »

and only so because it includes hire purchase & company cars.

Company cars / leased cars - but not hire purchase per se - if it's you or I buying one car that would be retail (private), whatever the finance package.

londonTiger wrote: »

Does it include cars bought on finance but never fully paid off and thus "belongs" to the finance company's "fleet"??

No, it's the sales channel, nothing to do with the finance package. No different between buying at Tesco vs a Cash and Carry. One is a retail purchase, the other is a business purchase. You can pay cash or credit card in either, how you pay doesn't change the fact that it's a retail or business purchase.

londonTiger wrote: »

These are quite different from a straight up rental car. The above the drivers will have some pride of ownership and treat it as their own. Rental cars are pretty much abused.

Agreed. That said, on the whole rental cars will enter the market much newer and at a lower mileage, because that's the cheapest way for the daily rental companies to do it... same reason Ryanair run new aircraft... buy loads new with a huge discount, sell on at some point in the future for more than you originally paid...

I've also worked for companies where the company cars were basically sh*gged to death - often failing MoTs at three years for major items because they'd been so badly maintained. They were just patched up and moved on.

AdrianC

alstemp wrote: »

The BVRLA is the vehicle rental & leasing body which would mean that this car is likely a rental or fleet car.

Lease car. That covers a whole RANGE of sins these days. It could be a personally-owned lease car. It could be a company car allocated to one driver. It could be a company fleet car. One thing's for certain - 4yo/70k it won't be a "hire car", in the usual sense.

So - I have 2 questions:
1. The car has 73,000 miles on a 2009 plate. The dealer selling it says the car only has had one owner. would that mean that the "one owner" is the leasing company?

Yep.

2. and there are several mileage entries from the BVRLA -does that mean that each different entry is each time it had a different driver? so in fact, even though the ad states it only has had one owner, it could in fact have had 8 different drivers or lease holders within that time?

Very unlikely. Far more likely is that they're just mileages that've been logged for some reason. Maybe maintenance work. Maybe the last few are times it's been moved around the lease company stock yards after being returned, or even just logged whilst it's been sat in the yard. Can the dealer give you more detail? Last near-ish new car I bought, I got a complete maintenance printout from the lease company.

What are views on ex rental/lease cars? Avoid or consider?

Rule lease cars out completely, and you've ruled probably a majority of used cars out.

AdrianC

londonTiger wrote: »

50% is really high. I'm going to assume that is correct and only so because it includes hire purchase & company cars. Does it include cars bought on finance but never fully paid off and thus "belongs" to the finance company's "fleet"??

These are quite different from a straight up rental car. The above the drivers will have some pride of ownership and treat it as their own

Some might have been. Some certainly won't - as anybody who's ever had or worked with anybody who's had a company car, or who's had access to a departmental fleet car, can tell you...

Building_Surveyor

I bought an ex lease car from auction previously, it came was a full dealership history. It wasn't a rental car but was an ex company car. But personally if I like the car and it's good value for money, got a good history then I would buy it. There's no way of telling how a previous owner treated the car. You could equally buy from a private owner who has over revved the engine.... How are you going to know

colino

Unusual to have so many records and all from them. Perhaps it was a hire car and the parent company book them in to each individual depot when they are shipped around the country on one-way hires.

AdrianC

Rental fleets don't keep cars anything NEAR that long. It always used to be about 12mo/12k miles maximum. Amongst other reasons, they never need to bother with servicing.

colino

Depends on the car, Fiesta around 9,000 miles, six months, Mercedes S Class? Until it loses its shine.
I'm betting on a Mondeo or Meriva tramper that was used as a temp replacement when a lease car was damaged.