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For desirability they are definitely near the bottom of the market. Even if they have a meticulous maintenance schedule, it was almost certainly driven harder.

For desirability they are definitely near the bottom of the market. Even if they have a meticulous maintenance schedule, it was almost certainly driven harder. And a in 1:1 private to rental car sale, the rental would be cheaper almost always. >A former rental may cost less money up front, but it will also return less money down the road. Getting maximum resale value for a used rental car is difficult, because many shoppers are wary of buying former rental vehicles, so much so that some states have passed laws allowing car dealerships to call rental cars "program cars" in hopes of avoiding the stigma. https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/articles/the_pros_and_cons_of_buying_a_rental_car https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/articles/the_pros_and_cons_of_...

bityard 5y ago
I can see there being one or two downsides to buying a rental car, but "driven harder" is a weird one to me. First, almost all renters avoid abusing a rental car because they don't want to get charged for any damage. (Maybe the exception would be a sports car.) Second, I mean, unless they took it out to the track and spent a day going laps with it, cars these days are basically built to easily handle any kind of driving behavior you can get away with on public roads. What really kills cars are accidents and lack of maintenance. Neither are hard for a trained mechanic to detect.
- josephcsible 5y ago
  > First, almost all renters avoid abusing a rental car because they don't want to get charged for any damage. What about constantly redlining the engine? That will put a disproportionate amount of wear on the engine for the miles driven, but won't cause any immediately-visible damage.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
    I've never known a single person to do this. I hear it mentioned a lot, but no one ever knows anyone directly who's done it. Always "my cousin's ex's brother in law did it once."
    - Hallucinaut 5y ago
      Guys in our area of London every summer would routinely rent reasonably upmarket cars, new BMWs, Mercs, etc. for a few weeks and not just use them to accelerate hard around the roads (though they did) but sit there, out of gear and just floor it for dozens of seconds at a time. I personally do drive rentals to the max safe performance they will give me, which is more like what the description was about, in any case.
      - smileysteve 5y ago
        > but sit there, out of gear and just floor it for dozens of seconds at a time. Revving in neutral is not particularly horrible for a car. Perhaps worse if done cold. The no load situation makes timing on the car easier. Likely one tank of regular gasoline in a performance engine, and a stop and go to the neighborhood grocery will do more damage.
  - davchana 5y ago
    Redlining while in Drive in automatic transmission means driver is driving over the speed limit or doing rash driving; which millions of car owners too do that. Although in both cases it never near red line in automatic transmission cars. Redlining while parked or neutral is absurd. Who will rent car just to rev it up. & For how much time? Few minutes? Hours? People will be looking at this person who is redlining a car since last few hours.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    >What about constantly redlining the engine? Not even close to a consideration as long as the engine is getting scheduled fluid changes. Source: used to be privy to some OEM testing info. Also, a Dodge Neon can go 50 in 1st gear, or maybe it was 2nd, I forget.

bityard 5y ago

I can see there being one or two downsides to buying a rental car, but "driven harder" is a weird one to me. First, almost all renters avoid abusing a rental car because they don't want to get charged for any damage. (Maybe the exception would be a sports car.) Second, I mean, unless they took it out to the track and spent a day going laps with it, cars these days are basically built to easily handle any kind of driving behavior you can get away with on public roads. What really kills cars are accidents and lack of maintenance. Neither are hard for a trained mechanic to detect.

josephcsible 5y ago
> First, almost all renters avoid abusing a rental car because they don't want to get charged for any damage. What about constantly redlining the engine? That will put a disproportionate amount of wear on the engine for the miles driven, but won't cause any immediately-visible damage.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
  I've never known a single person to do this. I hear it mentioned a lot, but no one ever knows anyone directly who's done it. Always "my cousin's ex's brother in law did it once."
  - Hallucinaut 5y ago
    Guys in our area of London every summer would routinely rent reasonably upmarket cars, new BMWs, Mercs, etc. for a few weeks and not just use them to accelerate hard around the roads (though they did) but sit there, out of gear and just floor it for dozens of seconds at a time. I personally do drive rentals to the max safe performance they will give me, which is more like what the description was about, in any case.
    - smileysteve 5y ago
      > but sit there, out of gear and just floor it for dozens of seconds at a time. Revving in neutral is not particularly horrible for a car. Perhaps worse if done cold. The no load situation makes timing on the car easier. Likely one tank of regular gasoline in a performance engine, and a stop and go to the neighborhood grocery will do more damage.
- davchana 5y ago
  Redlining while in Drive in automatic transmission means driver is driving over the speed limit or doing rash driving; which millions of car owners too do that. Although in both cases it never near red line in automatic transmission cars. Redlining while parked or neutral is absurd. Who will rent car just to rev it up. & For how much time? Few minutes? Hours? People will be looking at this person who is redlining a car since last few hours.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  >What about constantly redlining the engine? Not even close to a consideration as long as the engine is getting scheduled fluid changes. Source: used to be privy to some OEM testing info. Also, a Dodge Neon can go 50 in 1st gear, or maybe it was 2nd, I forget.