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How far in the future? High turnover is priced into rental cars. They normally only last 2-4 years or 25k-40k miles. Meanwhile, all preventative maintenance (o
by HWR_14 3y ago
How far in the future? High turnover is priced into rental cars. They normally only last 2-4 years or 25k-40k miles.
Meanwhile, all preventative maintenance (oil, etc.) is trivial to ensure happens on time and problems can be solved earlier because no one has an incentive to ignore the warnings (because a repair would be inconvenient or expensive). And they must get a great deal on replacement parts and mechanic services are no where near retail.
- dawnerd 3y agoIt was my understanding that’s why most rental car companies also run used car sales so they can flip the cars before they get too bad.
- SoftTalker 3y agoIf you're only keeping the car 2-3 years you can get away with pushing the oil change intervals out or skipping some of them and other maintenance. I would not believe that rental companies are strictly following the manufacturers maintenance schedules, when they can save money and not suffer the consequences of deferring maintenance.
- HWR_14 3y agoThey sell the cars when they are done with them, and regular maintenance is monitored by the onboard computer. It would be stupid to save a few dollars to obviously ding the resale value.
- Tempest1981 3y ago> maintenance is monitored by the onboard computer So is there a way for the prospective buyer to query this log? And can't it be marked as done without doing the work?
- HWR_14 3y agoApparently, this is still mostly done via paper records. I believe either electronic or paper records are easy to forge. However, that gets into "technically possible, but unlikely". After all, what you are suggesting is that the Hertz (or other large rental) company, to save a marginal amount of money, will commit widespread fraud and risk the massive lawsuit from faking records and then using those records to convince people to buy cars? Meanwhile, they risk damage to a car keeping them from renting it out while it's repaired. And the cost of standard maintenance is probably less than they make in the day or two it's out of service.
- SoftTalker 3y agoLooking at how they run their rental business, and the staffing at agencies and airport desks, yes I think they would cut corners on maintenance also.
- HWR_14 3y agoCut corners to make money, sure. Fake the maintenance documentation, not so much?
- Nextgrid 3y agoResetting the maintenance reminder is a trivial operation (doesn't even require a scan tool, as it's designed to allow people to change their own oil). You should absolutely not trust this.