I bought a 2009 Toyota Corolla a few years ago from Hertz. At the time anyway, their Rent-to-Own program gave you up to 3 days to decide on whether you wanted t

I bought a 2009 Toyota Corolla a few years ago from Hertz. At the time anyway, their Rent-to-Own program gave you up to 3 days to decide on whether you wanted to keep it. The no-haggle price is given to you up front. In the meantime, you were renting it at their usual rate. If you returned it in less than 2 hours, you could get the rental fees fully refunded to you. In those 3 days, you would have plenty of opportunity to have a mechanic look it over for you, and for you to drive around for awhile and see if it suits you. If it doesn't, you return it and pay the rent. If it does and you buy, the rent is waived. You receive paperwork in the mail to sign and mail back, and you must have the money wired to them. Things worked out well for me. The Corolla was a tad scruffy but otherwise presentable, and my mechanic gave it a clean bill of health (except for two of the tires being over-worn, which Hertz replaced). It's been a while, but I remember the price being ~$11k (4dr sedan, 43k miles, about 1.5 yr old), and all said and done came to ~$12k (taxes, titles, fees, what-have-you). The car was young enough and under-mileage enough to still be under manufacturer's warranty. The Hertz warranty was 60 days. The 3-days rent is not much risk (maybe $200) versus $500 deposit most used car dealers want. This is probably not an easy way to go if you need to do this on a car loan. But if you can raise the cash, I think this is a good way to go.