Buy a taco from Hertz?

The last rental I had was an F150. We took it to the slag pit of a large steel mill. It has just rained, and part of the road was covered in six inches of slag-mud. That shit must have added a good couple hundred pounds to the undercarriage.

We felt bad and tried to wash off what we could before turning it in. But not all of it washed off.

On a job prior I rented a mustang and drove it to a lime plant. Lime plants have a lot of dust in the air, and that dust is lime. (Big surprise.) When lime meets humidity and air it reverts back to calcium carbonate, which means any vehicles parked on site have a nice calcite film on them, inside and out. The only way to clean it is an acid wash. Industrial grade vinegar works best. I don't have much time between leaving the plant and making the airport, certainly not enough to give the car a wipe down with 2 gallons of vinegar before turning it in. Felt bad, but nothing I could do.


Knowing the kind of job sites people visit when traveling, I sure as hell wouldn't want to buy a rental.

 

Anyone remember the time Josh snuck dad's E36 M3 out for a hooning? Of course you don't, but the next morning the coaches were staring at a ball field with donut marks and there's no way that BMW could have done all that damage so Bender with his square body chevy was blamed. He said that's impossible sir I had community service for setting a trash can on fire and was balls deep in Clare that night.

 

I like rat bastards. Knock 4k off and I’d drive that bitch

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAc5wjSi-Jk

 

Did the 2019 go back to chrome rear bumpers?

 

I just find it hard to believe OP's never heard of the phenomenon know as a "rental rocking-horse"
https://youtu.be/YAEV-Lh23qc?t=25

 

I want to say I have an open mind about it, but I rent allot and have seen ragged out rental vehicles with less than 10k miles.

I would not consider it for more than a few seconds.

 

Airbags have been required by Federal Law since the 1990's, I think that story was about the Rental Companies not taking the vehicles with defective Air Bags in for Recall to have them replaced.

 

Not everyone who rents a car “drives it, like they stole it”. Most people drive like normal people. Maybe 10% actually drive it hard like they dont give a shit. Its that 10%, i would be concerned about. I rent cars weekly for work and though I dont abuse them, it is used for work and i dont take the extra care for them as I would my own personal vehicle. I drive them the same way as my personal vehicles, just not a concerned about eating in the car, where i park it, or if say a soda should spill in it, wipe it up and done. I remove all my trash and wash all the excessive dirt off of it if i have access to a hose prior to return, but i dont dry off the water to prevent water spots. Its not I dont care, its a rental for a reason and not even the rental car company employees treat them like their own cars. Believe me, i worked for 2 major rental car companies in the past. Its just human nature.

I personally would NOT buy a rental, just because I have seen what they go through and I would also not recommend to any of my friends or family to buy them either. You may find a good one, but there is also alot of hidden shit that happened to the car that may or may not be disclosed. PDR, painted bumpers, windshield replacements are not usually reported on a car fax since most of those are done in house or in mass quantities.

As for price, they usually price previous rentals at $2-3k off fair market value and people are willing to take a risk for that price, but that is a personal decision and only you can decide if saving that extra money is worth it to you. YMMV and good luck with your search for your new truck.

 

But a lot of people do.

 

But some of us are the exception. I don't trash rentals because I don't want the assache of someone coming back looking for money, getting a ticket or wrecking it etc.

 

And those are the same people that dont give a shit about other people’s property, or their own, for that matter. Because if they really believe that they care for other peoples property, they would drive it, like they owned it.

 

We live in an era of cheap money and disposable goods. 2008 didn't kick enough people in the nuts hard enough.

 

I worked for the hertz corporation for 7 years and coded a lot of the point of sale system for the car sales division. This was 20 years ago and the application, at the time, was named Car Sales 2000. I also wrote software and did some of the hardware installations at the car wash / maintenance sites and can attest that they do maintain the vehicles. Every time a vehicle is returned it’s scanned for maintenance and if required maintenance is performed. That said, who knows how the customers treat the vehicles. That’s the big unknown with buying a former rental. I wonder if they’re still using the software I wrote while there?

 

At least I also know for sure that the vehicles are maintained, just wonder if they use the correct weight oil for the truck. Now that most Toyotas use the 0w-20, the rental car companies should have that in stock, but from what I remember from 20 years ago when i worked in the industry, they would use 1 type of oil that could be used for every car. Now with modern engines requiring specific synthetic oils, that may have changed.

 

Here we have a Rachel in her Corolla meeting a Penske truck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUOlSGoF3pM

 

I personally blew the airbags in a rental Nissan frontier. I used to rent pickups just to camp/offroad.

In that rental people have smoked cigarettes and weed. Have spilled all kinds of fluids on seats and carpets. Likely banged in the back seat. Pulled the e-brake at like 20mph. Found a way to smoke the tires and drift. Hauled a few loads like below. Good luck OP.

 

not only would I not buy a rental I’ve driven, I wouldn’t even want to rent the same one again.

 

The base Off Road always has a Chrome Rear Bumper.

 

Use any public restroom. They might not all be disgusting, but you'll get an idea what the general populace is capable of when they use something that isn't theirs.