Car Deals

[johnnymk]

I would imagine with the Economy tanking that there will be lots of good deals on two and three year old cars after Christmas. Some rental companies have gone belly-up and a lot of leases will probably not be renewed. And lots of people are out of work. End result: Great Deals!

[brain]

This is quite possible. But would you want a used car that was in service with a rental company for about a year? Most of the people I know beat the hell out of their rental cars. I've been known to do a burnout once a while in mine.

[johnnymk]

That could very well be true. But if anything is seriously wrong with the car, they have to get it fixed for the next driver. If the car isn't burning oil or if it's not making any serious noises, I would take the gamble. Besides, you usually get some kind of warranty with the car.

[brain]

Even if you do have a warranty, it is rather inconvenient to take it in all the time to get serviced. And lots of problems can occur out of the warranty period due to the early misuse of the car.

[johnnymk]

The last car I purchased was a 3 year old Federal GSA fleet car with 59,000 miles. The only things that went wrong in almost 70,000 additional miles was two CV joints and an oxygen sensor.
I would take any car for possible warranty work to a dealer if I had saved thousands of dollars when I originally purchased it.

[brain]

From my understanding, the government is VERY good with maintaining their vehicle and keeping them in good condition. This is why people don't hesitate going to government auto sales of 2-3 year old police vehicles with 100,000 miles. I don't think Avis or Hertz maintains their cars as well. I remember renting a 2001 Mercedes C230 and it only had 13,000 miles and some previous drivers beat the crap out of it.

[SpeedEng]

usually these rental cars have transy problems