Unknowingly purchasing an ex-rental car can have a big impact on the resale price of your car. This means that determining the vehicles history is vitally important before committing to a purchase.
The resale value of ex-rental cars is usually a few thousand dollars less than the car would otherwise be worth. Due to this, car dealers will advertise the vehicle online below the prices of identical vehicles to increase enquiry from websites such as Car Sales, or if possible to sell it at retail price to increase their profits. If they are not forthcoming with the history of the vehicle, it is beneficial for them if you are unable to clearly determine that it is an ex-rental car.
In explaining their aversion to purchasing ex-rental cars, Drive.com.au summarised it perfectly by saying: “… there’s no getting around the fact that a rental car will have been driven by possibly hundreds of different drivers of varying skill levels and degrees of mechanical sympathy…
… It’s not that you should never buy one, rather that you wouldn’t want to accidentally wind up with one without knowing its history.”
The worst time to discover the vehicle you own is an ex-rental car is when you go to sell it. If you are suspicious that a vehicle could have been an ex-rental car, your best chance to find out is by inspecting the service books.
No service books/history: If you are considering buying a vehicle with no service history, you are taking a very large financial risk.
As car rental companies buy large quantities of vehicles from a specific manufacturer, they often have arrangements with the factory that allow them to get away with minimal service and maintenance of the vehicle without voiding the warranty while the rental company owns it. As these companies only hold rental vehicles until around the 50’000km mark before replacing them, the arrangements they hold with the manufacturer allow them to not service the vehicle and still return it under warranty if there is a mechanical fault. However as a private consumer without the bulk purchasing power of these rental companies, they may not continue to honour your warranty if you purchase an ex-rental car due to the warranty conditions of regular scheduled services not being fulfilled. Thus it is very important to ensure the vehicle you are considering purchasing comes with a service history, and has completed scheduled services at an approved location.
“Ex fleet vehicle”: There are many similarities between fleet vehicles and rental vehicles when the company disposes of them, mainly being that many of these vehicles do not have a clearly defined registered operator. This means that it is possible to portray a vehicle without a clear ownership history as a fleet vehicle to avoid the negative preconceptions attached to an ex-rental vehicle. While not knowing the history or previous owners is never ideal when purchasing a vehicle, there is at least an assumption that an employee will drive a company vehicle in a more responsible manner than a driver of a rental car. The perceived responsibility of an employee driving a company car means an ex fleet vehicle is considered a more trustworthy vehicle to purchase. This tactic is often combined with the strategy below to ensure customers do not recognise they are buying an ex-rental car.
First registered operator: When a new vehicle is purchased, the contact details of the registered owner are recorded in the front of your service books. As many rental car companies have strong name brand recognition, the name of their company on the front page of the service books would make it quite clear that it was an ex-rental vehicle. In order to avoid the branding of a rental car company from being in the service books, rental companies will register vehicles in a way to make it more difficult to recognise that the vehicle is an ex-rental. For example, any rental vehicles owned by Avis Australia would be registered under W.T.H Pty Ltd (WTH stands for ‘We Try Harder’ – Avis’s old slogan), which is Avis’s registered business name.
The catalyst for creating this resource was through personally having to inform unaware customers that they currently own an ex-rental car, and how it affected their initial vehicle purchase plans. After seeing how it affected these customers ability to purchase the vehicle they desired, or the extra financial burden it placed them under, motivated us to help people identify ex-rental cars, and properly understand the history of the vehicle they are purchasing.