X Fleet cars - are they a bad buy?

worded

Generally speaking are they a bad idea?

Reps driving the sh1t out of them?

ballooba

Crosstown and Colm should have interesting answers here. I'll get the popcorn. (I know one of you at least runs fleet)

I had a Enterprise car last week that had been out on long term hire. It was dog rough. Might tidy up well though. It would be the mechanics i would be worried about rather than the cosmetics though.

worded

When looking at the "one previous owners" log book can you tell if it was a fleet car / taxi etc.

Max_Damage

The last two cars my parents had were ex-rep. cars. The first was a Ford Sierra that had 100k miles on it when we got it. Very little went wrong with it until we sold it with 180k miles on it. The second was a Mazda 626 (again bought with 100k miles on it), and so far, nothing has went wrong with it (it now has 150k miles on it).

Many of these cars are serviced very regularly, beacuse no car = bad for business.

bazz26

Ex fleet can mean two things:

1. Fleet of cars on a short or long term lease to a company or
2. Fleet of cars on a short term lease to hire/rental companies.

Cars leased to companies and used by sales reps, etc tend to be generally looked after better, they are usually serviced on time and any maintenance is done as it is usually included in the leasing contract. Also they tend to be driven by the one rep which means he/she is either careful or not. I drove for a living a good couple of years ago and treated the company car as if it was my own. Some may not but the law of averages say that most ex company leased cars are in average to good condition.

Cars leased to hire/rental companies are a different kettle of fish and can be hit and miss regarding a good buy. "The old saying "the fastest car in the world is a rental car" comes to mind. They are driven by so many different people it is only natural that they get abused and I'm not just talking about cosmetic abuse either. You can get a good one (my old man had a few) but they tend to be exception rather than the rule.

Volvoboy

My 1st car was a ex - rental and beside services it never gave me any trouble and was a tidy little car.



-VB-

Henry Ford III

You can get both good and bad.

TychoCaine

I've a mate who used to work for Avis at one of the airports, and he told me over a pint one night that at any one time, 1/6 of the fleet are off the road due to damage inflicted by customers. If that's the case, then every car must get smashed up at least a couple of times during the year.

colm_mcm

I've never seen a rental car give extra mechanical trouble, all i've seen are scuffs, scrapes, missing wheel trims and the odd write off.

I don't think company cars usually have the crap driven out of them, many cars we've done on contract hire are really minded. I find vans and jeeps get abused a bit though!

drdre

Wheres the best place to get cheap ex fleet cars? I think merlin have auctions for fleet cars.

colm_mcm

Wilsons. depends on what you're after.

crosstownk

worded wrote:

Generally speaking are they a bad idea?

Reps driving the sh1t out of them?

Generally speaking, ex fleet cars are no different to any other car on the market. Ex fleet just lets you know that it was a company car (personal lease aside). But so many other cars on forecourts were company cars that were bought by the company in preference to leasing.

Are you buying it from a dealer or direct from the fleet company? Are you being offered a warranty?

drdre

colm_mcm wrote:

Wilsons. depends on what you're after.

Im looking for a golf or bmw.Is there a bargain to be got from wilson auctions or not?

R.O.R

As stated before - I've seen some good, some bad. Most of the typical rep cars (Mondeo, Vectra, Primera etc.) would have to be very cheap or low mileage to bite on one of them. Some of the smaller (Golf Petrol) or Premium (5 Series etc.) can be in very good condition as they are generally driven by people who work in the office all day and don't live too far away.

If it doesn't have a full service history, walk away. Any decent fleet company will have a full record of where, when and what was done to the car - most at main dealer with OEM parts.