I'm glad I found this forum. Yesterday I test drove an used 2010 Prius (base model) at a local Toyota dealership - first time ever driving a hybrid car. The car had about 45,000 miles and the dealer's asking price was frim $17,000, not even a dime less they said. I asked about the car's history and they said it was bought back from a rental car company (like Hertz). The car was clean in & out and drove fine. My wife really wanted it but I didn't like the the fact that it was a "rental". Would you have bought this? I am also considering a Prius C that's coming next year if I don't get something this time.
That seems kind of steep for a vehicle that probably took a beating all its life - even if the dealership did some refurbishing. I think you would be out of factory warranty too just by miles.
If you're going to buy used (which I don't advocate), buying a rental car is the worst alternative (OK, perhaps not worse than a salvage car...), since it's been driven by hundreds of people who couldn't care less about the car.
I wonder whether the price is truly rock solid or if there could have been room for more negotiation. People (myself not excluded) tend to drive rentals like cr*p, i.e. "let's see what this thing can do"
an opinion from someone who purchased previous rental in the past; it could be a good deal but you need to look what are you getting. Beware, rental companies have their own shops, so many fender-benders will not show on Carfax. If you have a good mechanic to look at it he should be able to tell you car story. When we got our ex- my mechanic went and rejected 6 others. Only one of them had signs of serious accident, others were backed into or scratched. Half of them had interior threshed. One thing about rentals is they change oil religiously, so you don't have to worry about that. Anyways 17k sounds steep, esp if you consider dealer got it from auction for less then 12k.
Well, I feel better that all of you would shy away from an ex-rental car. Oh, yea tell me about driving a rental like "you stole it". One time I was driving a rental car like that and I managed to break the sepentine belt in less than an hour of my possession!
Hmm. A different take. Around my parts (east coast) $17k for a 2010 w/ 45k on it is an absolute steal. Almost $3k less than what dealers are getting for them out here. That is kind of an eyebrow raiser. I would have to assume it's been in an accident. If not, it's a smoking deal, and it's also possible we bought at what could be considered as the worst possible time to buy a Prius (2 months ago). But they are still getting around $19500 for them and selling them over here. Previous rentals, especially with a Prius, can be great deals. Think about the kind of person that drives a Prius. Yes, you will have some people that might beat on them, but they are also vigorously inspected. Ones that fail inspections are not allowed to be sold to used car dealers. Rental car companies do massive amounts of business and their reputation is at stake in providing good quality used cars. In addition, the rental car companies have strict maintenance schedules that they follow to the T. You will not find a better maintained car than a rental car. The previous rental we got had 40k on it and smelled and looked brand new inside and out, save for light scratches in the clear coat from too much automatic car wash machine washing. As someone who has actually owned a previous rental car (unlike above posters) I would recommend you take a look at the car. The price is very suspicious however. $17k is too low for a Prius in good condition of that year. The only ones around my area that are in that Price range have something wrong with them (ie red flag). Also I know we bought at a bad time. Nothing can change when you are buying a car - my wife needed/wanted one and we went with what we had. Personally I felt we paid about $1500 more than we should have (bought for $19,900). I tried to put it off as long as possible but what can you do?
The rental I had yesterday showed 41 MPG from the previous renters over 200 miles. They musta been driving it pretty hard or had it loaded down, because it jumped up into the 50s after got into it and reset the meter.
When we test drove ours, from the previous test drives, the meter showed 34 MPG or something. I think it has more to do with the cars just sitting and not moving. That's pretty typical of all the used Prius we drove.
I am about to test drive at a used 2010 Prius II from Hertz Rent2Buy. It's got 53,000 miles and is being sold for $16,100 minus an AAA $150 promo code for a total of $15,950. I autochecked the car, and it has been in no accidents. I realize that autocheck/carfax don't have all accidents on record, but checking some of the other Rent2Buy Priuses, some of them do show accidents, so I'm thinking that generally, accidents are reported by Hertz (as required by law). I realize that people often drive rental cars in an aggressive manner, but think about this: Those who rent a Prius from Hertz must choose to rent one. They are part of the "Green collection" and cost extra per day. I don't think a majority (mainly young, reckless drivers) want to pay extra and drive a slower rental car. Does driving the Prius agressively cause as much wear-and-tear as it does on other cars, due to its CVT transmission? I mean, you can't exactly "redline" the engine like you can in a #-speed transmission, right? Forgive me, I don't know much about how a CVT works. For those interested, there are a few more Priuses that Hertz Rent2Buy is selling for low prices in the SF Bay Area: Used Toyota Prius Cars For Sale - Hertz Car Sales I autochecked a lot of them, and some have been in accidents, but not all.
I have 3 CVT equipped vehicles and, yes, you can redline their engine and casue unnecessary wear and tear on the components such as belt, converter sheaves, centrufugal clutch (if equipped), etc. But like you said people who rent Prius would be a different (gentler?) crowd from who rent Mustang or Camaro.
