Most of the rental cars come in as brand new; & usually gets sold between 3 years or 36000 miles. Any car at that stage is certainly not a beater. A beater (with regular usage) will be something like 10+ years old and or 200,000 miles or over.
See the cars at enterprisecarsales.com , where most of the cars are Enterprise Rentals.
Some people may not consider it a beater, but rental cars get treated like absolute crap (regular gas even if they should get premium, traditional oil vs synthetic, renters beat them up because they don't care). If I were choosing between a rental car at 36,000 miles or a non-rental at 46,000 miles, I'd assume the non-rental would give me fewer problems in the short term and probably make it to a higher mileage in the end.
Still better than the proverbial $500 Civic with 250,000 miles, 7 owners, and 3 accidents, but not great vehicles to own by any stretch of the imagination.
This is the conventional wisdom, but is it actually true? Anytime I've rented a car, I've handled it like a virgin princess because I know any scuff is coming out of my hide. My own car, hell, rub it up against the concrete barrier for all I care. That is a vehicle I would not want to buy on the used market.
Purely anecdotal, but I notice my family members drive the cars a lot “harder” in terms of top speed, “jack rabbit starts” and braking more intensely than usual. I suppose it’s a combination of not being used to driving a car with such different weight and power, coupled with a more carefree attitude that being on vacation gives. We joking call it “vacation driving”.
This, rental car is a car driven roughly, in mud, in rocks, with rash driving, rarely serviced or poorly serviced, poorly driven, in potholes, or quick acceleration or quick braking can not be further than truth
How many times one rents a car for personal use v/s on official use or business use? Business use is way higher than personal use. Most of the people who rent it for business use, are reporting to their boss or some kind of supervisor; & if they thrash car, car company reports/charges damages, it will come back to the person who drove it. So, no, a majority of renters don't beat cars because they still will be on hook for damages.
How many regular rentals need premium? None. Only exotic rentals might. Most of the rentals are run of the mill Toyota,Hyundai, Mitsubishi, mid size or mid range; the cars which are most of the time good for everyone. None of them needs premium. Although, this fuel thing exists. When I used to rent, I used to buy the cheapest fuel at any cheapest station. Now in own car,I go by only Shell Regular.
Rental are new, & new cars are covered bumper to bumper for about 36000, transmission till 60,000.
Yes, rental gets different drivers, but so do to some degree of non rental (family, friends, not common but still not zero).
So, as stated above,a 36,000 miles in a rental is not much different than same in a non rental.
In my opinion; there is a similar set of drivers who dont care for their own car, & almost most of them will not care for rental or friendly loaned too. People race their own cars, people floor their own cars.
My personal experience; my used car came with all shop visit records; verifiable, from Ford's system. Yes, it had about 4000 miles more than projected 7 years 150,000 miles on projected line, but that gap is getting less everyday with my moderate use (1000miles a month).
Rentals are beaten is a personal opinion. Any car can come out beaten. People who beat cars don't care if they rent it or own it. But beating a rental car might bite back quickly instead of beating one's own car.
I think you read "beaten" literally. Nobody is saying people bounce off other cars and grind railings in the rentals. It's just rentals get more abuse: no break-in, often loaded with multiple people and luggage, door slammed, left under sun, small issues are not taken care off and develop etc. Not to mention they are already the special trims with all kinds of price cutting done from the factory.
Still, all of the above also gets applied to owned cars too. People use cars for multiple people; people slam doors, majority of personal cars have no garage, small issues and negligence.
Newer cars (rentals or not) have factory warranty, where service center takes care of minor issues without even asking.
I respect your opinion that rentals are bad than owned cars, other things like mileage same; but my opinion & experience is, people will be bad drivers, be it their own car or rental; & even bad drivers will be a bit more careful with a rental because chances of them paying for it immediately financially is more than paying for damages to their own car.
You quoted my comment that people replaced beaters they had with the rentals they bought, I figure you read it as the rentals are also beaters? That was not my meaning, if I thought it's an ambiguous statement I'd try to phrase it differently.
:-) oh ok. In the I would add my personal experience (might not be the majority of people who buy rental), I bought a rental from Enterprise because of no haggle price, factory warranty, low age, highest possible trim & about 10% cheaper than used car dealerships where I had to play & dance the negotiation dance; all this just pre covid.
I was an Enterprise rental customer for about 7 years before that, renting a car about 2-3 times, not preplanned; & decision based on rental cost & availability, flexible dates.
What do you mean by "highest possible trim"? You know that rentals are special low cost trim and it's possible to get a much better trim when buying a car made for retail sales, right?
I mean my personal purchase is everything a retail highest trim offered, same trim name, mechanical, electronics, accessories, brochure, warranty. Not all rentals fit into same mould, rental companies do have basic trim, mid trim & high trim of same models based on their negotiation with manufacturer/dealer, prices & many other things.
I have not read the article, but enterprisecarsales.com has about 7000 cars for sale; no filter, nationwide. Doesn't look like a big number; but car rental companies sold a ton of their fleet on the onset of covid too.
The cars with extensive damage or accidents, any bad mark on carfax goes to wholesale auctions. These are just the ones near end of mileage or age warranty.
The news, the hype, & the reality too contributed to the car sales. I am not in market, but still I see now the 2/3 year used car prices almost very near to their new counterpart, even on enterprise, compared to dealer websites for new cars.
See the cars at enterprisecarsales.com , where most of the cars are Enterprise Rentals.