Im kinda in the market to for a 2002 Maxima, but dont plan on buying till mid-late this year. My question to you all is- What are the advantages and disadvantages of buying a once leased car? Also advant/disadvantages of buying cars that were once for rent? (like Hertz, Budget, etc...). Any helpful comments/suggestions are grateful.

Thanks in advance.

 

I had a 2K2 Maxima from Enterprise for a month when my car was in the body shop for repairs. Let me just tell you, I didn't treat the car kindly. That should give you an overall outlook on rental cars.

 

funny stories

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....ght=buy+rental

to add another, I work with a bunch of sales guys and one of them is sorta famous in the company for commenting "there's not a speed-bump built a rental car can't jump."

if that doesn't scare you, enjoy buying your (former) Hertz car.

 

Just because a car was leased, or even a "fleet vehicle" doesn't necessarily mean that it was a rental car beforehand. I know for a fact that my 99 (got off lease at 43k) wasn't a rental because there was some paperwork left in the car by accident from the previous leasor (sp?). It was a vehicle leased by a private company for one of their employees as a company car.

 

That goes without saying, that leased cars and previous rentals are different. If I'm not mistaken, you have ZERO factory warranty with a previous rental. You must turn to the co. that sold you the previous rental for warranty (Avis, etc.). I don't like leases or rental because I don't see what you gain by getting one, meaning I don't think you get a break in price at all. that's why it's good to buy a 2 yr. old used car because it's too new to be a lease buyback and the original owner took a nice depreciation hit for you. But in reality one should buy new. If the car is kept 5-6+ years I think depreciation is a non-issue, but as I've said before some people on the forum seem to change cars more often than I change my underwear! You got someone else's money to burn more power to you. If you're burning your own money that way it's foolish. my .02

 

Thanks a lot for your responses. I figured people would thrash a car if it has been rented or leased, so thanks for just reassuring me, and letting me not make a mistake. And yes there is a difference in price. About a $2,000 difference.

Thanks, later.

 

I wouldn't go near a rental car for a million bucks - just like everyone else.

However my current Maxima, my last one, and my Accord were all lease returns. I have a friend who is a wholesaler that got them at the auctions for me. I saved a bunch of money, they still are under warranty, and I haven't had a problem with any of them.

 

If you went to a Nissan dealership today and looked for a used 1999 or 2000 Nissan Maxima (the years to be currently coming off a 3-year lease), I'd say there's ATLEAST a 50% chance that the car you're looking at is a leased vehicle.

The reason being that on avegage, 30% of cars in the US are leased (58% of luxury vehicles are leased). The more expensive a car is, the more likely it is to be leased instead of bought. The Maxima is probably higher up in this range...I'd guess 40% easily. And almost all of these return to the dealers to be resold. In addition, dealers like to buy cars from off-lease auctions because they're cheap.

Nothing wrong with leased cars...I'd say atleast half of us are driving one.

 

My car was a leased vehicle and was well taken care of.

 

The statement about former rental cars and not having warranties is not true...my 2k1 Maxima was a former rental car, and I bought it from a Nissan Dealership and it had the remainder of it's 3/36k warranty on it, and the full powertrain warranty (6 years or whatever they were offering then)

 

I would want a substantial discount if i was buying a leased car. I know too many people that abuse leases, it's worth the chance.

 

My co-workers father always leased cars (3 year) and would never change the oil. He figured it was not his car, if the manufacturer wanted to maintain the car, they can do it, he wasn't going to shell out the money !

 

 

My next door neighbor bought a 330i last year, he's got 17,000 miles on it, and I asked him yesterday if the dealership gives him free oil changes like Audi does. He said "huh? oil changes? yeah, I guess I should be doing that ay?" There's idiots everywhere...not just those who lease vehicles.

By the way, if you lease a vehicle, and you never get the oil changed, even though the dealership sends you notices, and you come back in with 46,000 miles on the car and your compression readings are 105, 80, 190, 40, 2, -100, who pays for that? Are you responsible for the damage, or is it covered under warranty? When you lease a vehicle, do you sign into a service contract? I've always been curious about that...I know you have to pay for repairs if you ever get into an accident, but what about general neglect damage?

 

I see how my old man drives a leased car and i vowed to not buy a used car that used to be a lease from the dealership

 

I've never leased a car, but if I'm not mistaken, if you can't show proof of proper maintenance on your leased car when you turn it in, you'll be PENALIZED for that. So it literally may "pay" to do the maintenance even on a leased car if this is in fact true. Maybe Nissan doesn't do this, but I'm pretty sure other companies require it...





Anyhow, my 99 was leased and it has been PERFECT for 20,000 miles now so I'm happy. You save a ton of money by buying used, but you also assume more risk that you might pickup a heavily abused car. It's just a standard tradeoff that you have to make when trying to save a buck or two and still getting a nice car.