Buying A Used Vehicle: Fill & Download for Free

I bought a new car at the ripe old age of 23 when I was 10 ft tall and bulletproof. I was married, had a great income (top 20% in my area) of over 120k/year, and fell for the “You DESERVE this!” motto that auto companies and everyone else promotes now. Here’s a bit of news, in truth you “deserve” nothing. You earn what you get or you get nothing in this world.Well, reality stepped in, I lost my job when the economy took a turn and had to return to a hard labor job making 35k/year, couldn’t afford my mortgage much less my family’s needs, insurance, and a new car payment. Thus started a 10 year downturn that I felt might never end. Once you hit a wall of inadequate income and stop paying any bill you have fees, court fees if they sue to get blood from you, the turnip, and interest on loans you no longer pay. Have you ever tried swimming in syrup? Yeah, it’s like that. Suicide started to look like a viable option to rid myself of the creditor’s calls.Fast forward 10 years and I have sworn off payments entirely. I owe no one but my mortgage company, and my monthly payment is 1/8th of my current income. I have all that money I would have paid in payments going toward savings, family fun, and neat little extras that I can just buy and OWN, like a new Hoshizaki ice machine for my backyard. Summer time with my own Sonic style ice makes that sun seem 30 degrees less hot.I own 4 cars as of this moment, all paid by making “payments” to myself until I could afford them in cash. Every one of them was under $10k at purchase time. A truck with 350k miles on it from 2000, a van with 185k miles on it from 2005, a lexus SUV from 2005 with 150k miles on it, and a classic truck with who knows how many miles on it for fun. And you know what? My insurance cost per month is only 200.00. My monthly payments on all of those vehicles are zero. I pay about $500 in maintenance a year for each vehicle, $1000 during a “new tire” year. Everything I have is MINE and that’s the best feeling in the world.Would I do it again? Not knowing what I know now - but then again, if I hadn’t been so hard-headed I probably wouldn’t be the responsible person I am today. I didn’t have someone telling me the perils of debt and I didn’t care to listen to the “experts” on the radio and online. So I guess 10 years of eating ramen noodles was my “stupid tax”, but it was just the punch in the face to get me to pay attention to my finances.And more importantly, my children will never have to go through what I went through blindly, because I raise them to run from anyone that offers them credit. My oldest is working her way through medical school right now, and my second is saving for a new-to-her car. The other two are too young to do anything but count their piggy bank money as of now, but they all have paths they’ll follow that will be in stark contrast to my own unless they actively choose the “ramen life”. And that makes me a very happy man.That’s my story.

Having worked in the rental world for many years, and working as a consultant in the automotive industry, I believe I can give you a great perspective. Lots of good information I’ll be providing you because I don’t like to give a blanket statement as many others have alluded in their answers. I’ll give you all the necessary information in order to make the best possible decision. But in order to do that, I need to give a little lesson on the used car market.First, note that approximately 1 out 10 used vehicles that are sold in the US every year is a rental vehicle . In 2018, there was approximately 2.2 million rental vehicles in the US. And the majority of rental companies run the model of leveraging their purchasing power in buying vehicles and then selling them at the minimum hold period set by the manufacturer. Depending on the manufacturer, minimum hold requirement are usually 12 months. And because rental companies make the majority of their profits in the selling of their vehicles, they supply the majority of the market. Now I bring this up because most people that are buying a used 1–2 year old vehicle with 20k-50k miles are buying a once was rental vehicle. Dealerships can say that it was a “one owner vehicle” because a rental company was the only owner.Now with that out of the way, advice on buying a car that was a rental. Majority of rental companies take very good care of their vehicles. Here are a few of the reasons why they do:1- Liability- if a vehicle is rented out that was past due for an oil change or too little tire tread depth and the rental company was knowingly renting it out, it can and will set them up for liability exposure. Think about it. You rent out a vehicle and engine blows which causes a major injury, a good lawyer will look into the history of the vehicle and sue for negligence. Many rental companies have loss large lawsuits because of negligence. Because of this reason, there are systems in place so that you can’t rent a vehicle that is way past due on an oil change. Also, if a vehicle has a recall on it, most rental companies will not rent out the vehicle. They don’t want lawsuits that they’ll be held accountable.2- Resale-ability- Every rental operator cares about their bottom line. If a vehicle has major dings/dents/issues with it, the vehicle will lose value on the resale. Because of this they’ll do thorough check outs and check ins with customers to ensure the vehicle comes back in the condition it went out. And that’s why it’s important as a renter to do a thorough check-out with pictures and documenting anything you see wrong. Because they will hit you up on the return if it’s not documented on the check out.3- Customer satisfaction- All rental companies want repeat customers and if someone complains because vehicle smells, alignment was off, not clean, they will make sure to make it up to the customer and get those items fixed. So they take extra care of their vehicles in order to maintain future rentals.In the end, if you’re looking at a vehicle that is 1–2 years old with 20–45k miles, more than likely it was a rental and well taken care of. And the reason why vehicles take such a big hit in depreciation the first year is because someone in the market is buying a vehicle cheaper than you. IE rental companies. Other than that, no different than buying any other car off the lot.Thanks for reading!Trevor

When travelling around New Zealand a few years back I purchased an old BMW 325i coupe as it was cheaper than a rental for the 6 months i was there for. It was a South African built car that had been brought over when the owners emigrated to NZ.Anyway. I was driving in the South Island when a car driven by German tourists slid across the road and hit me head on causing a major accident, the airbags went off and I was knocked unconscious.When I awoke I was being treated in the car and the police were asking me where had the gold kruggerands come from?I was baffled and then I saw that they were everywhere and the police were picking them up from the floor of the car, on the seats and outside.What had happened was there was a large stash of the coins hidden in the car when it went to New Zealand as it was illegal to take out so much currency when you left South Africa and they had been behind the dash board for some 8 years.The police were unable to find the original owners of the car when it was imported as they had moved to Australia so after 3 months I was deemed to be the rightful owner as they were found in the car i owned.It was a tax free windfall that netted me just over $250,000 NZD which I used to buy a beach house in New Zealand in sunny Northland where I still live to this day.