Used Used Diesel ES purchase and enterprise rental

[marcwicks]

Just wanted peoples opinion:

I've just purchased (9/12/06) a used 2.2 diesel ES from my local dealer and am so far quite pleased. However, I've just received my new registration form through the post and despite having asked the dealer if it was an ex-rental car and was told "NO - it's an ex-company car" found that it was registered to ERAC UK Ltd. (Enterprise Rent A Car)

I did suspect that it might have been an ex-rental car because of the 12k mileage in 6 months and slight interior scuffing, however because of the 23k miles per year I do for work, I wasn't too worried about the mileage, but would be concerned about the history.

My question is - should I be worried - would the Honda diesel engine be fairly robust even if it had been ragged around by some rental drivers?

Also I have the rest of the warranty 2.5 yrs / 90k miles and the next 2 services included in the deal I negotiated - it also had the first just before I collected it.

I'm thinking of taking this up with the dealer as misleading info and should I expect to get anything, another free service or something?


Any advice helpful.

Cheers

Marc

[SimonB]

To be honest... I suppose even though it been registed by Rental Company - it doesn't mean it hasn't been a company car for them.... or one client hasn't had the car for 6 Months solid. (Prehaps while waiting for their New Civic to be delivered!)

I wouldn't worry about the mileage.... my current 04 Civic (1.6 Petrol) has done in excess of 40k a year since new - and it just laps it up!
If anything the diesel is going to take the mileage even better.

Also Honda are still one of the few companies that do 90k Warranties - so most problems are theirs to deal with!

[Cad]

It's possible it was used as a company car. I've not seen any Hondas used in rental fleets, though to be honest I don't look very closely at UK ones.

The diesel engine is quite robust though, so I wouldn't worry (too much).

[basegreen]

Enterprise do rent these out and would i be worried? Nope. The diesel engine is rock solid and at that age/mileage you should be more concerned about tyres/interior wear.

[marcwicks]

Thanks for all your replies - as I said I'm not that worried about the mileage and the 90k miles warranty sounded a good thing too.

It could be that it was just a company car for someone at ERAC. The interior was pretty scuffed, but I had that cleaned up by the dealer before I purchased it. Tyres looked fine.

Honda Diesel engine sounds reliable and robust from all the comments so I guess I'll just leave it at that.

Thanks all. Marc

[KevinF]

I rather suspect it's going to do you well. If it has been a rental car, driven by many drivers rather than the same one all the time, the varying styles will probably have run the engine in much more effectively than any car in single-ownership that's coddled and cossetted.

I am reminded of a Yamaha FZR1000 that I bought new a few years ago. In ignorance, I rode it for the first 1000 miles as if the engine was made of tissue paper in the belief that 'running' in was necessary. Later, I had its dynoed before a tuning job and was dismayed to learn that it only made 118 bhp when it should have made 128. The mechanic asked me about how I had treated it, and then donned his helmet and took it for a spin. When he returned half an hour later the engine was ticking with heat - and it straight away made 129 on the dyno.

What had he done, I asked? "Er, basically, thashed the nuts off it, mate" was the reply. "You've treated it far too gently and were asking for glazed bores and a short engine life." From that moment on, the engine drank no oil when before it had been using quite a bit.

KevinF.

[apd]

I would want the garage to take it back rental cars are hammered, rubble to the skip driven without mercy not run in, sorry to hear the garage conned you..........

[basegreen]

Originally Posted by apd

I would want the garage to take it back rental cars are hammered, rubble to the skip driven without mercy not run in, sorry to hear the garage conned you..........

There is NOTHING in 6 months that a rental car would undergo that would scare me off buying one if the mileage/condition was sound.

[czechplastik]

Just because it belonged to a rental company doesn't mean it wasn't being used by an employee. Just out of curiosity, how much did you pay for it?

[terry]

One of my previous cars was a Mondeo which had been owned by Avis. It had done 15k miles in about 6 months, but was absolutely fine, only a couple of very small stone chips on the bumper which you could hardly see. It worked OK for me.
As has been said, with the warranty you should not have any problems if anything does come to light.

[davemac]

Just spoken to my brother in law who is a fleet manager for enterprise. He in forms me that they do not have civics as rental cars but what they do get is free cars from companys as a tester with that company ie Honda hoping to grab a new contract from Enterprise.

he reckons more than likely its has been passed around a couple of managers until it hit the 11-12k mark then handed back.

[basegreen]

Originally Posted by davemac

Just spoken to my brother in law who is a fleet manager for enterprise. He in forms me that they do not have civics as rental cars but what they do get is free cars from companys as a tester with that company ie Honda hoping to grab a new contract from Enterprise.

he reckons more than likely its has been passed around a couple of managers until it hit the 11-12k mark then handed back.

That's odd, since I've seen civics with enterprise stickers on.

[Tydo]

Having hired a number of cars over the years I'd never buy one... I have has 25 mile old Focuses which I've thrashed mercilessly from the off including one I took down a 3 mile gravel track with rocks grinding off the underside.

But that's just me.

[czechplastik]

Hire cars are always the best cars to drive!