Quality Used Vehicle Purchase

[Chas]

Thanks for the info.

[leilanidude]

Hertz has an amazing program.  They let you rent the car for a few days for peanuts and see if you like it.  If you want to keep it they deduct the amount of the rental.  Their prices are 1000s below retail and while you do not know how the car has been driven, you do know how it has been maintained.  Personally, I do not see tourists driving crazy and I imagine that most people who can afford to visit Hawaii have a reasonably good head on their shoulders and don't chance unnecessary liabilities.  The few that don't probably didn't get in your car and if they did they only had it for a few days.

Craigslist is full of scammers and also has great car deals. Act accordingly

Facebook has some good deals too.

Buying mainland is brilliant. There are unreal car leases on EVs right now where they practically pay you because they just are not selling. Go figure.

Buying from a local dealer only makes sense if you are a high earner, or are just lazy, and do not have time to deal with any of the above and/or you aren't in the market for what Hertz has.

Do not buy a former rental car. The title is essentially "branded" as fleet/rental and when you try to get rid of it later, dealerships will view it similar to having been in an accident. Rental cars are abused in so many ways here on the island, you would not believe it. Also, the rental car companies do their own body work/paint and the ones that have been in accidents, since they don't run through any insurance companies, will not reflect the accident history.

Watch out for the craigslist/Facebook flippers. A common scam is that they buy a used instrument cluster from a salvage yard and swap it out, reflecting much less than actual miles.

[dobanion]

For what it's worth, when my friends in Hilo wanted to buy a slightly used Prius (think it was maybe a year old and 8k miles on it), they bought it from a dealership in Honolulu and paid to ship it over. Says a lot.

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Watch out for the craigslist/Facebook flippers. A common scam is that they buy a used instrument cluster from a salvage yard and swap it out, reflecting much less than actual miles.

I think most cars made in the last 5ish or so years shouldn't be susceptible to this nonsense anymore. The odometer is actually contained in a central computer in the vehicle, and it is communicated to the instrument cluster. And you can't just swap out THAT computer either, it has to be programmed to the same VIN so that all the other computers will talk to it.

Also, anything that does have a odometer in it, cannot by law be capable of getting programmed to a lower reading than it current has. You can roll the reading UP, but never down.

Of course, I had a older truck, a 2007 Chevy, and it had a dead instrument cluster when I bought it. When I ordered a new one, they just asked "how many miles you wanna put on it?" I said 180k, but I could have just as easily told them 80k. That's what Carfax's are for. That stuff shows up and the vehicle gets flagged forever.

[Obie]

"Do not buy a former rental car. The title is essentially "branded" as fleet/rental and when you try to get rid of it later, dealerships will view it similar to having been in an accident. Rental cars are abused in so many ways here on the island, you would not believe it. Also, the rental car companies do their own body work/paint and the ones that have been in accidents, since they don't run through any insurance companies, will not reflect the accident history."

This isn't accurate at least concerning Hertz. The Ford Escape I bought had the complete accident history and maintenance history. It had only minor parking lot damage and was shown to me before I bought it and then all of the damage was repaired .
Everything was recorded in Carfax too.

When I traded it in on a new Mazda, I got bluebook wholesale price which is all any dealer is going to give you unless it has really low miles.

[terracore]

"For what it's worth, when my friends in Hilo wanted to buy a slightly used Prius (think it was maybe a year old and 8k miles on it), they bought it from a dealership in Honolulu and paid to ship it over. Says a lot."

This reminds me- a friend of mine on Kauai bought a new car from a dealer in HNL and had it shipped to Kauai. She didn't pay anything to get it shipped, but it took a long time to get it. Apparently the Kauai dealers aren't any better than the BI.

[HiloJulie]

"Do not buy a former rental car."

"Rental cars are abused in so many ways here on the island, you would not believe it"

I'm 50/50 on this.

First, as I said earlier, I know several friends who found great cars buying thru Hertz and Avis. Plus, Obie's luck.

I will say a bit of common sense is required with respect to which rental cars one can buy that possibly were subject to abuse, such as:

• Musting GT
  
• Camaro
  
• Any vehicle, make, model or type that has the name "Hell" in it
  
• 4x4 vehicles allowed to be rented to go to the top of Mauna Kea and/or off-road use in any way
  
• Trucks rented for commercial use
  

I'd say most used cars for sale that were driven/maintained by the average Puna car owner will have way more abuse than any 1 and 1/2 to 2-year-old rental car outside of the ones listed above.

[Punatang]

HJ you nailed it.  I've had a Hertz and another fleet car I bought from a dealer.  Sold one back to a dealer for top dollar and got top dollar from my insurance company when the other was totaled.  A huge number of the cars for sale at dealers in Hawaii are fleet cars.  They both performed flawlessly for years.  Probably the most reliable used cars I've ever owned. Sad to see both of them go.  Not doubting your personal experience Obie.