When you buy a used car, you probably imagine that someone else bought it when it was brand new and later decided to upgrade. Maybe they traded their car in at the dealership to get a better price on the next vehicle. For older cars, you may assume that there were a few different owners.
But what if the truth is that hundreds or even thousands of people have driven that vehicle? Many used vehicles are actually being moved out of rental car fleets. People can rent these vehicles for hours, days, or even weeks. But there could have been thousands of different drivers who rented the car over the years before it was finally sold off to a dealership and then purchased by you.
Tens of thousands of cars
If you think this isn’t common, it’s important to know that it happens with fair frequency. For example, the rental company Avis recently sold 35,000 vehicles in a single month. That was about 10% of the entire fleet that they had in the country, and they sold it all off at one time.
That said, about 40 million used cars are bought and sold every year. Even if a rental company like Hertz sold all of their vehicles, that would only be about 500,000 cars. It’s a significant amount, to be sure, but far less than 40 million cars that are being sold annually.
If you do buy a used vehicle that was from a rental fleet, there could be all sorts of issues due to the fact that there were so many different drivers over the years. Make sure you are well aware of all of your rights and options.