I've been looking around for my first car, found a 2015 Hyundai i30 with nearly 50km on carsales, Called the dealer and he told me this is a ex-fleet car and in very good condition . However my co-workers have been telling me to avoid ex-fleet cars at all cost as ex-fleet vehicles normally got thrashed on a daily basis.
Should I Avoid Ex-Fleet Cars from Dealers?
CharityCase on 10/02/2017 - 14:26
Comments
Thx Gronk, I called the dealer again they confirmed its a ex-fleet not rental. This is 2015 Hyundai i30 active auto with 50kms without rego , they are asking for $15990, can you please educate me whats the reasonable price I should try to negotiate? (or how much would you pay?) I just started looking for cars and have absolutely no clue on 2nd hand market…
$14,790 for the same car here
That's your negotiation benchmarkWhat he said, I didn't find any better deals in my quick search :)
In actual fact, there are plenty of similar vehicles advertised in the 17k-18k range so under $15k is pretty good IMO.
Agree with Gronk, there's no real issue with ex-fleet, and the employees that get themselves in a position to get a company car (IMO) are less likely to thrash a car.
50,000km seems a bit high for something like a i30, but as for how it was treated/services, I wouldn't see that as a concern.
I've previously bought an ex fleet Camry. 4 years old with 170,000km on the clock - no issues.
I'll add my 2c agreeing with the above. I wouldn't purchase an ex-rental but ex-fleet in my experience are in pretty good nick, mainly because they're serviced regularly, and unlike the old days where you could hand back a leased vehicle in any condition, the leasing companies will go over the car as if you were returning a rental
I personally wouldn't buy an ex-lease vehicle.
The drivers (I'm not saying all of them!) of these cars can really "drive it like it like they stole it".
When buying a used car, the condition of the mechanical parts are much more important than the exterior appearance. In most cases, it's almost impossible to tell whether there's something mechanically wrong with the car. Even NRMA/RACV inspections don't go into that sort of detail. So I'd rather spend a little more and get something I know hasn't for sure hasn't been thrashed around.
You cant ever be sure with a 2nd hand car, unless its off a relative or something.
You want to be sure? Buy new.
The risk of the car being thrashed mechanically in ex-fleet/ex-lease vehicles is much much higher than just a regular second hand car.
Agree.
wouldn't buy ex lease/rental unless it's a fair bit cheaper than market price.
50km is a lot for the asking price of $15990.brand new base model is only $4000 more with full warranty,full length roadside assistant,including all ORC and rego,new tyres.at 50km,tyres maybe on the boarderline too if not replaced,that's close to a grand if you want oem spec brand.also,if you decide to purchase comprehensive insurance,and your car end up being a write off in an accident,insurance company will only replace your car with a brand new car if you have owned it from brand new and it's less than 2 years old,if you didn't own it from new,insurance will only pay you market value or agreed value（agreed value has a higher premium） even your car is less than 2 years old.
I bought a privately owned 2nd hand i30 elite for my wife last month,2013 model with 36km and it looks just lke new,owner was asking $16000 with both service and rego due in 2 weeks,i ended up get the price down to $14500,cost me $15900 in total to transfer in my wife's name and 1 year rego.it has a fair bit of extras over active,I didn't feel those extras were necessary untill last week when we went to Qld and rent a small hatch,they gave us an i30 active,I find myself miss all those features,particularly keyless entry/start（key in yoir pocket the whole time,very handy if you have a baby in your arm plus shopping）,auto windows up/down for all 4 doors,auto folding mirrors,very advanced sat nav system（try test one with the sat nav,you will love it）,multi fan speed for A/C（I think it's more like 7 or 8 fan speed compare to 4 speed in the active,sometimes I really wish I could set the fan speed between say 3 and 4 or 2 and 3 in the active rental car,it's either too strong or not enough).
For the car you mentioned,I wouldn't pay more than what I paid for the i30 elite.yes,it's 2015,but no big visual changes,and it has more km, a lot less features.
Make sure it is ex-fleet, and they're not just hiding an ex-rental
If the first owner was "WTH Pty Ltd", run… that's ex-rental.
So just double-check that before you do anything.
^^ This is the man to ask for these type of questions!
Obviously anything owned by What The Hell Pty Ltd is going to be dodgy
Or you could go to the Government Motor Vehicle Auctions and cut out the middle man.
I bought an 2011 FG XT Falcon 2 yrs ago that was ex fleet from a Holden dealer, checked it out on REVs etc was owned by one of the major finance co and leased to Otis elevators I had the log books and such had high mileage (150,000) but was mechanically sound and immaculate
Still have it only issue was 6 mths in the starter motor went apparently a common problem.The 6 spd auto is one of the never touch items that with that mileage on it I decided to have serviced it had NEVER been done but as I watched the transmission guy do the service the fluid was like new (colour wise) and no sign of heat damage, improper use the auto trans specialist commented that the car had never seen hard work. It never had a towbar so I know it never towed anything
So that's my experience and it cost me ten grand shipped on a truck from syney happy camper all the way
I think your co-workers are referring to ex-rental fleet vehicles, so those which were previously owned by the likes of Hertz.
A normal end-of-lease vehicle though - I'd be more than happy to have one, because they're generally well looked after and have been fully serviced because it's all contained in the cost of the lease. Same for ex govt / company fleet vehicles, sure you get the odd owner who just doesn't know how to look after a car but generally you can pick these fairly easily.