Ever buy a Hertz rental?

Ok, done deal.

Bought a 2001 mazda 626, real beauty. Checked maintenance records, looks fine car has 27k miles and has been maintained. Chip in windshield, hertz is sending a guy to my house tomorrow to replace the window. Some loose weatherstripping, Hertz is sending me to the dealer for that.

I got this car for 11995 and 300 discount for being a AAA member. So 11695. I knew my credit was jacked so I saved up 20% so I could get a loan. The bottom line was 9.6% from Primus. I was approved on one of thier other banks but the rate was higher.

At this point I can really recommend buying a car from Hertz. They don't haggle, but thier sticker price is about a $1000 higher than low book and about $1500-$2000 less than a regular dealer. The sales people don't seem to get paid on the financing so you don't have to worry that they are sticking you with a higher rate than you deserve. I'm sure they get paid something on the extended warranty cause they hammer pretty hard on that, but even thier warranty costs less than a dealers. Like $900 for what a lot of places want $1500 for.

I have never bought an ex rental so only time will tell whether it was smart or not. But unless something unforseen comes up with the car I think I did better than I would have with a "regular dealer" and the financing seems fair to me.

On another note, I don't know if it helped or not but I did time my disputes so that they would have a smaller impact on my score.

Inquiries were 3 on Equifax and 1 on Experian.

Eq 623
Ex 642
Tu 574

 

Smog, I didn't go with the extended warranty. My logic is that 900 bucks is quite a bit of service and something pretty major would have to go wrong to justify it. I'm not opposed to warranties, I just figure that since my wife and I have been working real hard to have some money in the bank when something needs repair we can pay cash for it. Of course if the motor or tranny goes the warranty would have been a deal, but I think the odds are in favor of the big things lasting.

I checked as much about mazda repair as I could get my hands on. A little more problematic than toyota, less so than american cars. And man, you get a lot more car for your money than you do on a toyota or nissan. $3000 less than a similarly equipped camry and nicer to drive IMHO.

The hertz guys really didn't hammer me. None of the horror stories you hear from people at new car dealerships. You walk on the lot, get approached within a couple of minutes. Ask about what you're interested in. They check your license, give you the keys and let you drive it without the salesman. If you like a car, take a look at the maintenance records (you probably won't see anything major, don't be surprised to see a fender bender or two). If you decide to buy it doesn't take any longer than to fill out the paperwork and submit to the lenders. If you're prime you should have an answer back in 5 minutes. If you're sub-prime and it's business hours you can get an answer from the other banks in another half-hour. You need a cashiers check for the down payment so you will probably come back the next day and finish signing. Give the car one last walk around and make sure they arrange to fix any problems, take your keys and go. It might take four hours, but they ain't sweating you. It just takes that long to deal with all the paperwork. The only thing I needed to decline was the warranty and they only made me say no twice.

In summary, it wasn't a bad experience at all. So, I gotta say hertz is a good way to buy a late model car without getting ripped off. That's all I was asking for and thats what I got.

 

OUCH! I have read about mazda's having tranny problems in the past. They were getting ford tranny's (i think the trucks are actually a ford ranger witha a mazda badge). It's supposed to be fixed as of the 2000 model year and i have my fingers crossed. Thats the thing about warranties too. $1600 could go a long way towords a new transmission should it need to be done. I understand that even with a warranty they still "depreciate" the parts and make you pony up some prorated difference. Just doesn't seem all that swell to me.