Save yourself a couple of grand and buy from a private party via autotrader or cars.com. Make sure they have the title and have it checked by a mechanic if you don't know much about cars. If you are somewhat patient, you should be able to find a local vehicle that has one owner.

As far as rentals go

I remember a friend rented a car for the weekend when I was a kid and he smoked weed in it, burned all the tread off the tires from doing donuts, blew the speakers, and then smashed threw a bonfire successfully without killing himself or others

Oh, I'm definitely getting a Tesla next.

That said. I have always been kind to my rentals. Except for one poor truck that somehow I beat the crap out of accidentally while moving. Blew a tire on a hidden sharp thing, put a dent in it, knocked a side mirror off, all in a week. Ordered an identical replacement tire and returned the truck with it in the bed. Took it to Dentbusters and paid $350 to have the dent popped. Only thing I had to pay extra for was the side mirror. I legitimately felt awful returning it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hertz is selling tons of extremely low mile cars for way less than car max.

For folks not in the know I used to go to Auto Auctions and Hertz off lease cars always sold for more than private party cars. They are kept spotless and all maint is performed. They are turn key. Private owner cars not as much.

Where are they selling? Directly online?

https://www.hertzcarsales.com/

There are some deals there. 2019 minivans for $15k

OMG. Thanks for the link. This is where we are totally buying DS's first car. DH is talking some Tesla nonsense.

I got my first car (Toyota Corolla) from a car rental place. Ran like a dream for 10 years and almost 200,000 miles before my dad offered to get me a new car for safety features. It was an awesome car.

Rental drivers do not care much about the car and do not treat them as gently as an owner does. I knew someone who tried this and he said that it generally required more maintenance than a car should have for its age and mileage because more components wore out from non-gentle use.

Rental cars are driven hard/rough, OP. I do it myself too.

Anonymous wrote:If you are looking to purchase a Honda vehicle, you will likely be out of luck as Honda typically does not allow any of their vehicles to be used as rentals.

I don’t know where you got this idea, but I’ve rented Honda’s, the manufacturer really has no control over the end use of the vehicle, and if anything, a company having its cars in a rental fleet would seem to be incredible advertising.

We purchased a used car through Hertz a few years ago and had a good experience. Paid cash, the car had fairly low mileage, they fixed a cosmetic issue on the car's exterior, still works fine today.

Most prices are labeled “no haggle”. Has anyone had any luck negotiating a better deal?

I recently bought a 2019 from a rental car. They dump cars at a certain mileage. My car had 12k miles. I felt it was an excellent deal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hertz is selling tons of extremely low mile cars for way less than car max.

For folks not in the know I used to go to Auto Auctions and Hertz off lease cars always sold for more than private party cars. They are kept spotless and all maint is performed. They are turn key. Private owner cars not as much.

Where are they selling? Directly online?

https://www.hertzcarsales.com/

There are some deals there. 2019 minivans for $15k

Anonymous wrote:Hertz is selling tons of extremely low mile cars for way less than car max.

For folks not in the know I used to go to Auto Auctions and Hertz off lease cars always sold for more than private party cars. They are kept spotless and all maint is performed. They are turn key. Private owner cars not as much.

Where are they selling? Directly online?

If you are looking to purchase a Honda vehicle, you will likely be out of luck as Honda typically does not allow any of their vehicles to be used as rentals.

People often give the line about rental cars being trashed by drivers, but think about the common use for rental cars especially around city areas such as DC. Think about your own use of it. You pick it up at the airport, drive a few miles to the hotel, go back and forth a few times between the hotel and work site, and then back to the airport.

If the rental car spend most of its life out in Vegas or around a National Park, sure. But let's be realistic here. Remember also that rental cars are checked over and maintained much more regularly than someone who had it as a lease.

Also, like others have said, many used cars you see at dealers or CarMax are also rental cars.

People need to stop just spewing the "rental cars are bad because they are trashed" line. You've been watching too many movies.

There is no such things as a "gently used" car with 40k miles purchased from a car rental agency. 500 different people could have driven it and none of them give a darn about the car. Visit some car dealership and look for cars coming off a three year lease that are certified pre-owned. You can get a good deal.