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16vracer

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
We bought my wife's 2001 Saab 9-5 Wagon from Barrier Motors in Bellevue WA in Nov 2002. We were actually looking at a Volvo wagon but the salesman told us about a mint 2001 Saab wagon that they'd just taken in as a trade from some lady, it hadn't even been gone over by the service people yet or put on the lot for sale.
Wife drove it, loved it. We opted for the Saab Certification which basically garantees it for 100k miles, we bought it at 33k miles, so for the extra $1000 it was worth it. So we left it there with them so the dealer could go through everything.
Everything has been great.
Yesterday I took it to Carter Saab in Seattle for a 50k service. The service advisor punched in the VIN and told me it used to be a F'in RENTAL CAR !!!!
.
Was that legal for the salesman to not disclose this info? And he told us it belonged to a older woman.
Can I do anything about? legally
 
#2 ·
Re: Is this legal? (16vracer)

Nothing you can do legally, Why would you think he has to tell you where the car came from?
IF everything has been great what is the issue?...I know you bought a rental car, I would be pissed as well.
I almost bought a Pathfinder that was a rental, the sales guy opened the glove compartment and out fell the Enterprise leasing agreement from the last rental..No sell here.
 
#4 ·
Re: Is this legal? (16vracer)

I dont see anything that you can do legally. I got one word of advice to you never buy a car without carfaxing it first. I made this mistake and found out that my car has been totaled
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-one year after i bought the car. I think you should be fine thought because no rental company nowadays rents cars to anyone under 25 So, hopefully mostly mature people drove your car.
 
#5 ·
Re: (kryptonik)

What is it that you would try and do legally? Just because it was a rental does not make it worth less. It just makes it a little less desireable, since we all know that rentals are driven like, well, rental cars.
If were happy with it, and everything has been great, and you got the extended warranty, you really have nothing to be unhappy about. You just know a little more about your car than you did previously.
As far as the car being misrepresented, the salesman could have just been mistaken. Or he could have straight up lied to you. Who knows? The important thing is that you were happy with the car, and you can still be happy with it.
Think of it like you rescued the car... kind of like adopting a nice fluffy kitty cat from the local animal shelter. You're giving it a much better home than it had before.
Image
 
#6 ·
Re: (GTI2pointSLOW)

I work in car sales, and can tell you, though you do have some recourse legally it won't be worth the trouble. It would only be worth it if you wanted to sock it to the dealership.
You could report it to Saab corporate, but unfortunately, all dealerships are independent businesses so they can't really fire him, but they can put pressure on the dealership and try to make sure the guy doesn't do this again.
the other guy had a good point; as long as you're happy with it, that's what matters. Saabs are pretty robust cars, one year in a rental fleet isn't going to kill it. At the dealership I'm at, our loaner cars get registered as rentals. Could be it belonged to the dealer. The sad fact is that a lot of salesmen don't know where their cars come from; i'll just admit it outright, but others need to pull the "old lady from pasadena" bs.
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Plus, think about what kind of person will fork over the extra $100 to rent a Saab instead of a Contour... probably doesn't have WRC pretensions.
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
Re: (ponyone)

Quote, originally posted by ponyone »
I work in car sales, and can tell you, though you do have some recourse legally it won't be worth the trouble. It would only be worth it if you wanted to sock it to the dealership.
You could report it to Saab corporate, but unfortunately, all dealerships are independent businesses so they can't really fire him, but they can put pressure on the dealership and try to make sure the guy doesn't do this again.
the other guy had a good point; as long as you're happy with it, that's what matters. Saabs are pretty robust cars, one year in a rental fleet isn't going to kill it. At the dealership I'm at, our loaner cars get registered as rentals. Could be it belonged to the dealer. The sad fact is that a lot of salesmen don't know where their cars come from; i'll just admit it outright, but others need to pull the "old lady from pasadena" bs.
Image
Plus, think about what kind of person will fork over the extra $100 to rent a Saab instead of a Contour... probably doesn't have WRC pretensions.

yeah, you're probably right there, never thought about the type of person that would pay extra for a Saab and a wagon at that
 
#8 ·
Re: (16vracer)

I don't see what the big deal is. Are you sure the car wasn't a former rental, then this lady bought it and then you got it? Essentially being the third owner?
I bought a former rental car about a year ago. It was a 02' Taurus, I put 20K miles on it without a single problem. There is really two ways of looking at this: Rental cars may or may not get the piss driven out of them, BUT they are put into a routine maintenance program that is always followed. On the flip side, you can buy a one owner car off the lot and there could be a very good chance someone like my neighbor could have owned it. She drives the crap out of them, never gets them serviced, but has a son that cleans the car religiously. So to see the car, you would think it was a clean well cared for one owner car, but in reality it couldn't be further from the truth.
If you haven't had any problems with it why worry about it? Hate to say it, but its kinda your fault for not running a Carfax or some other background check on it before you bought it, if you were concerned about it being a rental. Just enjoy it......... who cares how it started its life.
 
#9 ·
We bought my wife's Volvo 850 as a "Select" car from a Volvo dealer knowing it was a rental. It's been at least as good as any other 850 I've heard of.
Now, it only had about 20K miles on it. 33K is an awful lot of rental miles in my mind.
I tried out the Saab. Couldn't stand it. Felt like mush after the 850 (and ours is the GLT with no turbo). No doubt in my mind we'll replace it with another Volvo.
 
Discussion starter · #10 ·
Re: (dbphillips)

Quote, originally posted by dbphillips »
We bought my wife's Volvo 850 as a "Select" car from a Volvo dealer knowing it was a rental. It's been at least as good as any other 850 I've heard of.
Now, it only had about 20K miles on it. 33K is an awful lot of rental miles in my mind.
I tried out the Saab. Couldn't stand it. Felt like mush after the 850 (and ours is the GLT with no turbo). No doubt in my mind we'll replace it with another Volvo.

what saab did you drive? Ours feels pretty damn fast in Sport mode, atleast for a car that size. Not real fast, but it felt faster than an unchipped 1.8t
 
#11 ·
Re: Is this legal? (16vracer)

Quote, originally posted by 16vracer »
We bought my wife's 2001 Saab 9-5 Wagon from Barrier Motors in Bellevue WA in Nov 2002. We were actually looking at a Volvo wagon but the salesman told us about a mint 2001 Saab wagon that they'd just taken in as a trade from some lady, it hadn't even been gone over by the service people yet or put on the lot for sale.
Wife drove it, loved it. We opted for the Saab Certification which basically garantees it for 100k miles, we bought it at 33k miles, so for the extra $1000 it was worth it. So we left it there with them so the dealer could go through everything.
Everything has been great.
Yesterday I took it to Carter Saab in Seattle for a 50k service. The service advisor punched in the VIN and told me it used to be a F'in RENTAL CAR !!!!
.
Was that legal for the salesman to not disclose this info? And he told us it belonged to a older woman.
Can I do anything about? legally

Hey Fred, technically, they are suppose to disclose this fact. When the car is purchase for rental, they have a special fleet licensing. It should be on the title and should come up on a Carfax report. You can try to battle this but it will require an attorney. good luck
 
#12 ·
Re: Is this legal? (1stVR6)

Look at it this way. Most people who are going to beat the crap out of a rental are probably not going to opt for the upgraded rental. The Ford Focus, the Toyota Camry, Nissan Sentra. These seem to be the cars that would get the snot beat out of them.
Someone who is going to pony up the extra cash for a nicer rental is probably just going to drive it and return it.
 
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