Storm Erupts Over Ex-Rental Vehicles
A huge storm has erupted in the UK over the highly misleading practice of hiding the identity of ex-rental cars unwittingly bought by the public from official dealerships, paying thousands of dollars more than their real worth.
The UK tabloid newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, reports that it is a widespread practice for car rental companies to register their cars under an ‘innocent’ business name, and then pass their used stock onto the public as a ‘one owner vehicle’.
Of course it’s a one owner vehicle! But with many tens or hundreds of drivers, some of whom love to thrash rental cars!
Had the cars been honestly revealed as ex-rental cars they would have commanded thousands of dollars less in the market place.
The Daily Telegraph claims that two of the UK’s biggest car hire firms used a ‘front’ company name to register vehicles, meaning buyers didn’t recognise the ‘real’ previous owner from the registration documents.
The most controversial cases involve cars that were previously hired out by National Car Rental, which is owned by Europcar, Britains biggest car hire company, which has a fleet totalling 54,000.
The company registered the vehicles in the name of Provincial Securities Ltd. a compnay it owns that did no business.
Can it, does it happen here?
Well, frankly we don’t know. We hope not, but that’s a wish, not a certainty.
If you know, one way or the other, then let us, and our customers, know too.
Level 2, 9 Help Street
Steven Diala says:
I feel that it is unethical to sell ex rental vehicles, which have a lot shorter lifespan on many components than regular one-owner cars, as regular one-owner second hand cars. What has been exposed here is a deliberate and ongoing defrauding of people buying these vehicles.
I like it when rackets such as these get exposed for what they truly are, and the public is made aware. Sadly though, for every scamster named and shamed, there are twenty others coining it from ripping people off.
The internet is really a wonderful tool, and the more it gets used to keep unscrupulous operators clean, the better.
Keep well
Steven
April 16th, 2010 at 5:29 pm