Ex-Rental Car Fleet Jeep Cherokee

[burkemotorcross]

I am looking at getting a 2001 jeep cherokee with the 4.0, AW4, 4x4 with the Command Trac Transfer Case. The jeep looks great but according to the carfax, the jeep was at the beginning of its life, registered to a rental company. the jeep looks great, and is relatively low miles, 102,000.

Should i let its previous history scare me? Anything in particular i can check to see if it was abused?

Thanks, any thoughts about this deal? should i avoid it?

 

[FlexdXJ]

The history shouldn't scare you, the 0331 head should though. If its been replaced with one with the revised casting it will be fine but if it hasn't been replaced its a ticking time bomb.

 

[REWSTER]

i rented a car once..........













drifting is fun :shhh:

 

[stephenspann27]

Remember that cars don't have a memory, and that they are inanimate objects. If the jeep experienced some "trama" in its past, it has no memory of it. Its an auto tranny, so you don't have to worry about clutch abuse, brakes are cheap.. Just try to think of "terrible" things it might have been through and what effect it might have had on it.. in most cases it would have caused something to break which would have been replaced and there be no long term effect.

Be sure and check the tranny fluid color and look over the unibody really well of cracks. I work for a company that rents cars weekly. We are really hard on the cars but so are the rental car company employees, I've seen them burning rubber in the parking lot etc.
Most rental car companies don't keep their cars more than 30k miles or so (at least that has been true of all the cars I've rented).

 

[tbburg]

Look at it this way: regardless of the abuse a rental jeep gets, it's all on road. No matter what happened to the poor thing, nobody bashed it down the Rubicon. Chances are it isn't "sprung". No serious bends and/or warps. If there was serious power train abuse, it would probably have shown up in the 70-80K miles since it was a rental.

As far as the 0331 head, if it's a late production date, it probably doesn't have the problem. Everything points to some kind of(very quietly done) fix about 1/2 way through the 01 model year.

 

[Ronbo]

Look at it this way: regardless of the abuse a rental jeep gets, it's all on road. No matter what happened to the poor thing, nobody bashed it down the Rubicon.

??
My co-worker rents a Jeep to get to remote property in Mexico all the time. She hasn't had an XJ in a while, but has in the past.
I pulled a rental XJ out of sand dunes in Borrego Springs quite a few years back.

Just give it a good inspection. It's getting hard to find a pristine XJ anyway.

 

[Texas Twitch]

A word of warning: DON'T DO IT!

My sister bought an 07 Jeep Compass about 2 years ago. FWD, auto, 4-banger. She saw a great deal with higher-than-normal mileage, but the deal they made her was awesome. She regretted to inform me that it was an ex rental car when she bought it. It has 58,000 miles and I just got done putting a new trans in it about a month ago.

Jeff Foxworthy said it best: It doesn't matter who you are, even an 85 year old grandma drives a rental car like they just stole it. (paraphrased)

I for one, know that when i was younger we would rent a car every weekend, slap a nitrous kit on it, and run to the track or the street races and run the piss out of it. While that's a stretch on your average car renter, it just shows that eve myself, being a car guy that respects cars more than most, will run a rental to the ground.

 

[FlexdXJ]

A word of warning: DON'T DO IT!

My sister bought an 07 Jeep Compass about 2 years ago. FWD, auto, 4-banger. She saw a great deal with higher-than-normal mileage, but the deal they made her was awesome. She regretted to inform me that it was an ex rental car when she bought it. It has 58,000 miles and I just got done putting a new trans in it about a month ago.

Jeff Foxworthy said it best: It doesn't matter who you are, even an 85 year old grandma drives a rental car like they just stole it. (paraphrased)

I for one, know that when i was younger we would rent a car every weekend, slap a nitrous kit on it, and run to the track or the street races and run the piss out of it. While that's a stretch on your average car renter, it just shows that eve myself, being a car guy that respects cars more than most, will run a rental to the ground.

Thats also a compass and an XJ is far more sturdy and able to take abuse!

 

[wacho4]

Look at it this way: regardless of the abuse a rental jeep gets, it's all on road. No matter what happened to the poor thing, nobody bashed it down the Rubicon. Chances are it isn't "sprung". No serious bends and/or warps. If there was serious power train abuse, it would probably have shown up in the 70-80K miles since it was a rental.

As far as the 0331 head, if it's a late production date, it probably doesn't have the problem. Everything points to some kind of(very quietly done) fix about 1/2 way through the 01 model year.

I've gotten 3 front wheel drive rental cars stuck where shouldn't have been and one also on a curb. So that's not probbally totally true. But renetal cars do usually have problem componets fixed rather quickly as stephen suggested.

 

[xjtrailrider]

One of my 96 XJ's was a rental that spent its life in the Raleigh/Durham area of NC. I bought it in 05' with 60k on the clock from a dealer in VA. He was unable to sell it do to a noise in the rear end, I got it for 4k. The 8.25 locked up at 80k due to a bad pinion bearing. I rebuilt the diff myself with new gears and other than routine maintenance that is all the repairs that have been made.

It has a 3" OME/Rubicon lift and a few other goodies. I gave it to my 16 year old son for his first Jeep. It now has 100k on it and runs like a champ! He just drove it to Myrtle Beach and back last week with no issues.

Here it is when I bought it.

Here it is now

 

[BlueCuda]

I wouldn't sweat it, fleet cars get well cared for but usually driven hard. I drive my jeep like its a rental all the time anyways. Besides, they have rev limiters and there isn't much you can do to a 4.0 to hurt it as long as its got oil. I have seen a 4.0 with 250K on it ride the rev limiter up hill climbs and never break a sweat! Get it like someone said earlier its getting hard to find nice ones.

 

[xjclassic2000]

I picked up an ex rental XJ once. The lady I bought it from got it with 30,000 miles on it, and she sold it to me with 130,000 with a bad trans. Aside from that, the thing was IMMACULATE. I wouldn't worry about anything going bad on it. It was the cleanest xj I've ever seen actually. I regret having to sell it. I don't think that the trans going out had anything to do with it being a rental though, considering the lady put 100k on it herself.

 

[Boatwrench]

I buy most of my newer cars from Hertz and my beaters at salvage auctions.

If you are worried about a vehicles history, buy new and then you'll know, except for the part about the lot apes at the staging yards and dealerships turning doughnuts at night, dropping cars off of the trucks, oops didn't have oil in it when rolled off the assembly line....:laugh:

 

[87manche]

if the body is clean the rest of it can be replaced. THe body is the driving concern in what XJ you should buy. Plenty of good runing 4.0's in donor chassis can be had for cheap.

 

[heyhar]

I like the deal with the late-model front bumper. Real clean...

 

[cracked-butt]

check all the fluids , do a good inspection of the underbody/unibody.
if there isn't any problems with the tranny slipping/goin bad, the unibody is streight.
everything else can be fixed the way YOU want it.
get it & don't look back.

 

[Darky]

Rentals aren't in any worse shape than anything else. Especially when it's a 2001. It was a rental 8-9 yrs ago. When I worked for Hertz, any issues were taken care of immediately. The cars were gotten rid of after 1 yr or 30k miles.

 

[joe_peters]

Rentals aren't in any worse shape than anything else. Especially when it's a 2001. It was a rental 8-9 yrs ago. When I worked for Hertz, any issues were taken care of immediately. The cars were gotten rid of after 1 yr or 30k miles.

I agree.

Now, back when Hertz was renting Shelby Mustang GT 350-Hs...

 

[Cottontail]

I'll throw my suggestion into the ring also. Go for it.

My 2001 Anniversary Edition was a fleet truck and with 130,000 on it, I have a great platform for building it the way I want.

My only regret was getting one that was a fleet truck in the north. A few rust issues...but nothing horrible...mostly frozen bolts.

Good luck.

 

[Darky]

I agree.

Now, back when Hertz was renting Shelby Mustang GT 350-Hs...

Whaddya mean back when...they brought them back for 2007, and switched to convertibles for 2008.