Car question

[Monica]

I need some car advice. I am looking to buy a 2009 Nissan Rogue. It has 58,000 miles on it. Is this to high for a used car? Also the dealer states that it was a fleet vehicle so it was always on a maintenance program with one driver. I am not sure what that means. (the bold part was his exact words)



If this doesn't belong here, feel free and move it.

[TheSHAD0W]

58K is fair for a fleet vehicle. I recommend you use Carfax or a similar service to obtain an owner history, which will assure you of its being a fleet vehicle (in addition to making sure it hasn't been in a serious collision, etc).

Fleet vehicles are usually good buys, since they're typically well maintained by the company's service department.

[It's me]

Fleet means it was leased to a company and assigned to someone... likely a sales person who needed to drive to customers, or maybe a government agency that needed to do home visits... that sort of thing. 58,000 miles is about 92,000 km.... which works out to about 30,000 km/year (sorry have to convert to km, for this sort of stuff I think in metric!).

A typical vehicle used for commuting will have about 20,000 km a year... so the car you are looking at is about 50% higher than that, so as TheShadow pointed out for a that is driven around all day 58K miles is very reasonable.

Fleet driven vehicles can be a great buy, if they were looked after and not abused, or a great liability if they were mistreated. Even a good maintenance program can't overcome deliberate abuse.

Is there any warranty left? If the car is in good shape (have a mechanic check it over), is accident-free and has some warranty left it could be a good deal if the price is right. Do you have other Rogues to compare it to for price, features, mileage, etc.?

[Jester]

Definitely get a Carfax report to make sure the dealer is telling you the truth about the car's history, as not all dealers are always so above board. (Oh, the stories I could tell you about some of my car hunts......)

Also, definitely get a mechanic that you trust to check it out.

As for the mileage, that is a bit high for a 3 year old vehicle, but overall not all that high for used car buy. My last two vehicles, which were my two most reliable vehicles, each came with over NINETY thousand miles. If it's a good car, and it's been well-maintained, 58,000 is not at all that bad.

[Monica]

I will do the Carfax for sure.

My cousin who is a mechanic will be in town next week. I will have her take a look at it and get her thoughts.

I will get on the rest of the tips.

Thanks everyone!

[Andara Bledin]

I got lucky with my car hunt, which was 18 months ago.

We went through a used car expert that is attached to a credit union. She spent a month shopping around to find a lender willing to work with us and our lack of credit (thank the blue that I had to do a rent-to-own for my fridge a few years prior or we'd have been SOL). What we ended up with appears to have been a fleet vehicle and is in awesome condition.

But if you don't have an expert working for your interests, then absolutely do the legwork yourself. It's too big an investment to leave to chance and the goodwill of others.

^-.-^

[Monica]

I got my other cars from the dealer as well. It's a small dealer only 2 people work there, the owner and his son. My other cars have been fine. But I will get it checked out.

[protege]

Fleet driven vehicles can be a great buy, if they were looked after and not abused, or a great liability if they were mistreated. Even a good maintenance program can't overcome deliberate abuse.

^This.

If the company can prove that the car was maintained (is there a file of bills?), then it could be a great buy. However, many fleet vehicles suffer from the "it's not my car" attitude, and are treated accordingly. That is, they might get the oil changed and the brakes adjusted, but how do you know that the driver didn't attempt to lay rubber at every traffic light? Take it for a spin, get your mechanic to look at it, and go from there

[blas]

I bought my 2009 car in 2010 with 25,000 miles on it. It had previously been a rental car in Minnesota.

But, I bought "pre-certified", meaning they will not sell you the car if there is something mechanical about the car that does not work. Unlike some places, where you can buy a car without a functioning A/C, or broken power windows, etc etc, the only flaw in my car was a ding on the passenger side door.

[Shalom]

Also smell the car before you buy it.

I have a former salesman's car. 1988 Chevy S10 Blazer. It was in good shape, with documentation of servicing when I bought it in 1994, and I'm still driving it occasionally 18 years later (although it's not my only car). Problem was the salesman was a heavy smoker, and it took literally years to get that stink out of the car.

(What finally took care of it was the day a gallon bottle of Tincture of Green Soap broke on the floor of the back seat and soaked into the carpet, back around 2002. Now it smells like a hospital, but at least that's an improvement.)

[Monica]

The car deal in the first post didn't work out. They wouldn't budge on price. But I did get a newer car today. A 2010 Kia Soul + with 35,000 miles on it for only $5 more than what I was paying on my old car.