Used Cars: One More Thing, carfax report, renting cars


Question
I want to add a pertinent fact to my earlier question.  The dealer bought the car at auction.  The CarFax report shows that it was owned by a "major rental company."  I know that the major rental companies have their own used car lots.  Is this an indication that the rental company unloaded it, because it was a lemon?  Thanks for your indulgence.

Answer
Ok...for your first question, in my opinion you do have more risk buying a low mileage rental car vs a one owner (personal) owned car.  Simple fact that people renting cars could care less how they treat them, I am not saying that is ALWAYS the case.  But generally people who own cars on a personal basis, will take EXCEPTIONAL care of their vehicle, I personally would prefer the personal car over the rental car all day long.  Now the plus for rental companies is they do have a regular maintenance routine they are supposed to abide by, but when you are dealing with such a large scale of cars, it is hard to keep up with every single one of them like they are supposed to.
Now to your second question, I would not necessarily think anything bad about a car because a rental company sent it to the auction, there are other factors that could determine why a vehicle goes to the auction.  I would look more about the make and model vehicle as a whole, and that reputation as opposed to why they may have sent it to the auction.  My recommendation to you is this, Carfax is a decent report, but if you want to know possible lemon potentials, write the Vin number down to vehicle of interest, take it to the local new car franchise that Maintances those car under manufacturers warranty and have them pull a warranty repair history on the vehicle.  That report will tell you more about the possibilities of purchasing a lemon than a carfax.  Carfax is focused more on wrecks, floods, fires and such but they do not have adequate information on what has really been done to the vehicle.  I hope this is helpful and let me know if you have any more questions.