Help me out here guys. I am thinking about a 2000 Bonneville that is for sale in my home town. The car is very clean, and nothing seems to wrong, although it has 107,000 milles, and carfax said it was a renthal. Is it worth buying or will the engine and or transmission go out????

Moved to General Chat.

Please post only PERFORMANCE related topics in Performance and Brainstorming.

Depending on how it was treated by the renters,that may be a risky proposition.

Kinda like going to a whorehouse looking for a wife :?

Well, IMO, I would not buy a previous rental car. Go look on streetfire.net and type in rental and look at all the cars that are severely abused, then take a second thought. I think it is disrespectful to rent a car, abuse it and return it for someone else to use. What if someone rents that car the next day and a tie rod breaks while passing on a freeway, and your whole family is killed? Then what is the person gonna say that abused that car the day before?

Sorry I had to vent.. in a bad mood, one of my mom'* cats were killed.

My Bonneville was previously a rented car as well, and it was in pretty good shape by the time it made it to me, I think I was the 3rd or 4th owner IIRC.

I think we all know that Bonnevilles can usually hold up to abuse rather well within reason, so I say check it out, have it checked out by a trusted mechanic if you can, and go with what you feel is best.

I think my current car may have been a rental as well, I cant remember though....anyone got a carfax?

There really is no way to predict if the engine, transmission, or any other part on that car will go. If you are considering buying it, take it to a respected mechanic and have it checked over.

Thanks all of you who responded so quickly! Now I have to really think it over!

1998 Bonneville SSEi

my carfax said that my car was a rental, and it has been a fantastic investment as far as reliability is concerned.

Yes, some stupid kids get ahold of a rental car and thrash it (been there myself), however is true for the family mini-van. I believe that the majority are not driven hard, and are meticulously maintained, because the companys dont want to have something bad happen to the car while the customer is out driving

This might serve as advice..

recently i was after a 2000 ssei with 200,000KM (150000miles)
the dealer was asking for only 5,000$ canadian
there was a bit of rust on the mufflers, c-arms...etc.
the interior-passanger side was messed up, because the previous owner would ride with his dog.
The engine seemed in amazing shape no leaks or unusual noise.
either way 5,000$ was a steal, and there was finance available

i didnt take it simply because he wanted me to qualify for finance before i could test drive.
I left the place and came back a few days later.. i was determined to buy it.
the price had been raised to almost 8,000$ so i didnt even bother.
sure enough someone ended up taking it for around that price.

i should of hit it when it was only 5,000$..
the moral of the story kids... hit it when you can you might not get a second chance.

how do a stainless steel muffler, and aluminum control arms rust?