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[Seth C]

I got a carfax report on the car I'm looking at and the initial owner was listed as being a corporate lease. Is this bad, or ghood? It's certainly not like it was a taxi or rental, so that's a good thing. I actually assume that in that situation it would probably be more likely to get regular oil changes and things, right? Also, during that time the mileage was actually below average.

Anyone know more about this sort of thing?

 

[fart]

worse than single private owner for sure. the people i know who drive corporate owned vehicles all beat the shit out of them. ymmv as usual

 

[Lil' Dice]

I bought an Altima which was a corporate lease vehicle, and i drove the shit out of it for 180,000 miles with no problems. I wouldn't buy an American corporate lease car though....

 

[ShadowRed]

I got a carfax report on the car I'm looking at and the initial owner was listed as being a corporate lease. Is this bad, or ghood? It's certainly not like it was a taxi or rental, so that's a good thing. I actually assume that in that situation it would probably be more likely to get regular oil changes and things, right? Also, during that time the mileage was actually below average.

Anyone know more about this sort of thing?

Some people get a company car and run it into the ground. The company I used to work for fired a guy because he screwed his car up. Left it out in a hail storm, had mud all over it as if he had went offroading in it. The company didn't find out about it till he had it towed to the dealership because the transmission and motor was fucked in it. The dealership wasn't going to fix it because it was obvious that the guy was fucking it up. After that everytime we came to the office for a meeting they would instect our cars to make sure it was washed, and that we had been keeping up with the maintance. That instance was an aboration though. Most people took care of them and the company paid for all maintanace services. A lot of people after the lease was up would buy the cars from the lease company. The price you pay for it versus going out to a dealership and buying the same car with the same milage is drastic. You could pick up a 3 year could Tarus LS for 3000, most of which had a little more than 60,000 miles on them. Anyhow getting back to your question you need to have the car checked out by your own mechanic to make sure it's in proper working condition.

 

[Seth C]

I bought an Altima which was a corporate lease vehicle, and i drove the shit out of it for 180,000 miles with no problems. I wouldn't buy an American corporate lease car though....

Funny, the car in question is a '99 Altima. It only has 62,000 miles on it, and visually it is in near perfect condition, both inside and out. So, given that the main thing is to just take it to a mechanic and have it checked out, right? Sounds good to me.

 

[Phoenix]

Yes, take it to a mechanic and also be sure to get its recall history and service history. Some corporate lease vehicles have spotty or non-existant service histories and should be avoided. Some have excellent histories, will list every repair and oil change made, and those are generally more safe bets.

 

[Pimpwerx]

Company cars are beat on, period. Don't buy one, ymmv, but it's not an acceptable risk unless the price is significantly better than otherwise, or if you're confident it will last. I've beat on company cars. Everyone does. Even if a company inspects the way the car looks, they can't see how you're driving it out on the road. That is uusally hard and fast and reckless because you're not worried about wrecking the car, the company will pay for it. I used to take the company Civic out for long deliveries b/c I would just haul ass on some of the country roads. I'm talking about really late and hard braking with the back end stepping out. Things you generally wouldn't do with your own car unless you were at a track or something. It was kinda stupid, but it's the way it is. I've just seen far too many people do this that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. You'd probably be better off going with a repo. PEACE.