# Buying a used car that hasn't been raped by Rideshare abuse



## ARIV005 (Mar 4, 2015)

I've always been a fan of getting an off lease preowned vehicle. But now that you can use any four door to drive for Uber/Lyft, the chances are greater that you're going to overpay for a Honda, Toyota, Nissan that was tore up from the floor up... I think new cars will have to be the safer bet since Carfax can't tell.


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## Million Miler (May 2, 2015)

Only YOU can make the decision to overpay… you won't see me doing that. No payments, either.


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## ARIV005 (Mar 4, 2015)

Maybe overpay was the wrong terminology. .. I meant to say paying book value for a car that has taken a substantial depreciation hit and has gotten a beating because it was used as a ride share .. you can't tell when you see it looking pretty on the car lot.


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## Fauxknight (Aug 12, 2014)

Mileage is your best indicator, if you're looking at 2-3 y/o off lease vehicles then expect maybe 15k a year miles at max. 20-50K a year miles and you know something is up...then again sometimes those are the best deals if the last owner was a traveling salesman.


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## azndriver87 (Mar 23, 2015)

rule of thumb, don't buy cars that has more than 12,000 miles/year


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## Huberis (Mar 15, 2015)

I heard rumor that Carfax was going to consider publishing if a car was used for rideshare. Any truth to that?


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## azndriver87 (Mar 23, 2015)

they can't proof it.


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## ARIV005 (Mar 4, 2015)

How much would insurance companies pay to have Uber's list of drivers? That's how Carfax will know.


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## Huberis (Mar 15, 2015)

ARIV005 said:


> How much would insurance companies pay to have Uber's list of drivers? That's how Carfax will know.


Time will tell. This whole industry is so nacent. I called around to various insurance companies before Uber arrived in my town. At that time the local insurance agents had barely heard of Uber and rideshare. Travis has tried always to be regulators and the insurance industry to the punch - bowl.

I'm not sure it matters all that much if Carfax shows whether or not a car was used for rideshare. The mileage will be there on the OD.


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## Million Miler (May 2, 2015)

I bought an '87 Taurus years ago that a farmer used to haul his hogs to market… two or three at a time. Ride share use can't be THAT bad...


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## merkurfan (Jul 20, 2015)

Huberis said:


> I heard rumor that Carfax was going to consider publishing if a car was used for rideshare. Any truth to that?


Uber would have to turn over their records..

Car repair shops do because Carfax pays them to.

Uber would jump on that ship asap to get the payment too.


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## Uber-Doober (Dec 16, 2014)

Fauxknight said:


> Mileage is your best indicator, if you're looking at 2-3 y/o off lease vehicles then expect maybe 15k a year miles at max. 20-50K a year miles and you know something is up...then again sometimes those are the best deals if the last owner was a traveling salesman.


^^^
Or like my across the street neighbor who drives his Camry hybrid from Vegas up to Mesquite, Nv... about 165 miles a day round trip.


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## JimS (Aug 18, 2015)

It's not so cut and dry. I've bought an 8 year old car with 60k miles on it that had been more of a pain to maintain than my '97 Camry with 265,000 miles.

If you plan on making money, buy the cheapest reliable car with the best mpg. Leather makes for a nice experience for pax and is easier to clean than cloth.

If I make anything at this, my next car will likely be a VW TDI. Or maybea Toyota Sienna and start pulling in XL jobs.


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## merkurfan (Jul 20, 2015)

JimS said:


> It's not so cut and dry. I've bought an 8 year old car with 60k miles on it that had been more of a pain to maintain than my '97 Camry with 265,000 miles.
> 
> If you plan on making money, buy the cheapest reliable car with the best mpg. Leather makes for a nice experience for pax and is easier to clean than cloth.
> 
> If I make anything at this, my next car will likely be a VW TDI. Or maybea Toyota Sienna and start pulling in XL jobs.


Yup, I'd rather have the diesel over a hybrid.. less crap to go wrong with it. Plus, being from farm country.. well... never mind..


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## Uber-Doober (Dec 16, 2014)

JimS said:


> It's not so cut and dry. I've bought an 8 year old car with 60k miles on it that had been more of a pain to maintain than my '97 Camry with 265,000 miles.
> 
> If you plan on making money, buy the cheapest reliable car with the best mpg. Leather makes for a nice experience for pax and is easier to clean than cloth.
> 
> If I make anything at this, my next car will likely be a VW TDI. Or maybea Toyota Sienna and start pulling in XL jobs.


^^^
I mentioned here a few months ago that I bought an Executive L with 11,000 miles. 
I'm gonna keep it forever.


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## JimS (Aug 18, 2015)

I read somewhere - maybe just for Chicago - towncars, crown vics and mercuries were banned from Uber. Last night I saw a guy Ubering in a Cadillac SRX - can't even qualify for XL. Thought that was far exceeding any potential profitability, though a nice ride. That being said, I found an 07 Escalade for sale here for only $5500. Cheap way to get into the XL business.


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## KGB7 (Apr 23, 2015)

The last place ill buy a car is from NJ. The small dealers have some of the worst used cars on the lot straight from Auctions.

Of lease cars is also a big risk, you dont know how a person treated a specific car. They drive them, do oil changes when ever and return them after 3 years. Might as well buy used underwear.
The upside, you can get a full print out of the repair records from a dealer on a lease car. So at the very least you know what has been repaired, if and when maintenance was done on time.

Its your money, so do what you want.


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

merkurfan said:


> Yup, I'd rather have the diesel over a hybrid.. less crap to go wrong with it. Plus, being from farm country.. well... never mind..


Modern diesels got LOTS of expensive emissions cral that can go wrong


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## KGB7 (Apr 23, 2015)

Adieu said:


> Modern diesels got LOTS of expensive emissions cral that can go wrong


No they don't.


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

KGB7 said:


> No they don't.


DEF tanks with embedded sensors
DPF and its regeneration cycles
EGR
Jet black oil after first 300 mi thanks to recirculation
Soot buildup everywhere
Cats
HPFPs
Turbos, seems they all TDI now
Fuel filters, expensive
Etc


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## KGB7 (Apr 23, 2015)

Adieu said:


> DEF tanks with embedded sensors
> DPF and its regeneration cycles
> EGR
> Jet black oil after first 300 mi thanks to recirculation
> ...


/smh


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## Fauxknight (Aug 12, 2014)

I was under the impression that maintenance was overall more expensive on a diesel than a regular gas engine. A hybrid on the other hand is on the opposite end of the spectrum.


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## KGB7 (Apr 23, 2015)

Fauxknight said:


> I was under the impression that maintenance was overall more expensive on a diesel than a regular gas engine. A hybrid on the other hand is on the opposite end of the spectrum.


Hybrid has gas engine, thus all the same maintenance apply equaly as for none hybrid cars.

The maintance is not that much higher on diesel. 
Fuel filter is every 40k miles.
Egr valve cleaning is every 50k.
Oil change every 10k miles.

Gas engines have fuel filter and egr valve, but don't have to be replaced or cleaned as often.

Cost is almost same on both engines.


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## Fauxknight (Aug 12, 2014)

KGB7 said:


> Hybrid has gas engine, thus all the same maintenance apply equaly as for none hybrid cars.


Negative on that one, hybrids require less maintenance than a normal non hybrid engine, oil changes are less frequent and other components wear slower like brake pads and ATF.

My oil changes are 10k, my brake pads are at 92k and looking good, my ATF has never been changed. Tires, lightbulbs, filters, and wipers are the only items I've had to have changed outside of oil changes, but every car uses those at pretty much the same rate depending on how the owner abuses each item.

It does depend a little on how the hybrid is set up, this statement applies to a Prius (a full ground up hybrid), a non-prius or a 'light' hybrid is going to have a little more wear.


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## KGB7 (Apr 23, 2015)

Fauxknight said:


> Negative on that one, hybrids require less maintenance than a normal non hybrid engine, oil changes are less frequent and other components wear slower like brake pads and ATF.
> 
> My oil changes are 10k, my brake pads are at 92k and looking good, my ATF has never been changed. Tires, lightbulbs, filters, and wipers are the only items I've had to have changed outside of oil changes, but every car uses those at pretty much the same rate depending on how the owner abuses each item.
> 
> It does depend a little on how the hybrid is set up, this statement applies to a Prius (a full ground up hybrid), a non-prius or a 'light' hybrid is going to have a little more wear.


I said "engine". Same 10k oil change as the rest of none hybrid cars with gas engines. As well as the rest of regular parts that have to be replaced at some point; spark plugs, water pump, timing belt if you have one, fuel filter, air filter, etc.

ATF " WS" must also be changed.
Ecvt ****** generates more heat than a standard auto trans. Thus atf ws fluid breacks down faster from heat.
Thus should be changed every 50miles.

Prius has no filter in evct trany and only holds 4qts of fluid. So the fluid breacks down even faster and is not filtered.


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## leroy jenkins (May 27, 2015)

The problem w/Uber-Lyft is the idling. Idling for one hour is worse on your engine than driving @ 60 mph for one hour.

Ideally if you're looking at a used car, you get a sample of used oil from the engine and have it analyzed by a lab. No metal in the oil = good maintenance.


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