A car salesman has taken to TikTok to explain that a customer walked away from a low-mileage used Toyota RAV4 at the last second, after initially deciding they were going to buy the car. All because the Toyota in question used to be a rental car.
Salesman Ian (@iain.sells.cars), a salesman in Amarillo, Texas, built his account around car-buying advice, and he explained that dealerships tend to buy cars from the likes of Hertz and Enterprise, which are car rental companies. This takes place when the companies decide they no longer need those cars.
Initially, the buyer looked very happy with the car. They had agreed to buy it, and it was only when the buyer looked at the Toyota’s Carfax report that he suddenly changed his tune. That then led the salesman to ask if he would have trusted a repossessed car instead of a rental one.
The answer given came as a surprise to the salesman. What also surprised him was the initial rejection of the RAV4, because Ian stated that the rental cars his dealership has are often very well looked after. So it was an unusual situation for the dealer to have to handle.
Why the Customer Rejected the Toyota RAV4
@iain.sells.cars Rebuilt title vs repo vs rental #amarillotexas #carbuyingtips #isellcars ♬ original sound – Iain.Sells.Cars
“I just had a customer leave the dealership because of one thing on the Carfax,” Ian opened up on his TikTok video. The car in question was a Toyota RAV4, seemingly in good condition. Ironically, it was the car that the dealer presented in his video. It was a previous rental vehicle,” the salesman confirmed in the video. The customer was happy to take it, but then had a look at the Carfax report.
It was after seeing that report that the potential buyer realized that it was a rental car. After that, they simply refused to continue with the purchase. “He said he wouldn’t purchase it because it was a rental. He doesn’t care how low the miles are or how new it is or how well maintained,” the salesman confirmed. Some rentals can be in poor condition, but from what Ian has said, he only tries to take in the ones that are in good condition.
But it was what came next that was a bigger shock to Ian. He asked the customer if he would have trusted a repossession job versus a rental car. “And he said, yeah, I think I would trust a repo over a rental,” said the dealer. “That kind of blew my mind, because I feel like rentals are usually taken care of pretty well,” Iain added. “Yes, they can also get driven really hard, but usually they have great warranties.”
The Difference Between a Rental and Repossession
A rental car is simply one rented out, from locations such as airports, for a limited period of time. Typically, these are rented out by people on holiday or work trips, and are then handed back to the rental shop at the end of these trips. Repossessions are very different, as these are cars in which the owner stopped making payments.
The cars are then, as the name suggests, repossessed and often put back on sale. It isn’t clear from Ian’s video, however, why this customer would have preferred one of these cars over a regular rental. Repossessions have actually surged over recent times. A report by Cox Automotive suggests that repossessions from 2022 to 2024 went up by around 43 percent, around 1.73 million units, which is the highest total number since 2009.
Viewers Had the Same View as the Dealer’s Customer
Ian asked viewers what they would trust to buy more out of a rental, a repo, and a rebuilt title. A rebuilt title, or a salvage title, means a car was once declared a total loss, and it was then repaired to pass state inspection. Most of the commenters said that rentals would be what they bought, mainly due to the better service records they would have.
Rebuilt title cars were mostly discarded, but quite a few people had the same view as Ian’s customer did. They would only consider repossession cars, citing these cars as being in potentially better condition than a rental, and certainly better than a rebuild. Maybe the customer had a point.