Can you still buy a used rental car at a bargain?
Will a bargain-priced former rental car become yet another casualty of the pandemic?
Rental car companies, which frequently refresh their fleets, have long been a reliable source of reasonably priced used vehicles for those in the know. But tightening inventories of used cars nationwide are driving up prices of many former rental cars to higher than what you might pay at a traditional dealership.
While rental car prices plummeted at the beginning of the pandemic as companies such as Hertz sold off their inventory, prices have rebounded and now are 4 percent above the market average, according to an analysis done for NerdWallet by iSeeCars.com, a website that aggregates used-car listings.
Although prices have risen, you still might get a bargain on certain makes and models. And there remain many advantages of shopping the used rental car market. Primarily, it’s a good source of late-model used cars, often