[Footman614]

I am looking at a 2020 M850 at a dealership. I haven't seen the car in person but the color combo and equipment is good. Very low miles. The strike against the car is that on the CarFax report it is listed as a rental vehicle. The dealerships story is it was an exec. from Enterprise owned it (who really knows). I have been given pro's and con's by several people. One person said it probably is a car used as a track demo. Others said that the Carfax shouldn't be an issue. If I decide to move forward I would arrange an inspection from a local BMW dealership. I don't want the Carfax to become an issue when I go to sell the car. Has anyone had any experience with this type of situation?
If so, any advice? Thank you!

[BeeMdblU]

How about you just lease it, and put everything else behind.

[Footman614]

I know leasing is more worry free. The leasing numbers are not the best on the M850 presently. I did check with Dan from next level auto brokers today and was quoted around 1,500/month with around 4k out of pocket. A lease price of around $1,000/month is more my comfort zone. Also, the vehicle I am looking at has already absorbed around 30k of depreciation. Decisions, Decisions.....

[Resjudicata]

Originally Posted by Footman614

I am looking at a 2020 M850 at a dealership. I haven't seen the car in person but the color combo and equipment is good. Very low miles. The strike against the car is that on the CarFax report it is listed as a rental vehicle. The dealerships story is it was an exec. from Enterprise owned it (who really knows). I have been given pro's and con's by several people. One person said it probably is a car used as a track demo. Others said that the Carfax shouldn't be an issue. If I decide to move forward I would arrange an inspection from a local BMW dealership. I don't want the Carfax to become an issue when I go to sell the car. Has anyone had any experience with this type of situation?
If so, any advice? Thank you!

The dealership should give you a discount for a rental, especially probably because it has some miles on it.

You won't take a big hit, but you won't get the full price when you sell it. However you already got an upfront discount equal to any downstream hit.

Example, let's say it's a 100k round number car. Since it's a year old with 10,000 miles; they discount it 30% and you buy it at $70k. Then you sell in 2 years and they give you $40k. With 50,000 miles in late 2022
Someone bought it new last year, paid $90k and sold in 3 years for $50k. Equal 50k miles in late 2022.

They spent $40k on the car, and you spent $30k. He drove it 50k miles, you put 40k miles on it. Same age in the car.
Who got the better deal??

[botis1028]

Originally Posted by Footman614

I know leasing is more worry free. The leasing numbers are not the best on the M850 presently. I did check with Dan from next level auto brokers today and was quoted around 1,500/month with around 4k out of pocket. A lease price of around $1,000/month is more my comfort zone. Also, the vehicle I am looking at has already absorbed around 30k of depreciation. Decisions, Decisions.....

1500 for an M850? That's M8 comp territory...

[Footman614]

A launch edition M8 I was told could be in the 1,300/month range

[redhot47fla]

Originally Posted by Footman614

I am looking at a 2020 M850 at a dealership. I haven't seen the car in person but the color combo and equipment is good. Very low miles. The strike against the car is that on the CarFax report it is listed as a rental car. The dealerships story is it was an exec. from Enterprise owned it (who really knows). I have been given pro's and con's by several people. One person said it probably is a car used as a track demo. Others said that the Carfax shouldn't be an issue. If I decide to move forward I would arrange an inspection from a local BMW dealership. I don't want the Carfax to become an issue when I go to sell the car. Has anyone had any experience with this type of situation?
If so, any advice? Thank you!

I know someone else who was considering that car, but ended up going in another direction for reasons not associated with that car.

My take, fwiw: It’s highly unlikely, given the status of an M850 and the low mileage, that it actually was used as a rental car, especially by the likes of Enterprise. It’s more likely that the manager had it registered to Enterprise for some regulatory or financial reason. Bottom line: It seems worthy of real consideration and a close personal inspection.

[FBMWWINS]

Rental cars do not have to be "worse" or less worthy anyhow. In the end a visual inspection should already tell you how that car was treated! Personally If I saw apparent and for a low-mileage car unusual signs of excessive WEAR or obvious evidence that it was treated like shi*, that would already be a reason for me not to get it regardless of the extra discount one might receive. I have seen rental cars, company cars, showroom cars, press vehicles before and there can be huge differences between one model and another. Really it comes down to carefully inspecting the vehicle and see what speaks against it? Also TIRE and BRAKES conditions will tell you a lot about how the car was handled as well as the FRONT window. Usually tracked cars will show more "signs" on the front window and on the car bonnet too.

[Resjudicata]

Originally Posted by FBMWWINS

Rental cars do not have to be "worse" or less worthy anyhow. In the end a visual inspection should already tell you how that car was treated! Personally If I saw apparent and for a low-mileage car unusual signs of excessive WEAR or obvious evidence that it was treated like shi*, that would already be a reason for me not to get it regardless of the extra discount one might receive. I have seen rental cars, company cars, showroom cars, press vehicles before and there can be huge differences between one model and another. Really it comes down to carefully inspecting the vehicle and see what speaks against it? Also TIRE and BRAKES conditions will tell you a lot about how the car was handled as well as the FRONT window. Usually tracked cars will show more "signs" on the front window and on the car bonnet too.

If you can examine the tires and brakes, that will tell a lot.

[LuvMyE92]

It seems that I see "rental vehicle" on Carfax that often makes no sense, like it was a lease or (more often) corporate owned. Of course, it may have been a BMW performance center car too, which are driven hard. Excuse me: hard. And they encourage it.

Natch you do not want to trust anything the dealership tells you, unless you know and trust the salesman. Even salesmen I have worked with in the past, bought several cars from them and might even refer to them as a friend, have lied to me. If it's between my "friendship" and their income... well, you can guess which one will win.

I don't think Enterprise actually rents anything nicer than a Tahoe. So if you can get them to prove ownership, that would be a big help.

Now, that said, if the price is good enough, then it may not matter.

So, how many miles are on this thing, and how much off from original MSRP is the price?