What do we think of ex-rental cars?

In reply to z31maniac :

Yeah, the GT Premium I'd want stickers at close to $48k, and that's with relatively few options (slushbox, GT Performance Pack, Magneride and the Recaros).

Looks like I could save a bunch of money if I opted for the GT and get the cloth Recaros, but you can't have those with the autobox.

Dealer in town has an '18 GT Premium in stock with the GT Perf Pack and an Autobox, but I'll have to double check if they'd budge from the $44k discounted price. Doesn't have the Magneride, though.

BoxheadTim said:

In reply to z31maniac :

Yeah, the GT Premium I'd want stickers at close to $48k, and that's with relatively few options (slushbox, GT Performance Pack, Magneride and the Recaros).

Looks like I could save a bunch of money if I opted for the GT and get the cloth Recaros, but you can't have those with the autobox.

Dealer in town has an '18 GT Premium in stock with the GT Perf Pack and an Autobox, but I'll have to double check if they'd budge from the $44k discounted price. Doesn't have the Magneride, though.

Completely understand. That's why I haven't gone and driven the '18 Base GT here, that is advertised at less than $28k, $7k off MSRP. 

Even though it's a ton of performance for the money, if you're driving it every day, things like the nice stereo, heated seats, etc are nice to have. 

I think Rodan on here in my other thread about the car said, they just kept their eye out for slightly used GTs with the PP1 and were able to get a good deal.

I'll just say that I can count about 20+ times that cars rented at Dulles Airport have been driven hard at DC rallycrosses. .... including (IIRC) a Mustang of some sort. 

hey so on this topic, does anyone know if it's common for dealerships to do that GPS tracking thing? I'm taking the BMW in for service and getting a loaner. I'm not doing track day or anything-- except now that I think of it... okay nope there's nothing going on that day

P3PPY said:

hey so on this topic, does anyone know if it's common for dealerships to do that GPS tracking thing? I'm taking the BMW in for service and getting a loaner. I'm not doing track day or anything-- except now that I think of it... okay nope there's nothing going on that day

To my knowledge, no.  I think it's a legal risk they don't want to take (unless they disclose that they're using it). 

As for rental car purchase, it's not a horrible thing, just shop carefully.  The branch is usually the one to handle maintenance....some managers are good with it, others not so much.  Plus, there's always the renter factor.  This is going back 25 years, but when I was a valet, I may or may not have laid a lot of rubber in rental cars.

irish44j said:

I'll just say that I can count about 20+ times that cars rented at Dulles Airport have been driven hard at DC rallycrosses. .... including (IIRC) a Mustang of some sort. 

I may or may not have rallycrossed a maroon Legacy that looked suspiciously similar to one that Budget rented me.

Klayfish said:

P3PPY said:

hey so on this topic, does anyone know if it's common for dealerships to do that GPS tracking thing? I'm taking the BMW in for service and getting a loaner. I'm not doing track day or anything-- except now that I think of it... okay nope there's nothing going on that day

 

To my knowledge, no.  I think it's a legal risk they don't want to take (unless they disclose that they're using it). 

As for rental car purchase, it's not a horrible thing, just shop carefully.  The branch is usually the one to handle maintenance....some managers are good with it, others not so much.  Plus, there's always the renter factor.  This is going back 25 years, but when I was a valet, I may or may not have laid a lot of rubber in rental cars.

So far no word from the dealership about my privilege to rent their cars being revoked. That's handy. Also, apparently 2018 X1 28i's are very boring to drive. At first I thought it was because it was just underpowered but it really does get up to speed okay. There's just no torque on the low end. It handled corners remarkably well. Corners that I find exciting in the Z4 were, again, boring in the X1. I've come to the conclusion that it's not bad or slow, it's just a sharper knife. It makes handling easier and less dramatic.

I really didn't abuse it but I did drive it hard to figure it out. One thing I HATED about it was that when you step on the gas, even in manual shift mode, it gives the feeling of downshifting before accelerating. I have this pet peeve about waiting for a downshift. Even in an auto like my Z4 I like to put it in the correct gear if I can anticipate the need for acceleration, but doing that in the X1 resulted in that annoying lag.

Annoyingly, it gets very bad gas mileage. When I got the car it displayed an average of 36.5 mpg but when I returned it it was down to 25.9. Maybe there's a gas leak or something.