Ex short term hire vehicles

[Vic Evans]

Mme is still looking for a replacement & regularly hunts adds for second hand cars with the Citroen C3 being favourite.
She's searching for a 2025 car to be sure it's the latest chain drive version where recently several decent sounding low km (less than 20,000km) high spec. have appeared on one of the major national Citroen & Peugeot dealers websites. Trouble is they're all ex short time hire cars which may be a bit worrying.
Lots of ex driving school cars available but no way would I touch one of these.
Another national dealer has a few 'new' pre registered C3's for sale where we're trying to pin down their build date.
It's becoming a confusing mine field.

[owl]

Almost all used-car dealers in the Balkan countries sell vehicles purchased through auctions organized by Arval Leasing, a France-based company, with warranties ranging from 6 months to 1 year. Almost all of these vehicles come with complete service records.
To be honest, I’m one of the people who has bought a car from these dealers. So far, I haven’t experienced any major issues. If the maintenance history is complete and the vehicle isn’t a commercial version (the two-seater variant), I’d say it’s worth giving it a try.

[Sloppysod]

She's searching for a 2025 car to be sure it's the latest chain drive version.....

Another national dealer has a few 'new' pre registered C3's for sale where we're trying to pin down their build date.

If you can't find the build date, surely either a quick look under the bonnet or service book would help ss I'm sure (you would think) Citroën would have changed the service ce schedule accordingly.

[Richard_C]

Trouble is they're all ex short time hire cars which may be a bit worrying.

Why?

You could buy a one owner car where the owner might have deliberately or through incompetence ignorance or dullness abused it 100% of the time, or maybe a one owner car where the teenage offspring learned to drive in it or (worse) passed their test and flung it around back streets on full revs and a cold engine, or you could buy a multi user car where some users might have abused it some of the time. Most hire firms and 'garage loan cars' stick to servicing schedules, wash and valet the car between each user and most people who short term hire them will be so worried about penalty charges that they take care.

You can get lucky or unlucky regardless of who has owned and driven it before you. Look at the car not the ownership history, buy with a warranty, check it over before you hand over the final payment, enjoy.

[PaulC5]

You could note the rpo number on the sticker on a door pillar and then use it in a calculator to check the build date. An example calculator http://www.citroen-ds-id.com/gen/Gen_Organr.html

[Vic Evans]

Well she's gone & done it.
We went out this morning to look at a recently arrived ex hire Citroen C3 1.2 turbo Max with about 18,000km recorded.
The RPO no. showed it being made 30/1/2025 & date 20/2/2025 was date first put into circulation.
The car looked brand new with not a mark & so impressed Mme, who was adamant she was 'just looking', after taking it for a long drive, returned to negotiate a price of £13,000 at today's exchange rate, all in, 'keys in hand'.
The garage is part of a nationwide chain, so well respected & give a years full
guarantee.
The car is now going to be serviced & delivered this coming Friday, all being well.
Thank dog that's all over as looking at car adverts was becoming tedious.
PHEW !!!!!