On Sun, 22 Oct 2006 10:27:39 +0200, Mxsmanic wrote:

Ron Wanttaja writes:

Same argument could be made for *any* airplane...you don't know what the
previous owner did to it.

If it has a previous owner ... but a brand-new plane does not.

The average General Aviation aircraft is more than 30 years old. A new plane
requires a cash outlay an order of magnitude higher. And *no* buyer is the very
first person to fly the aircraft. Not all ferry pilots are as genteel as
NW_Pilot. :-)

But there are admittedly more people who have previously flown
a renter than a used plane.

If they are anything like rental cars or other rental equipment, they
may be in very sorry shape.

With one exception, the rental cars I've driven have been in pristine shape,
compared to the clapped-out 172s I rent every two years for my BFR. I've never
had a rental car more than a year old, haven't had a rental airplane less than
ten years old for at least the last 20 years. My last two personal cars were
bought used from the rental agencies. Both went to 100K miles with few problems
(GM cars, even).

(The rental-car exception was a Toyota rented at a location which had mostly
gravel roads. The rental agreement required that I clean any blood out of the
trunk before turning it back in....no, it wasn't New Jersey :-)

Ron Wanttaja