It could be a totally legitimate car.

But for the price, I wouldn't bother. If it has 29k miles it might have very well never been driven except for periodically here and there. But it could be a typical city car like we have here in Chicago. It is no small surprise here to see 92s and 93s with 50k or 60k on the odometer. Because they never GO anywhere. But they're running all the time, sitting in traffic, sitting at stoplights, sitting on the plugged up highways. An hourmeter would be better at describing the car.

As far as being embarrassed, the Volvo dealer, the Lexus dealer, the Toyota dealer, the Ford dealer, and a whole bunch of other certified pre-owned car sellers would not offer a warranty after a certain year. That's just how it goes. Their criteria is pretty cut and dried.

I think the price is a little bit high, unless you can establish a little bit more history. If it was totally documented with service papers and owner's name and everything, then I migth consider it. But for top dollar, it pays to get all the details.

YOu can look at it a few ways. The fleet registration could mean little, other than it was owned or registered to a fleet, but driven by only one person. Or it could have been a pool car for someplace and was driven by whatever person got behind the wheel. Who knows. I'm guessing it might have been something like some bigwig at a big law firm who drove the thing. Some of those places have a bunch of cars registered to the same place, or they have it done through a fleet lease program. The driver picks out the car, but the firm or company picks up the bill. Not that unusual, really. Especially not in DC or New York or Chicago or other major cities. So maybe it really was a one-owner car, more or less.

Look into it more, though. For that price, which is really a very good dollar, they should be able to offer you some more information. Because for almost twenty thousand, you can buy a LOT of different cars.
--
chris herbst, near chicago