I donno about the US. But rentals in Europe aren’t always treated well from my experience.

I don't even know if that's true, i've had a couple times where i was given vehicles with check engine lights on. Fortunately they swapped them for another vehicle that was .. possibly better?

Are you sure they get oil changes. I've ran into a few rental cars that didn't even get basic things like windshield wipers. I can't imagine a lot of those companies would take them out of service to change the oil on time.

That's not true.

My wife and I had to exchange a rental because it was producing excessive exhaust, the alignment was so bad it pulled, and an engine service indicator was on.

Rentals are frequently driven hard and may not get basic routine service (that should happen more frequently due to being driven hard).

I haven't worked in the rental car world but I used to work for a place that rented moving trucks and RVs (and was also the area maintenance provider for them) and... No. They did not get regular maintenance, at least not on time.

My brother and a cousin both worked at different rental car companies, and I can assure you - they are not well maintained. My cousin worked at Enterprise, and he said they'd buy fleets of cars, run them until they had any failure, then sell them at auction. He was a mechanic, and I remember being gobsmacked when he said "the only fluid I ever put in a vehicle was windshield wiper fluid."

My brother has told me similar stories, though I can't recall specifics at the moment. Most were similar to my cousin's stories, the theme being "as mechanics, we didn't do anything except make sure there was air in tires and wiper fluid."

I think the companies they worked for probably knew what they were doing too. Most cars made within the last 20 years can go a hell of a long way without an oil change and still function (which isn't me saying that "function" means the same thing as "work well long term"). Rental car companies know when to sell them before they stop functioning.

This definitely feels like a case of buyer beware.

From the article: "quarter-sized hole."

If you're buying a former rental car and aren't giving it an intense enough inspection to spot a quarter-sized hole, you're rolling dice.

If you take the time to methodically go over one... and reject a few... I'm sure you can find a pretty great deal.

Not necessarily, folks are incentivied to keep the cars clean and undamaged.