I can only relate my personal experience, which is to say you hit the nail on the head. I bought this one because of the low miles and attractive price point vs privately owned ones. And I’ve spent more than the cost difference addressing damage from abuse. If I buy any used vehicles again it will be private party original owner.
Admittedly I’m perhaps not the typical buyer because I usually purchase new and I’m very particular about mechanical reliability. I didn’t spend a bunch of money upgrading or “civilianizing” mine. I spent it on mechanical and electrical repairs.
I did buy two Ford Crown Vic P71 unmarked cruisers that were used by the Fire Chief and Homicide Detectives, respectively. Fortunately, neither car had many idle hours and neither had been wrecked. The only insurance claim for one was for a windshield While I would not have bought either as my daily driver, they were reasonable starter cars for three teenage boys because new drivers typically tear stuff up. I paid less than $2k for each and put another grand into each for either brakes, worn ball joints and or tires.
The money that surplus SUVs go for was always insane. We sold two 15 year old Tahoe’s in 2014 that were painted in fire department colors and had large holes in the fenders, tailgate and roof where lights had been mounted. And, even though they had about 60k on the odometer, the idle time added many more tens if not hundreds of thousands of miles of wear and tear to the power trains since they would idle for hours on end at fire and EMS scenes (one hour of idle time equals 33 miles for maintenance purposes). Each went for approximately $8k.
