Sports/Supercar Hire in the Southwest

[Lucky13]

Earlier today my colleague decided he wanted to book a nice car for a weekend away (something along the lines of a F355). He seemed to be struggling so I said I'd have a look as well. Two hours later I have found just 2 sports car rental companies within a 75 mile radius of Bath but none offering supercars. This makes it pretty impractical as there is usually a 100 mile per day limit on these cars. I'm aware this can be increased and delivery can be arranged but they add a lot more to the cost of the whole experience.

So I was wondering if there is not really any market for this sort of thing out side of London? Surely there's a bit of money floating around here.

Would many of you guys make use of performance cars available locally if available?

[LancerG]

It would have to be something pretty special to make it worth while. An Aventador maybe, and that would be rather expensive. I'd rather spend the money on my own cars.

I think in genral, there is no profit in it.
It would only work if you already sell the cars and have them sitting around, therefore making the overheads lower and you already have servicing facilities.

You can hire Lotus, Morgan etc which are mid-powered.
I think one of the mainstream rent-a-car places does prestige & sports, might be budget-rent-a-car ?

[AngryApples]

Hertz does Ferrari, Lambo, Bentley etc

There was a Supercar hire/membership place in Thornbury (known as BHP, then F1 Leisure) but I believe they went bust

Closest I found after that was Black and White in Oxford, but just as I considered getting in on their membership deal, they changed to daily hire only

[lee st]

LancerG said:

It would have to be something pretty special to make it worth while. An Aventador maybe, and that would be rather expensive. I'd rather spend the money on my own cars.

I think in genral, there is no profit in it.
It would only work if you already sell the cars and have them sitting around, therefore making the overheads lower and you already have servicing facilities.

You can hire Lotus, Morgan etc which are mid-powered.
I think one of the mainstream rent-a-car places does prestige & sports, might be budget-rent-a-car ?

if you can get buyers to provide their own insurance then all you really need is enough interest to cover the finance payments to make it break even. plus, if all goes to pot you have the vehicle itself to sell.

[StormLoaded]

Ive only used a place once for 24hr hire ( dreamcarhire, near oxford).. limited miles meant additional cost of staying in a pricey gated hotel [with the high excess paid, i wouldnt risk the leaving it anywhere else]..

shame there arent more options nearer/in the south west..

[milesey]

there was a place in portishead that did this, i dont know if its still there

[LordGrover]

Cardiff isn't too far? Click.

[ChrisFitz]

most supercar hire firms will trailer to anywhere in the UK....

[Lucky13]

Thank you for the replies guys.

I was really trying to see if there was much local demand for it.

Just seemed too good to be true that there is no one capitalising on this sector locally. Seems there is a reason for it as others have tried and failed.

[bulldog5046]

Have you asked Mark?

http://www.drivesouthwest.co.uk/

I know he doesnt have a F355 but some of the others may be of interest....

I think the problem is everyone has a different idea of what they want to hire...

[MrH]

Lucky13 - as per Ryan's post above, happy to help if we can. We're 20 minutes from bath, have a Gallardo, Aston v8, 2 Porsches and a Merc.

Let me know of I can help in any way

Cheers, Mark (drive southwest)