classic/performance car rental

[Ali_D]

My brother and I have been giving some thought to starting up a classic/performance car rental business in North Yorkshire. Probably will start quite small with just a couple of english classics (MGB roadster and the like) and then build up if there is the interest.

I thought I may as well pick your brains - does anyone have any experience or thoughts on this sort of thing? Any comments/encouragement/wise words greatly appreciated.

[S2 Giles]

The only competition you have is BESPOKE who I think are based in London, but have a large stock of new and old sports cars. Take a look in Sports & Classic magazine & you'll see the advert.

All I would say is research demand from national regions and weigh up the delivery costs etc for you or the client.

Good Luck

Giles

[mel]

How about considering "time shares" I know its a dirty word but there is now a similar outfit for performance bikes. Basically you put in either a lump sum or a payment each year and get a points allocation which can then be exchanged for usage ie winter mid week might be 2 points for 5 days / le mans weekend might by 50 points. The guys that do the bikes are doing storming business as people who run a bike as a toy will spend atleast £2K per season on insurance,tyres,tax,depreciation etc etc and for less than a grand a year you get an allocation that gives you loads of useage over a range of some pretty decent tackle !!! Good scheme in my eyes and could also work for cars.

[pbrettle]

Yeah, concur with the delivery aspect. Would have done this loads of time except for the fact that most classic rental companies you have to collect - then with a 100 mile per day limit! This then effectively drops your market to local area and cuts out those that live slightly away from the centre...

Also, not sure what the figures look like, but they seem quite expensive too. For example rental on a Chimaera (OK not a british classic yet) at £350 - £500 for a weekend. That seems rather expensive to me....

Would also be good to get in touch with "sales promo" companies. They can then offer your rental service as an offering. Seeing as you can get the Ferrari Experience from Boots and WHSmiths now, would be good to hook into others for business....

Just my 10p worth.

Cheers,

Paul

[Ali_D]

Thanks for the answers chaps. Yes hiring from these types of companies is expensive when you consider the cost of the vehicles involved, thats why the idea of the business seems like a good one.

There is of course the added benefit that I gets lots of nice cars to drive!

[PetrolTed]

There are a couple of other companies doing classics. See www.oilypages.com/links.asp?page=exoticCarHire

[Hoganscrogan]

There is already Nothern Sportscar Hire based near Leeds. However they don't do classics - newish only Elise, 355 porsche TVR etc. www.sportscarhire.net

What I really want is to be able to rent a car for 3 months - most leases are 2 yrs minimum and by the end of the first year I'm always ready to change. Not been able to find anyone who does exactly what I'm after - ie Griff for a few months - Elise - Porsche - Ferrari etc. Dont want to own the cars just use them!!

The Bespoke 'Time Share' seems OK good choice or cars 50+ from classic Astons to 360 Modena - 42 days rental a year for £6500 including insurance (can be paid monthly). But it's not exactly what I want.

Edited by Hoganscrogan on Wednesday 19th December 12:35

[philshort]

Now that would be a new idea, and one that would get lots of takers I'm sure. There must be lots of use PetrolHeads who'd love to "own" a string of exotics for a short period, but the hassle of buying and selling makes it impossible.

To be able to have exlusive use of a car for 3 or 6 months, then hand it back and get another has to be worth quite a premium over a normal lease.

Business model would be to buy/lease a number of cars, then ship them out to punters for 6 months at a time. Fully service and recondition them on return then off to another punter. After 3 years (hopefully 6 lucrative long term rentals later) sell the cars on. You could even offer the punters the option to buy at the end of any rental if they have become attached! You could set a reasonable mileage limit and charge for excess (and obviously any damage incurred).

I'm thinking if you could punt say a Tuscan for £1400 a month for a six month rental, then flog it off for £20k, you'd be looking at a 50% ROI over 3 years. You'd need to run enough cars to be able to employ a good mechanic or two to keep the servicing costs down. Cost of credit would eat into that margin quite a bit though.

Would people go for £1400 a month for a Tuscan, on an all-inclusive type deal (ie no other costs other than fuel and insurance)?

Factor in a healthy discount for bulk purchase and that cost could come down I guess. What do people reckon they could stomach as a monthly rental fee? £800? £1000?



Phil

[hoganscrogan]

Fancy going into business Phil

That's exactly what I'm talking about and as you say I'm sure lots of people would buy into it - no hassle fun motoring for £1k a month (depending on car) sounds a nice reasonable figure especially if you take into account insurance/maintenance costs and the hassle of buying and selling.

Cars would look like one owner at resale too - company being the only owner on V5

Edited by hoganscrogan on Wednesday 19th December 13:31

[M@H]

..you'd probably be able to get some financial backing from potential customers.. if you created a "buy in" scheme into the company, payable out in car rentals/shares/dividends etc. you could doubtless raise a reasonable amout of capital to start the venture off.. (of course, then all those people would own a bit of your company, but is that such a bad thing..?)