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Sports Car Rental Company Brainstorm - my new WRX?

5K views 15 replies 10 participants last post by  TankerTruck 
#1 ·
I just purchased my first WRX - a brand new 2013 premium blue hatchback about two weeks ago. The car is awesome but no need to preach to the choir...

I won't be giving up my day job but I think the idea of starting a sports car rental company could be a lot of fun. With any luck maybe I could grow it into my full time job. I live about an hour north of Philly so my general location is well populated and also close to NJ and NYC.

I'm sure most folks on this forum already own a WRX/Sti but before you did (or if you don't) would you have considered renting one for the weekend? If so, what would you have paid?

I was thinking $550 for the weekend ($275/day). Less for a longer time period. Is this reasonable? If you did rent it would you beat the you know what out of it??

What do you think?? Thanks! (I have another car to drive)
 
#3 ·
^^^ this.

i mean i love my WRX, its sporty, pretty quick. But lets be honest, it's not like its a a ferrari or anything. people wouldn't worry too much about beating the **** out of the car. at least i would have a different state of mind if i was driving a ferrari/lambo/etc, cause no way i would ever be able to afford it if i ****ed it up. but a 30k hatchback is a different story in my mind.
 
#5 ·
I can rent a car for $50/day. Why would I pay five times that?

Also, to whom would I pay five times that? A rental company offers insurance and roadside assistance. Will you?

I don't care how expensive a car is when I rent. I insure them all fully and don't care whether they stay nice or are entirely destroyed. I just don't care about them, whether they are a van, econobox, or sports car. I insure fully and for all I care they can be hit by a meteor.

Is this sort of thing what you had in mind?
 
#6 ·
I'd be launching at every single light, and absolutely seek some gravel/mud roads. But hey, I'm 18 and still get a thrill out of that. Maybe there's a way to get something somewhat like an accessport (to data log) and have them sign something before hand that clearly states theres no abusing the vehicle and such, and with data logging you could see this. (I'm not 100% sure, But I'm nearly positive I'm correct that data logging can help determine if the car was abused.
 
#9 ·
Then who in their right mind would rent the car? With datalogging, you can only identify a few things. You can see if it went full throttle, to what RPM it went, but you couldn't tell what happened with the transmission, the brakes, the steering, etc. You still have to consider the costs associated with all of this. Maintenance alone is going to be a nightmare, parts when things break will be awful, plus the cost of labor to fix those broken items. Then comes the insurance and liability costs, as well as the cost of new vehicles at the very most every 2-3 years.

Think about how often rental companies change out their cars to keep them appealing. The company I work for ships nearly all of the rental cars in and out of Hawaii. They change them out every single year (for the most part). That isn't cheap. But when you have hundreds to thousands of cars as a part of your business model, it's a lot easier to make money on them. Small businesses... not so much.

You'll probably be better off putting your car up on a P2P car sharing network.
 
#8 ·
Many agencies from which I've rented have age restrictions.

All agencies I've used offer full insurance. I won't rent otherwise. If the car explodes they'll bring me another one.

The single time I rented a Subaru it was free to me.
 
#13 ·
$275/day for WRX?!?! That's about what the MONTHLY car payment is for my wife's car.

Besides, the type of people that would want to rent a WRX aren't exactly going to be gentle. I can only envision the car ending up like this:

 
#15 ·
I've heard the "25" rule, but I've rented cars from Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, and an Israeli brand without issue. I have yet to run into any age issues when renting, although I never had to rent a car until I was 22.
 
#16 ·
Heck, I'd rent it just to learn how to abuse the clutch...er... launch it properly.

I'd bring it back to you smelling of clutch, shake your hand, and walk away. It'd be worth it to me.
 
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