Anyone in the (exotic) car rental business ?

Don't forget $10k month in maintenance and who knows how much in insurance...

 

There are lots of other costs, and risks to be considered. It is a fun business for those of us not in it, but I think it is more work than most people imagine.

It would be better for you to have a partner that has this business experience, and you would be the local partner. I would contact John Temerian (Supercarguru) on here, and see if he wants to partner up.


BT

 

Insurance will be higher because a lot of ''unknown'' (to the insurer) people will drive it thus higher risk.

Maintenance the same, people will rent it for a day/couple of days so will likely rag it.

Personally I would not start with 2 cars with the 450K (I assume you mean the 458 and a Huracan); rather for the 450K I'd spend it on a couple of F430 Spiders and a Murcielago Roadster or a couple Gallardo Spyders (seeing as you want to base it in the UAE). People are happy to pay a little bit less for the 430s but seeing as you have more, you'll make more money.

On top of that I'd make sure they're all flappy paddles, less risk of them ruining an engine and get the revs limited by ~500-1000rpm (will help extend the engine that much longer, and it'll most likely spend a lot of time on there.

Also factor in downtime to repair (plenty of) scratches I would think. In fact, I'd get panels that get easily scratched made in fibreglass and pre paint them so it's a simple bolt on bolt off swap that can be done in very little time.

Especially when you have few cars, one day a car will have a shunt and you'll have a big headache cancelling bookings, waiting on insurance and all that. It's a risky business that's for sure.

 

Keep in mind downtime for the repairs that WILL be required. If your cars are in the shop, you can't rent them. That would steer me towards a larger fleet of slightly less expensive cars, as suggested above.

Also, how realistic is your 6 days of rentals per week estimate? Do you have any data to back that up? Have you talked to existing companies to see how many days per week they average?

Good luck and keep us updated!