[drondinone]

My name is David, and I am new to this forum. I am not an owner of a Ferrari, however, I have owned sports cars all my life (starting with a beater Datsun 280Z, currently a Corvette ZR1, and lots in between). I have always wanted to have access to a variety of sports cars without having to personally own them all. So, I am looking to start a local sports car sharing club in the San Francisco Bay Area (I am in Berkeley). I would like to find at least 3 other like minded car nuts to join me. I have developed a few different business models, and think this would be a fun way to share some awesome cars with others who share my passion.

If you have any interest please post here or email me directly. I would be happy to answer questions and share my ideas/models. I imagine there must be plenty of people in my area who may not have the means or desire to fully own a sports car but would love regular part time access to one at a reasonable investment/cost.

 

[Killer58]

Welcome to the forum David.
You'll find a large percentage of owners here and some top-notch experts.

I'm sure you'd also find quite a few members with the same desire to share automobiles.
I recall the topic of sharing / car club has come up a time or two in the past.
Unfortunately, they're probably not going to be owners.

 

[drondinone]

I understand that many people who own Ferraris may not want others to drive them. My intention is to start a company (which is the club) that provides members with access to a small fleet of sports cars, provides insurance, maintenance, etc. for those cars. In this fashion no one is providing their own personal car for sharing, instead a collection of people are buying into the company and paying monthly "dues" in exchange for access to the cars. This allows for members to be able to "check out" the cars owned by the company. The dues would provide the necessary money required to insure, maintain, and repair the cars, as well as cover depreciation in order to maintain the original value of the investment in the company. Because the company owns and insures the cars, the liability will be covered by the company. If the only members allowed are also owners, then the company would likely be run by the owners, and the overhead would be extremely low.

I have worked out a few different business models for how this could work, ranging from a simple collection of equal owners, to a more complex collection of owners with various levels of investment, and even a model where membership is open to those who do not invest, but pay higher monthly membership dues. If I could find a small handful of people willing to become owners in this company, I believe it could provide a way for the members to drive interesting and varied sports cars for far less than renting, and less than leasing or owning because of the shared investment.

 

[Killer58]

Hmmm, sounds a lot like the NetJets (fractional ownership) model.

 

[drondinone]

Thanks for pointing out NetJets - I had not heard of them until you did. The idea is similar to NetJets, although a little different. I believe with NetJets members own a fraction of a particular specific airplane. What I had in mind was that members would actually just own shares in the whole company, and that their ownership would not be tied to a specific car.

 

[drondinone]

The closest things that exists in the Bay Area are Club Sportiva, and Fast Toys. They both work on the principle that you pay for a membership, and get credits to spend with the club to rent fun cars. The advantage of these clubs is that they are already established and have a collection of nice cars already. The downside is they are very expensive to participate in. For example, with Club Sportive you could rent a Porsche Boxster S for about $1000 for a three day weekend, or a Ferrari 458 for about $4500. I believe that their bulk buy membership ($20k) may give up to a 50% discount, meaning that for the two weekends, the cost would be nearly $3000. Fast Toys appears to have a slightly lower cost by requiring annual memberships, but to access the cars for more than a few days each month you essentially have to come up with $2500/month, giving you about four to eight days and just under 300 miles per month. By comparison, if you can get four people to invest $50k each, they could pay about $750 per month to drive each of these same cars for a full week each month. The difference is that the investors participate in the running of the club and the overhead is kept low. If you can get eight people together, you can pool the investments to provide a larger assortment of sports cars that the members can access all the time, still keeping the monthly dues around $750. The key is to buy the cars lightly used, and the keep the overhead low. And with this type of setup, the Club can maintain its value and thus the initial investment of $50k is not lost like in the other options.

 

[ForzaPoppy]

Good luck but I think you are already fighting a losing battle. I think most people who can put $50k into a venture like this can also afford to buy a nice sports car they want to drive. Personally I don't want anybody driving my cars unless I know them well and feel comfortable and I think you will find this particularly with Ferrari owners. Also I have enough cars to keep me happy although you
always dream of the next one, and I certainly have no wish to drive many sports cars I find unappealing.
In short would I let you drive my car ?? No.

 

[Italian Lover]

Similar in response to ForzaPoppy, the notion of business may not be a suitable approach as car owners we cherish and take care well of our cars. As for driving someone else's car, it is rather scary, at least for me, for the responsiblilty involved. At least for me, to try to drive as many cars as possible is not my goal. I try to find cars that appeal to me, do my homework, and if I can pull the trigger and not jeopardize other commitments, I go for acquisitions.

Maybe not the most exciting but an alternative would let someone else ride as a passenger to experience the car (?). However, even that involves respective responsibilities.

Having said all that, still do wish you best of luck in your endeavor.

w/ smiles
Jimmy

 

[efg2014]

Research is free

My name is David, and I am new to this forum. I am not an owner of a Ferrari, however, I have owned sports cars all my life (starting with a beater Datsun 280Z, currently a Corvette ZR1, and lots in between). I have always wanted to have access to a variety of sports cars without having to personally own them all. So, I am looking to start a local sports car sharing club in the San Francisco Bay Area (I am in Berkeley). I would like to find at least 3 other like minded car nuts to join me. I have developed a few different business models, and think this would be a fun way to share some awesome cars with others who share my passion.

If you have any interest please post here or email me directly. I would be happy to answer questions and share my ideas/models. I imagine there must be plenty of people in my area who may not have the means or desire to fully own a sports car but would love regular part time access to one at a reasonable investment/cost.

Based on the type of questions you are asking I would strong recommend doing more research and due diligence. Read the yelp reviews of the exotic car rental places. Are also aware of the 40 year old San Jose man who was killed on 92 a few months back driving a rented California; what is the liability? Are all "investors" in the club liable?


I would not rent my car to anyone.

 

[drondinone]

efg2014, I have read the yelp reviews for both of those companies, as well as talked with both of them. The reviews are what I would expect, a few irate customers but largely very positive. I am sure that both of those companies offer cars that their customers greatly enjoy. However, their services only make financial sense if you only use them sparingly, or need some of their other features like cars in both northern and southern California. If you wanted the cars every month, especially more than one weekend a month, then both services are very expensive for what you get.

I have looked at liability. That is why it would be a corporation with investors. The company owns the cars, maintains the cars, and pays to insure the cars. That is the setup used by any group that would like to provide a service but needs to keeps the liability of the service separate from that of the owners. Also, setting it up as corporation allows for much greater flexibility in what the club could offer (for example, having members that are not investors, or having a paid person perform services). I am not suggesting that individuals rent their own personal car to anyone. You can already do that with Turo and other web based services which are often quite affordable to the renter and can be considerably less expensive than Sportiva.