Auto clubs allow drivers with a taste for luxury to test high-end vehicles

When it comes to expensive cars, Edward Douglas has commitment issues.

Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, Bentleys -- he has the urge to swap them as often as most drivers fill their gas tanks.
"My friends tease me for having a short attention span," said Douglas, 39, who owns a Porsche and Mercedes but finds himself flipping through Automobile Magazine thinking, "What's next?"

That's why Douglas, who heads a wire and cable manufacturing company in Randolph, prefers to rent the ritzy cars instead of owning them.

For a fee of $29,000 a year, he can have access to a dozen exotic cars at the Vulcan Motor Club in Chester -- a fair price, he said, considering his choices include new releases like the $495,000 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and the $100,000-plus electric Tesla Roadster.

While the rest of the auto industry struggles, the high-end car rental industry appears to be gathering speed in New Jersey, where at least a handful of exotic-car clubs and their multimillion-dollar fleets are headquartered. Company owners say a growing number of consumers are renting the sleek, glossy vehicles for joyrides and daylong outings.

"We're in a renter's market," said Vulcan co-founder Tom Mizzone, who estimates business is up 60 percent this year and the number of annual members has grown to nearly 100.

Exotic car clubs charge either by a single-day rate, ranging from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, or by membership, a timeshare-like arrangement that costs $10,000 to $50,000 for 20 to 80 driving days a year.

That makes them attractive to a surprisingly wide swath of customers, from casual drivers to car aficionados, who drive the brightly colored exotics to country clubs, Manhattan theatres, Atlantic City casinos and Cape Cod beaches.

Tom McDermott is one such customer. The 46-year-old photographs boats and runs a helicopter training school, where he owns 25 helicopters. But when it comes to exotic cars, he prefers to rent.

The owner of five Ferraris over the years, McDermott quickly learned that while helicopters usually appreciate in value, cars almost always depreciate. Exotics are costly and time-consuming to maintain, with insurance and repairs adding up to several thousand dollars a year -- a scraped bumper alone can cost $400 to repaint.


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Auto insurance company will relocate two business units

Palisades Safety & Insurance Management Corp. will be moving about 100 employees from its commercial auto underwriting and southern New Jersey claims operations to an office building in Farmingdale, the company announced.
The employees currently are based out of 4 Paragon Way, in Freehold.

The auto insurance provider has leased the entire 26,683-square-foot office building at 5006 Belmar Blvd., in the Monmouth County borough, according to commercial real estate services firm Studley, which represented the company in the lease deal.

“It’s a brand-new building and offers ample room to grow in anticipation of any future growth and any acquisitions we may have,” said Karen Murdock, vice president of marketing and communications of Palisades, which is based in Berkeley Heights. Future growth of the company would involve expanding the firm’s commercial and personal auto businesses, she said.

The new facility, which is owned by Bollerman Development Corp., also allows the two Palisades business units to have their own standalone facility with signage in a highly visible location on Route 34, Murdock said. Those operations share its current building in Freehold with a number of other companies, she said.

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