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.


Source