Exotic car hire for a day in Sydney - dumb idea?

[c3024446]

After an opinion from some like minded individuals on something to treat my wife for our 10 year anniversary………

Was thinking about possibly hiring a Ferrari convertible (430 etc) for the day from Sydney and driving through the national park and along the coast to Wollongong and back. The entry price for this is steep (1100 for a 430, 2500 for a 458), which I would be ok with. My real concern is the massive security deposits required (>$10k!!), and the frightening warnings from Fair Trading and whirlpool forums about people not getting their deposits back, or only when they threatened the companies with legal action.

So, has anyone done something like this and had success? Should I do something else with my money (like buy a bike)?

 

[Flow-Rider]

Yep, I hired an 80's Firebird Pontiac Transam with a big block in it. It was about 16 years ago on the Gold Coast. I don't think the car stopped in 24hrs and 3 of us took turns in driving it. One of the 3 of us was my mate's GF at the time and just had acquired her licence, that was a bit of a hairy experience. It was a $2000 credit card deposit from memory. I remember it having 10inch wide rims and tyres on the rear, we smoked the tyres up like little school kids quite often. What surprised me the most about the whole experience was that the insurance stipulated that the car must be left out on the street and not in a private carpark in the middle of the Gold Coast, pretty sure that the owner of the fleet was someone high up in the underworld.

I reckon go for it and have some fun.

 

[hifiandmtb]

Is that price for you to have the keys & do what you want or one of those convoy drives where everyone gets to drive one of four cars (various Ferraris & a token Lambo or two)?

The convoy drive looks shit - I live in the RNP & have seen plenty of them. I reckon I'd have more fun & go faster in my Polo TSI (and yes, I've owned two Lotuses (Lotii?)).

Like you've said, I'd worry they sting you for the deposit saying a wheel is kerbed or you added a stone chip to the windscreen.

 

[c3024446]

Get the keys and do whatever - no convoy. Been thinking about this all morning, not sure if the reward is worth the massive risk.

 

[scblack]

With many of these, the basic price includes a pretty limited number of kilometres. If you want to drive far, it will cost plenty extra. Not sure of all rentals though.

 

[B Rabbit]

I've done the convoy drive, Elise, AMV8, F430, Gallardo and R8.

Was good fun, maybe not a true romantic get away as you are with other people. But when you get split up from the lead car you can get stuck in.

F430 was my pick. I've had an Elise before so it was nice to be re introduced. Gallardos offset pedals scared me a few times

 

[slowmick]

do you want to zip through the hills with someone else in the car?

some of the rental companies have a luxury/sporty ranges. i looked at hiring a stupid big BMW for a mates wedding on the sunshine coast till i found out i could only pick it up from Sydney airport. Hertz do the new mustangs if you want a bit of a compromise.

have fun whatever you do.

 

[Skydome]

to do something like that will cost heaps, heaps. if either of you are interested, you could organise a trip to Russia with that cost and do one of those edge of space flights where they take you about 80,000ft up in a mig than do some sight seeing around Moscow or St. Petersburg or something.

 

[jarrod839]

I hired a Ferrari 458 for my wifes 30th here in melbourne for a 2hour drive around the CBD and some open road driving.
It cost me $500 for the two hours and the $5000 deposit was waved cause the instructor went with my wife. If i went with her would have had to pay the deposit.
Another thing to remember is the amount of coin you have to upfront if there is a accident which i had to pay the first 5k.
Alot of these exotic car rental companies accurately dont own these cars they are rented from the owners who only take them out for the sunday cafe run. Some extra costs will occur if you go over a certain amount of k's etc.

 

[hifiandmtb]

Did the instructor score?

 

[Dozer]

I looked at the same type of thing pretty seriously and decided it was better value to get a few laps under my belt in a race car. Some of the drive days at Sydney Motorsport Park are wicked and even if Wifey gets to be a passenger in a car with a professional driver, she'll love it.
I do however see the romantic side of what you want to do and it would be a great day out to take that drive. It might be worthwhile looking at something less liable like a Mercedes, a modern Corvette or a Porsche. I'd be scared of the holding deposit too.

 

[Shredden]

The obvious solution is to buy a stolen card off Silk Road and put the deposit on that.

 

[pink poodle]

How much is your wife going to enjoy the high end sports car? Is this something she is really into, or would she prefer something else?

 

[c3024446]

She'd love it. Doubt she would want to drive it though since she would be too scared to damage it. I'm liking the track idea, or the Porsche idea.

 

[Calvin27]

My 2c.

Was looking at exitic car drives for a long time - it was definately on the bucket list. Ended up doing it in singapore on the street. Basically, imo it's good to tick off, but don't expect it to be mind blowing. You are paralysed by fear of what if so much it loses its shine. I'd recommend doing a relaxed cruise instead of fanging it at a mountain park.

FYI I also did Nurburgring in a lotus exige. Was an absolute blast and it cost me about $600AUD for 4 hours (more now the exchange rate is crap). The excess was $35k and $1000 per metre of barrier. I opted for a co-driver - basically an instructor that would give me directions and as a result I drove much faster than I would have otherwise and he even pushed to do do some overtakes and avoid this monster porsche prototype flying past that I didn't see. Did I enjoy it? Hell yes! Would it have been less fun in a mx5 or something more reasonably priced? Not by much.

Supercars are great, but for a poor man, it's just too much stress to be able to be enjoyed. My 2c.

 

[Tubeless]

'Exotic' cars are only for right foot exercise, not for taking your other half on a cruise and for that price you could find a shitta and take it out the back/gravel roads and do even more right foot exercise without a 10k deposit hanging over your head.

 

[pink poodle]

She'd love it. Doubt she would want to drive it though since she would be too scared to damage it. I'm liking the track idea, or the Porsche idea.

Well if it has intergender appeal, no need to consider a hot air balloon flight. Vroom Vroom.

 

[scblack]

'Exotic' cars are only for right foot exercise, not for taking your other half on a cruise and for that price you could find a shitta and take it out the back/gravel roads and do even more right foot exercise without a 10k deposit hanging over your head.

It appears you've never driven one. The driving experience of a Porsche or Ferrari etc is a light-year above just thrashing a shitbox on a back road.

Driving a car designed for driving excellence is a very, very different experience than wringing the last rev out of a poor old Torana.

 

[Skydome]

My 2c.

Was looking at exitic car drives for a long time - it was definately on the bucket list. Ended up doing it in singapore on the street. Basically, imo it's good to tick off, but don't expect it to be mind blowing. You are paralysed by fear of what if so much it loses its shine. I'd recommend doing a relaxed cruise instead of fanging it at a mountain park.

FYI I also did Nurburgring in a lotus exige. Was an absolute blast and it cost me about $600AUD for 4 hours (more now the exchange rate is crap). The excess was $35k and $1000 per metre of barrier. I opted for a co-driver - basically an instructor that would give me directions and as a result I drove much faster than I would have otherwise and he even pushed to do do some overtakes and avoid this monster porsche prototype flying past that I didn't see. Did I enjoy it? Hell yes! Would it have been less fun in a mx5 or something more reasonably priced? Not by much.

Supercars are great, but for a poor man, it's just too much stress to be able to be enjoyed. My 2c.

You lucky prick. I badly want to do the green hell, sooooo badly. All I can do now is flog laps on Assetto Corsar on it.

 

[Tubeless]

It appears you've never driven one. The driving experience of a Porsche or Ferrari etc is a light-year above just thrashing a shitbox on a back road.

Driving a car designed for driving excellence is a very, very different experience than wringing the last rev out of a poor old Torana.

Ignorance is oh sooo bliss :dance:


...I'd still never pay that much to drive one.