Thinking about hiring out our cars

[Garnsgate Hall]

Hi

I am new here and I wondered if you could help.

My husband and I have three AMGs and we need to make them pay for themselves as the maintenance is starting to get a bit much. We already looked into self-drive hire and wedding hire for one of them (S55KL AMG) but didn't get much further. Insurance premiums are very high and self-drive hire seems to be more a London thing (we are based in Lincolnshire), we haven't found a chauffeur for wedding hire and we can't do it as you need a special licence.

We started advertising the S55 (using our existing website) but have had no interest so he thinks if we added all three it would attract more business and make us look more "commercial" then we could advertise them properly so he wants to add my ML55 AMG and the E55 AMG on and set up some kind of car club like he's seen in London (where he works) but before we start paying tonnes of money to do a website/insurance and everything else I was hoping you could give me some idea of whether it would even get off the ground? Whether people would be interested in hiring those particular cars and what sort of prices would be reasonable? He reckons he could probably drop them down to London on his way to work as people will probably be unwilling to travel to us to hire them?

I don't want to waste even more money on it if there is no market. Obviously you guys being Merc enthusiasts are probably more likely to be fans of these cars than general people but I couldn't think of a general motoring website to post on.

Anyone done this sort of thing before? Did someone end up driving off with the cars never to be seen again (my fear), did the cars get smashed up/damaged (my OH's fear). Obviously you'd have to take deposits and make sure they were properly insured and tracked (they have trackers anyway) but they are pretty immaculate now and a repaired car is never as good again.

Any help greatfully received.

Caroline

 

[Howard]

Lets face it , anyone who hires an AMG is going to cane the life out of it , i would think that your maintenance bill will go up instead of down.

New tyres more regularly , more servicing , gearbox lifespan will be reduced if it is driven sideways everywhere .

Sorry to sound like the prophet of doom , and welcome on board.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

With all due respect, the type of people that will want to hire one of your cars over a weekend will most probably end up adding to your financial woes, not helping them.

 

[redbaron]

Hate to be negative but I don't see a business case.... if they are too much to maintain then move them on.

Hire will not be the answer.

 

[Mr. B]

Sorry to add to the negative view points but if I was you I would off load them and look at motors I could afford to own and run without the constant fear of expensive insurance / service costs.

If your at the point where your motors need to pay for themselves then I would get shut.

Self drive hire for me would be a big no.

 

[WOODYTHEWISE]

Welcome to the forum, IMHO the above four posts contain good advice.

 

[wemorgan]

I'd try to bolt-on the car hire business on to another - added value type thing. Maybe holiday rental with AMG car hire for the day. AMG hire plus 18 rounds of golf.... etc etc.

AMG Mercedes are nice cars, but not so nice that I see there being a viable market for car hire only business.

 

[Peter DLM]

I think that the cars aren't unique or interesting enough, and certainly not new enough, to attract paying punters. It's a hard enough business even with 'properly' exotic vehicles.

 

[sinewave]

Luxury car hire at Garnsgate Hall

Nah! Bad Idea!

Nice website though!

 

[developer]

Welcome to you.

I would have thought that insurance on letting strangers drive your high performance cars on a "hired out" based would be very specialist (read expensive) and possibly cost prohibitive.

Additionally, punters are likely to do it as a one off experience, and will cane them accordingly, doing Top Gear stylee rear burnouts.

I don't think you'd sleep very well.

 

[finisterre]

In your position I might lose the S, register the E as a taxi, do a private hire test and buy myself a peaked cap.

The chance of them paying for themselves seems quite small as no one else is doing it.

good luck.

 

[A210AMG]

I would think with one of YOU driving, using the S55 AMG as a wedding car could be ok.

Actually how about airport pickup for businesses? could be ok?


As others have said letting other people driving your car will add to the wear and tear !! I will be honest with you and if I hired your E class I would see what its like....

Alternatively do you NEED 3 AMG cars if your finding it hard to run them all? get a cheap run about and use them for the weekends and nice days etc.

 

[martyz]

Hi,and welcome,I can only echo what's been said.

 

[JOB-BLACK-RAT]

Noooooooooooooooo!

I talk from dealing with such things.

You rent your car to for £250 for the day to a chraming suited and booted guy.

Who goes down the road and rent's (now uninsured) it to a less charming guy for £500.

Who goes down the road and rents it to a an even less, less charming guy for £100 per blat up the nearest section of motorway (after his been seen doing burn outs at his mates wedding) for £100 for an hour.

Who then crash it.

You lose the car and the insurance wont pay out (its not theft from you as you gave possesion to the charming guy) who sub let it x 2.

I have even come across 'reputable' firms who will take the place of charming guy, and do the same.

Dont dont dont dont dont, lot's!

 

[mebs]

Hi and Welcome on board, I have a different view to the above, their may be a business case if the right parameters are set. i.e mileage restrictions e.g. 125 miles a day like AVIS and age related hire etc etc.. I am married into a family where exotic/top end car hire is the a business model and they ( the family) seem to be doing well? they also do sub Letting from other companies to increase the range in availability and type to suit all needs, the wedding scene is a real earner as the cars dont do the mileage and are parked mostly outside a manor/reception hall for most part of the day appreciated by many although some might think an AMG car is for racing track many would hire it for a special day like a wedding or birthday...hope this helps and good luck

 

[GRAV888]

Looks like a blatant attempt to advertise your website to me, especially as you're using a business name as your forum username

This thread will shortly self destruct.

 

[Tan]

Without taking a look at the costs, insurance, increased maintenance etc, I couldn't say if it could make a good business.

But at the right rate to hire, I know of people that would much much prefer to hire a car such as an AMG, rather than a more mundane vehicle.

May be a car club model may be better / safer route.

 

[Garnsgate Hall]

Looks like a blatant attempt to advertise your website to me, especially as you're using a business name as your forum username

This thread will shortly self destruct.

Actually my husband registered us - he always uses the HOUSE name as his logon since we moved (I prefer to use my nickname) before then he used his real name - he isn't very good with forums but then he had to go and work (the curse of the blackberry you're never on holiday) so left me to do the writing (I think he thinks I'm his PA but she at least gets time off) as I have more "forum experience" - makes me sound very dodgy that but I've been a mod on a Tropical Fish Forum, a specialist advisor on a rabbit forum, a regular poster on several mum/baby forums and now a regular contributor to a forum for B&B owners (I've had to drop forums as now I work for myself I have less free time than when I worked 9-5) I certainly won't be visiting this one very often - sorry guys but cars are not MY thing - OH will probably pop back from time to time.

He is a regular reader of this forum (everytime something goes wrong with one of the cars) but never needed to post before so didn't bother joining. Sinewave posted my website (the curse of google), I deliberately didn't as we wanted fresh untainted opinions, I know how to market - I concentrated on the B&B first and now we are fully booked most weeks within just a year of starting - if my OH's serious about hiring out the cars I now need to move on to marketing that properly and that isn't done by talking to people who already own mercedes and will be the least likely people to hire them to you too - I just want to know if people consider them hireable i.e. would people want to hire them and if anyone here had any advice on how to do it "safely" before I splash our collection all over the web for everyone Tom, **** (is a persons name you know and doesn't need starring out) and Harry Car Thief to see.

Its our home first - a business second. Selling the meat has been going on since we first started keeping pigs hence the currently irrelevant name of Ash Cottage Farm we rolled it all into one website when we started the B&B to help pay for the renovation to the house (its listed and needs specialist tradesmen and a lot of work) - we got the alcohol licence for the B&B, which then meant we could hire out for events so added another catagory to the website - the car was an afterthought when we were asked by a mate to use it for their wedding (OH did drive that time as it wasn't business use) so added that on as another catagory.

Frankly I'd rather have my ML untouched but OH is insisting it has to be all three because they're all AMGs and it sort of looks like a theme - I can't see why anyone would hire it but there again the bride we had at the wedding reception a few weeks back turned up in a Range Rover (we had one before OH deemed it too unreliable and moved onto mercs) and that isn't what I'd consider "weddingy".

The insurance company we talked to about self-drive said to pre-authorise a credit card for the insurance excess (around £800), get copies of passports or photo driving licences, check paper parts of licences for convictions and get a utility bill - this would mean people were less likely to drive recklessly and should ensure we have their real details but I guess they could use a stolen identity.

Mebs - do you know how your partner's family secures the cars - do they do some sort of vetting on the people who hire them first?

My husband works long hours in finance in London and is a bit too busy to be wearing a peaked cap and sitting outside a church all day - I have two small children as well as my B&B to run so don't really see people getting lifts to the airport with my kids sitting in the back with them . We thought about including the S55 with the hall for weddings/receptions as a package but I can't see anyone wanting my ML or the E class unless for bridesmaids - they do happen to all be silver - we'd have to find someone with a chauffeurs licence but then we'd have to pay them (we sort of fudged it on the website like we already had someone).

The E class has been modified for track racing so people probably would want to test its handling - my OH didn't really think about the tyres - I imagine they will be throwing it around and wearing through the tyres. I wonder how these guys do it Classic Car Hire | Classic Car Rental | Classic Car Gift | Classic Car Experience | Classic Car Club - they have much more expensive cars and ones that are nearly irreplaceable.

I keep telling him just because he loves them doesn't mean everyone else does. At the moment he doesn't even have time to drive them as he is so busy at work, hence he is looking for ways to justify keeping them and make them more tax efficient.

Its certainly not where my interests lie *I'd insert a yawning smilie here but you don't appear to have one* so I don't want to waste my time and effort on a non-starter.

Caroline

 

[Deleted member 37751]

I'm guessing that these AMG's are all around the 2001 vintage?

In the link you've posted, they hire out classic and kooky cars which there certainly seems to be a strong market for; as someone that has his own business in the motor trade, I genuinely believe that the headaches and cost of hiring out circa ten year old AMG's will outweigh what you're trying to achieve by doing so.

My advice would be to sell the one car that gets used the least if you're struggling to run all three.

 

[Bellow]

Sinewave posted my website (the curse of google), I deliberately didn't

A point I'd missed.