If You Have the Money, They Have the Rental Car : Automobiles: Renting a car can be more fun than ever these days, with an expanding choice that includes Mercedes-Benzes, Porsches and even Rolls-Royces.
Tired of the same compact car each time you need to rent an automobile on a trip? If you’re willing to pay the extra tariff, the business of renting a car is getting to be a little more fun.
All across the country, rental fleets are being upgraded. Luxury cars and exotic sports cars are being offered at more and more outlets.
Budget Rent-A-Car has a luxury line of automobiles available at locations in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Hawaii, Miami, New Orleans, Phoenix and Washington. Cars include the BMW, Corvette, Jaguar, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Mercedes, Porsche, Toyota Supra, Mustang convertible, Mercedes Benz 190, Porsche 944 and Mazda Miata.
Budget’s midweek rate, Monday through Friday, for many of these cars is $99 a day. The Beverly Hills-based company’s “Drive A Dream” fleet of cars includes Ferraris and a complete line of Mercedeses and Rolls-Royces.
High-end vehicles like the 1990 Mercedes 500 SL rent for $395 a day. Ferraris start at $500 a day, same as a Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible. But the convertible Suzuki four-wheel-drive rents for $49.95, and the Mazda Miati is $79.
Many special services are available upon request--from pickup and delivery to car phones and other services.
So who drives these cars? “Everyone from Aunt Rose and Uncle Sid to top-name rock-and-roll stars,” says Ken Kerzner, Budget’s president and chief operating officer. “People come here to express themselves, and to drive a dream. They park their Chevy and see Hollywood like the stars.”
In a city where style often rates a higher priority than substance, Kerzner’s expensive rental cars do very well. “People are either coming to drive a car as a status symbol,” he says, “or to wave their hair in the wind and get closer to the California life style.”
Sometimes it can be the reverse. Diane Keaton comes to Kerzner’s place to rent a VW Rabbit “so she won’t stand out.”
But other celebrities who seem to go for flashier rental transportation include Warren Beatty, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross.
One word of caution: As you might suspect, there can be some hefty mileage and insurance charges for some of these cars. For Budget’s luxury fleet you get 50 miles a day free. It’s 25 to 50 cents a mile thereafter.
National Car Rental has a special luxury fleet: American classic cars from the 1950s and ‘60s. You can find “California Classics” at its Los Angeles International Airport location and “Florida Fun Wheels” at four locations in Florida.
A few years ago National hired a special car buyer who traveled throughout the United States for months. He attended car auctions, spoke with dealers and even put notes on windshields of individual cars he saw on the road. Thus National began assembling its fleet.
The rates for these cars are surprisingly reasonable: $49 a day and 30 cents a mile. There’s a small catch: You can only rent one if you are a member of National’s Emerald Club, the company’s frequent renter program. (It’s not hard to join; a one-year membership costs $60 and includes lots of discount and upgrade certificates.)
National rents the cars with the same collision-damage waivers and liability insurance provisions as its other cars. “These cars were so well-built,” says National Vice President Michael Olsen, “that we’ve had few accidents where the old cars sustained damage. And most people treat these cars with kid gloves. We had one guy who rented a ’57 Chevy to take to a wedding, and he polished it for three hours himself.”
For the time being you can forget about renting one of these cars--or any other type of “exotic car”--in cities such as Omaha, Neb., or Canton, Ohio.
“We would never rent out a Rolls-Royce there,” says Kerzner. “You need a place with a certain magic, and there are few places like Beverly Hills.”
At most Hertz locations, for example, about the most exotic cars you can rent are a Cadillac Coupe de Ville, Lexus, Lincoln Continental or Lincoln Town Car, each for $49.90. Among the selection of sports cars are the Pontiac Firebird, Chevy Camaro and Chevy Beretta.
At Avis you can rent a Cadillac Coupe de Ville, Chrysler Le Baron Convertible, Chrysler New Yorker or Pontiac Sunbird convertible.
But that doesn’t mean the car you want is necessarily available. If you really want to rent one, call Avis and ask for the “special services” desk.
If the company has a special vehicle available at another location they will transport the car, or a similar model, to the requested rental location. Of course, you should expect to pay whatever the company had to pay to transport the car there.
At the airports in both Denver and Salt Lake City, renters can pick up Broncos and Toyota Forerunner trucks for $54.99 a day.
At some locations, companies have tried renting “exotics” without much success. Last year Dollar Rent A Car in Hawaii began offering BMW convertibles but the program was soon canceled. The company couldn’t make a profit--even at higher rental rates--because of the high cost of maintenance, insurance and repairs.
Still, you can find some special cars to rent in Hawaii. You just have to be prepared to pay for them. Ferraris, Corvettes and other exotics are for rent in Honolulu. But rates can be as high as $300 a day (not including mileage and insurance).
On the Big Island of Hawaii a company called Kona Convertibles will rent you a Camaro Iroc Z convertible for $125 a day, or a Corvette at $175 a day. At nearby Ciao Rentals you can get other convertibles--there’s the Mazda Miata ($99 a day), Maserati ($225), Porsche 911 ($250) and, last but not least, a selection of Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
Not every car-rental company is jumping on the exotic bandwagon. Alamo, the fourth-largest rental-car company in the United States, has stayed away from renting unusual cars.
But in Southern California, luxury and exotic cars are fixtures on the road. If money is no object, you can rent anything from an amphibious landing craft to a Ferrari or Rolls-Royce.
At Luxury Line Rent-A-Car in Beverly Hills, if they don’t have the car you want to rent they go out and buy it for you. Luxury Line Rent-A-Car has offices in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and at the Burbank Airport.
Luxury Line’s 700-car inventory includes a full line of Mercedeses, Rolls-Royce Corniche convertibles, Ferraris, Jaguars, BMWs and Porsches. “What sets us apart isn’t so much the cars we rent,” says owner Marc Fogel, “it’s our willingness to go that extra mile.”
Fogel’s not kidding. A few months back he received a call from a rock star, calling from an airplane. The singer would be in Los Angeles in five hours. He wanted two white vans for his equipment, a red Ferrari Testarossa for himself and a gray or black Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible for his manager.
A further request: The Corniche had to have two cellular phones, a fax machine and a secretary. And all had to be delivered to the airport for his arrival at 5 p.m.
The vehicles were waiting when the star arrived. The bill for the five-hour rental: $5,000. “The funny thing,” says Fogel, “is that the rock star chose to ride in the van. He never even used the Ferrari.”
But sometimes, when speed is essential, a rented Ferrari can truly make a difference. Not long ago a man and woman showed up at the Cresskill, N.J., offices of Roaring Roadsters, a rental company specializing in luxury cars. They rented a red Ferrari for two days. But when they returned the car, the manager noticed that the couple had logged more than 1,000 miles on the odometer.
Where did they go? On a whim, the couple decided to get married, zoomed up to Niagara Falls for a quick ceremony and--quite literally--zoomed back.
