Club shares sports cars

Car clubs allow members to drive an exotic car for a week or weekend.

POWELL, Ohio (AP) — Driving a car without having to buy it, or even fill it with gas, might sound too good to be true. And if the car’s the type that will make people ooh and ahh, the notion’s even harder to believe.

But that’s what members of the Sports Car Club do. The company in suburban Columbus lets its members borrow one of four high-end sports cars — for a weekend or a week — without actually having to buy the vehicles.

“[We are] trying to establish that country-club atmosphere, but instead of golf, it’s cars,” said John McGinley, the company founder.

A 1990 Ferrari 348, 2005 Lotus Elise and 1965 and 1997 Chevrolet Corvettes are available for cruising for an annual fee of $250 plus a usage charge.

The usage rates vary, from the 1997 Corvette at $250 for a three-day weekend to the Ferrari, $850 for the same amount of time.

Labeling it a “NetJets for the streets,” McGinley said his members are actually saving money when they join compared with how high costs could be.

The cost of maintaining one of the cars he rents would run $16,400 annually, not including the car’s purchase price, according to his Web site.

The company estimates an owner who would drive an exotic car uses it about 30 days out of the year. The cost of driving one of the Sports Car Club’s cars for 30 days is $5,350.

The concept of a car-sharing company is a fairly new idea in the U.S.

McGinley, whose day job is manager of software development for a company he declined to identify, said he first became acquainted with the concept on a visit to California three years ago. At that time, he estimated there were about four car-sharing ventures nationwide. Now, there are about 20, he said.

A Web site, www.exoticcarclubs.com, lists nearly 30 car-sharing companies in the United States, 12 of which have been established in the past three years, said Cheryl Lyman, owner of CS publications, which manages a network of car club Web sites.

The site includes access to other types of car-sharing companies, which have private tracks or where members might have partial ownership in the cars.

The companies that actually own the cars they rent, including the Powell company, are even fewer.

“There are less than 10,” said Ron Sturgeon, president and owner of DFW Elite Car Club in Fort Worth, Texas.

Owning the vehicles is something that Sturgeon and McGinley have in common.

“I started this company because I had 26 cars,” Sturgeon said. McGinley owns the four cars he is renting.

“Mostly our customers have not owned one of these cars but looked into [buying one],” Sturgeon said. “The club is their car.”

In addition, the cars that can be “borrowed” from the company are usually not the type people drive every day.

The savings to members is helping car-sharing clubs defy automotive trends — by growing.

“The economy doing poorly is actually helping,” McGinley said. “Instead of going out and paying $60,000 or $70,000 for these cars, they’re joining [car clubs].”

DFW Elite Car Club started 18 months ago and has seen growth every month since, both in revenue and memberships, Sturgeon said.

To keep his business growing, McGinley is offering “car tastings,” which allow current members to invite friends to test-drive the vehicles.

He even offers classes to teach people how to drive the manual-transmission sports cars.

Unlike Sturgeon, McGinley said that some of his members already own a “fun car,” but they join for the access to other vehicles.

“It’s a way to add to your collection without having to buy a car,” McGinley said.

Vihn Nguyen of Westerville is one of the members who joined even though he already owned a “fun car,” a BMW.

“I joined because I thought it would be a good idea financially,” Nguyen said.

The cost of maintaining his BMW, which he drove only five or six times a year, was increasing and to limit some of the cost, he joined McGinley’s venture.

He also said, “I thought about how neat it would be to drive four different cars.”

For the gearhead, or those who just want to impress, there is an appeal to driving a variety of luxury sports cars.

“I wanted to drive home in a different car every night and count the money,” Sturgeon said. “That’s all I wanted to do.”