2004 E85 Z4 for Hire £90 per day

[DaveR885]

Afternoon all,

I'm not totally sure if this is allowed, I did read the rules and there's nothing obvious not allowing this! Mods, please PM me if I'm breaking any rules!

When I went to buy my Zed, I'd have liked it if there was an option to take one out for a day or two which is what I'm offering!

I've listed the car on Easycarclub (basically a peer to peer car hire website), so it's all legitimate! It's priced at £92.50 per day for 150 miles (+fuel, which I'd expect to be half a tank, around £25).

The car itself is a 2004 2.5i with 86k miles, so I think it's fairly representative of a lot of the Z4s currently on the market. It's just had new brakes (pads and discs) all round and is running Bridgestore Potenzas (non run flat) that its had for around 2 months. The last service was in June, and it passed it's MOT in June with no advisories! I've got a full list of costs if that'd be useful to anyone!

It's currently available weekends and evenings (as it's currently my daily driver), however if this takes off I'd like to retire it from daily duty (and get a massive V8 before they're banned from the roads but that's a different story)!

The car is based in Newport, South Wales so approximately 20 minutes from the Wye Valley and 40 minutes from the Brecon Beacons. In my opinion it's not a bad way to spend a day enjoying the scenery with the straight 6 up front...

The link to the car is here: https://carclub.easycar.com/CarProfile/UKCB09813A

I have seen people get flamed for similar but let's try it out...

[mr wilks]

I can't see why there would be any flaming enterprise isn't illegal yet
Certainly interesting & keep us posted how it goes
Assume you cover the insurance ? That can't be cheap

[DaveR885]

Insurance is all covered by Easycarclub - basically I set a price , they take 10% and then the insurance premium is on top.

It's not actually that much, something like £12 per day which I was surprised by! All definitely fully covered though!

Price is based on what it's cost to run so far (+ a little extra!)

[slick]

Any chance of you buying a 3.0 or even a "M"........I fancy some track days

[DaveR885]

Suspect that was a little tongue in cheek, however...

If it 'project' works I'd like a track car myself, though it would be more likely to be a lightweight (Caterham or similar) though than a Zed

[Sky-drive]

Interesting, I have thought of doing the same especially as colleagues have asked if they could hire my Z4 2.5 for the odd summer weekend.

How did you determine the figure of £92.50 regarding daily rental?

Based on the value of the car (lets assume sub £3.5k) I assumed the cost to hire out would be a lot less, say more like £55-60 per day.

[Ducklakeview]

Enterprising.. But there's no way I'd let someone else drive my P&J, after all - They might drive it like I do

Mike

[Sky-drive]

Enterprising.. But there's no way I'd let someone else drive my P&J, after all - They might drive it like I do

Mike

could fit a tracker on the Zed and monitor the hirers driving behaviour ... any hi-jinx then look to add on a tw*t-tax surcharge

[Mr Tidy]

Enterprising.. But there's no way I'd let someone else drive my P&J, after all - They might drive it like I do

Mike

I know how I have always driven hire cars, and I wouldn't want anyone driving my Z4 like that!

[DaveR885]

Thanks for the interest all

So to answer the questions:
While I do really like the car its not really my p+j, the plan was to sell it after a couple of years (milage is increasing rapidly!) so this way I might be able to keep it!

Regarding the price -take your point about the low (ish) car value0- however £12 is insurance, and when easycarclub take their cut, I get around £70 per hire. Based on the running costs (inc depreciation) its cost around 40p per mile (dependant on what you think the value is, I've assumed a pessimistic £3K where I think I might get £4k which does affect the numbers). I am also a bit of a fusspot with maintainance etc to be fair!

Assuming 150 miles per day (around 4 hours of driving) @40p per mile its a decent part of £60, so theres not that much profit there, it should just keep the car going

To be fair thought the rate of depreciation should reduce as it gets older and older so hopefully my numbers are pessimistic (Im an engineer by day!) Hireing to colleagues is a tricky one, could result in some awkward work metings is they stack the car!

I dont think its too expensive personally, if you compare it to owning one of these or hireing something similar (from what I could fins0d anyway!) Also potentially gives people the chance to try one before they go out and buy one

Apologies for the war and peace above!

[Sky-drive]

Thanks for the interest all

So to answer the questions:
While I do really like the car its not really my p+j, the plan was to sell it after a couple of years (milage is increasing rapidly!) so this way I might be able to keep it!

Regarding the price -take your point about the low (ish) car value0- however £12 is insurance, and when easycarclub take their cut, I get around £70 per hire. Based on the running costs (inc depreciation) its cost around 40p per mile (dependant on what you think the value is, I've assumed a pessimistic £3K where I think I might get £4k which does affect the numbers). I am also a bit of a fusspot with maintainance etc to be fair!

Assuming 150 miles per day (around 4 hours of driving) @40p per mile its a decent part of £60, so theres not that much profit there, it should just keep the car going

To be fair thought the rate of depreciation should reduce as it gets older and older so hopefully my numbers are pessimistic (Im an engineer by day!) Hireing to colleagues is a tricky one, could result in some awkward work metings is they stack the car!

I dont think its too expensive personally, if you compare it to owning one of these or hireing something similar (from what I could fins0d anyway!) Also potentially gives people the chance to try one before they go out and buy one

Apologies for the war and peace above!

Be interesting to hear how this enterprise goes ...

Think the cost of 40p per mile is a little high ... more likely to be in the region of 25p-30p per mile (calculated using http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars ... g-car.html)

As for depreciation on Zeds ... er ... what depreciation??!! I've had my 2.5 for just over a year now, cost me £3k to buy, I've stuck 15000 miles on it ... and despite having no plans to sell it I've already had a serious offer offering me what I paid for it 12 months ago

[Smartbear]

Hi, by way of comparison I've recently hired a caterham 7 for the day with a similar mileage included-it cost £200 including insurance and I'm guessing the cars value at circa £25k.
I think you will get takers from curious parties but it does seem a bit expensive?
Rob

[Marlon]

Well, this has got to be a first for the forum.
When I drive hire cars I am very careful, but I'm hiring to get family from A to B safely. Hiring out your Zed may attract a different sort of driver
Good luck, I hope your venture works

[DaveR885]

Thanks for the feedback all - Ill recheck my numbers (Ive still got all the invoices which will probably make me cry!). It did have wheel bearings and a service as soon as I bought it which may have thrown the numbers off a little; Ive also included my insurance in the numbers as well (only 25 so fairly steep!).

Will see if I get any takers at the higher price; I couldnt find anything comparable for a similar price so we'll see I guess! If theres no luck I'll have to drop it and see what happens.

[slick]

Yes the track day comment was tongue in cheek.......but consider the parking tickets, speeding etc..........all that stress for 90 quid...never mind the wear and tear on the car, I need a brandy just thinking about it