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-   -   Was in L.A. for a job interview - Rented a McLaren (http://www.wakeworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=808077)

sidekicknicholas 08-21-2017 6:53 AM

Was in L.A. for a job interview - Rented a McLaren
 
A few weeks back I was flown out to LA for a job interview; I arrived at ~11am Thursday, and was flying out at like 11:30pm Friday... with Thursday to myself.

The company rented me a car but it was terrible, so I booked a car through Turo.com to have some fun. I got a 2012 McLaren MP4-12C for 24 hours for $250... and my god was it worth it.

I picked it up in Santa Monica, drove up Hwy 1, grabbed lunch in Malbu, spent the next 4 hours ripping up canyon roads, then headed downtown for dinner / my hotel reservation. Next morning took the car to the interview .... 3 of the 5 interviewing me were from England so they went ape **** for it.

Anyways, it was amazing. People say money doesn't buy happiness, but after this, I'm not sure.... I could be in the worst mood ever and 45 mins with this car I would be all smiles.

I highly recommend looking at Turo to rent some cool cars if you're ever on vacation... keep in mine the price listed + 10% + extra insurance if you choose to take it. Since I was 29 Turo wouldn't allow me to rent the McClaren, but the owner and I worked it out on the side.


A few photos :


http://i.imgur.com/ysrc5uJ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rVmMY5E.jpg

The kid in this photo was at a gas station with his family when I stopped for gas... he very politely came and asked if he could get a photo and peak in it.... I said if it was cool with his parents we could just go for a ride. The kid was almost in tears because he was so happy.
http://i.imgur.com/IAUNYvO.jpg

grant_west 08-21-2017 7:21 AM

That's very cool. Great Looking super car. I was in LA 2 weeeks ago (Malibu) the traffic was so bad I though how could you have fun in a super car down here, so I'm glad you found some wide open road. $250. Seems cheep, seems like you could go threw $250 in tire wear in a day of you wanted to no problem tell us how do they make sure your not thrashing the car?
In tires

sidekicknicholas 08-21-2017 7:47 AM

Quote:

Seems cheep, seems like you could go threw $250 in tire wear in a day of you wanted to no problem tell us how do they make sure your not thrashing the car?
Don't think they had a clue if I was beating on it or not... maybe they have ECM remote monitoring tool, but idk. I showed up, he walked me through the quirks of the car for 5 mins, and I was off. I pushed it pretty darn hard on some of the canyon roads, so much so I made myself car-sick as the driver; and I've never been carsick in any manor. I probably put on like 185-190 miles in the 24 hours.

I'm trying to convince my wife our next car should be a "fun" car vs. practical - I'm tempted to fly out to LA to see some family, rent this again for a day and help change her mind.


This was the guy I rented from - he was able to wiggle on price / miles after getting in contact with him via text.
https://turo.com/drivers/1148720

Stazi 08-21-2017 7:48 AM

Funny, whenever I am in SoCal, I just rent a surfboard. Cheaper and the result is similar for me: smiles for hours! [emoji41]

fouroheight68 08-21-2017 12:00 PM

How come the McClaren is listed for $500 on Turo, but you say it was $250? Did you work something out special?

sidekicknicholas 08-21-2017 12:45 PM

Quote:

the McClaren is listed for $500 on Turo, but you say it was $250? Did you work something out special?
Yeah, the owner had a LLC for renting these - I found him via Turo, but contacted him and worked out a side deal because Turo required me to be 30 to rent his high end stuff, I'm 29 so we had to go around Turo. I originally was going to do the R8 for $250, it was booked so he gave me the McLaren for $250 and 200 miles vs. the standard 100 miles.

chillinoj 08-22-2017 1:38 PM

Haha super cool idea! SOunds like an awesome time.

I'm glad to learn about this Turo website, seems awesome! Thanks for sharing :)

getssum 08-23-2017 4:16 PM

Send me info on the guy renting these please!

sidekicknicholas 08-24-2017 6:35 AM

Quote:

This was the guy I rented from - he was able to wiggle on price / miles after getting in contact with him via text.
https://turo.com/drivers/1148720
^

acurtis_ttu 08-24-2017 8:05 AM

Awesome experience…. Wow…$250/day? That car should be renting for $1500+/day with a 100 mile restriction on it. The owner is throwing away money renting that at even $500/day. Wonder what the owner’s story is? I know quite a few exotic car owners…even at $1500/day it’s not worth the hassle, let alone $250. The first thing that pops up in my head is money laundering…lol. Perfect setup for it. Hope you got to take it on some twisty roads. A close friend just sold his mp4 12-c….they are a great car, but there’s a reason why these cars don’t hold their value. I’d never put this in a rental fleet outside of warranty.
Friend and I were on a car rally and I spent abt 4 hours behind him running thru the Texas hill country and never got tired of watching that rear wing slam up like an air brake under hard braking.
“Anyways, it was amazing. People say money doesn't buy happiness, but after this, I'm not sure.... I could be in the worst mood ever and 45 mins with this car I would be all smiles.”
So true….
Did you get a chance to take the traction control off?

sidekicknicholas 08-24-2017 9:39 AM

Quote:

The owner is throwing away money renting that at even $500/day.
I was trying to do the math on this to see if it worked out ... he was quite booked up and I assumed he 4.5 days a week with it rented at an average of $400/day.
18 days a month @ $400 = $7200/mo.

If I bought a lightly used 12C for like $130k and financed 100% of it for four years (@ 3%) ... Thats $2800/mo.... $4400/mo left over from the original amount.
Tires (2x per year @ $1500/change) + fluids (10k service 2x per year @ $1200 each) + insurance @ $3500/yr) ... ~$800/mo. total for these items, which leaves $3400/mo. from the original.
$1000/mo into an "oh ****" fund for the car.... you're still pocketing $2400/mo. and having someone else pay for your super car. If I lived in a major metro area that would make this possible, I would strongly consider having an extra car or two for this purpose alone (to a lesser degree than the McLaren). After a few years then you basically got a free super car.

Quote:

Did you get a chance to take the traction control off?
I was far too scared to. I put the car in the engine / exhaust "track" mode for most of my miles, but the suspension / traction settings I never moved over further than sport. I didn't want to risk it.

trayson 08-24-2017 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sidekicknicholas (Post 1965881)
Yeah, the owner had a LLC for renting these - I found him via Turo, but contacted him and worked out a side deal because Turo required me to be 30 to rent his high end stuff, I'm 29 so we had to go around Turo. I originally was going to do the R8 for $250, it was booked so he gave me the McLaren for $250 and 200 miles vs. the standard 100 miles.

Turo makes it near impossible to contact the person outside of their system. I'm kinda surprised you were able to find a way to get through to him and cut a side deal. I'm guessing you put in a commitment to rent something and then you guys later cancelled it?

acurtis_ttu 08-24-2017 11:16 AM

Nick, I like your math...but do you know why you can pick up a close to $400k Mp4 for well under 150k? your $3400/mo net is chump change when something breaks. Need a new battery...$4k...yep $4000, believe it or not you can actually find an auto zone battery that will fit, but Mclaren will still charge you close to $3k to reprogram the entire car to work with the new battery ( I've witnessed this conversation) your center screen goes out....that'll be $7k. window won't roll up...$2k. god forbid you have any type of major component fail.

The problem with Mclaren is they are so small and have the majority of parts made in house or sub'd out to their spec in low quantity that the costs are outrageous.

extended warranty? maybe....i think it's in the neighborhood of 30k for 2 years?

sidekicknicholas 08-24-2017 11:50 AM

Quote:

Turo makes it near impossible to contact the person outside of their system. I'm kinda surprised you were able to find a way to get through to him and cut a side deal. I'm guessing you put in a commitment to rent something and then you guys later cancelled it?
He posted his phone number on his Turo ad, it was pretty easy.

Quote:

Nick, I like your math...but do you know why you can pick up a close to $400k Mp4 for well under 150k?
Thats why I noted to a lesser extent than a McLaren. I think if I lived in LA, Miami, etc where people would rent higher end things keep a few fun but more reasonable cars you could do okay for yourself. If I had a Tesla P100d, C63, and maybe like a GTR / R8 ... still cool, still fun, but way more common and easier to maintain.

fouroheight68 08-25-2017 2:31 PM

I plan on renting this our anniversary weekend!
https://turo.com/rentals/cars/ca/ora...955?s=YiwXm7KA

In all seriousness, I rented a 2009 Maerati Grantourismo for $109.

fouroheight68 08-25-2017 2:42 PM

This has bad idea written all over it

https://turo.com/rentals/cars/co/hen...565?s=RbkvIuTh

sidekicknicholas 08-26-2017 10:30 AM

$750/ day for 7 year old GTR, dude is drunk.... I can't imagine he has left whatever tune got it to 1200 hp on for rentals.

davez71 08-30-2017 5:53 AM

This is crazy that you were able to rent this for only $250.

How does this Turo thing work? are these private peoples cars?

sidekicknicholas 08-30-2017 7:10 AM

Quote:

How does this Turo thing work? are these private peoples cars?
Yeah, Its basically Air-BNB for cars

chillinoj 09-06-2017 3:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sidekicknicholas (Post 1966523)
Yeah, Its basically Air-BNB for cars

Nick, do you want to post up up your referral link? I'm about to sign up & probably going use turo for a work trip myself. Figured we could help you out since you did expose a lot of us to it.

sidekicknicholas 09-06-2017 6:15 PM

Quote:

Nick, do you want to post up up your referral link? I
Sure! I didn't' want to seem like I was fishing for anything like this. I think I'm headed to Vegas in December for a long weekend, might try and rent again to drive to the Grand Canyon (if I can find something fun w/ the miles I need).

Thanks!

https://turo.com/c/nicholast185

tweeder 09-07-2017 5:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sidekicknicholas (Post 1966152)
I was trying to do the math on this to see if it worked out ... he was quite booked up and I assumed he 4.5 days a week with it rented at an average of $400/day.
18 days a month @ $400 = $7200/mo.

If I bought a lightly used 12C for like $130k and financed 100% of it for four years (@ 3%) ... Thats $2800/mo.... $4400/mo left over from the original amount.
Tires (2x per year @ $1500/change) + fluids (10k service 2x per year @ $1200 each) + insurance @ $3500/yr) ... ~$800/mo. total for these items, which leaves $3400/mo. from the original.
$1000/mo into an "oh ****" fund for the car.... you're still pocketing $2400/mo. and having someone else pay for your super car. If I lived in a major metro area that would make this possible, I would strongly consider having an extra car or two for this purpose alone (to a lesser degree than the McLaren). After a few years then you basically got a free super car.


I was far too scared to. I put the car in the engine / exhaust "track" mode for most of my miles, but the suspension / traction settings I never moved over further than sport. I didn't want to risk it.

And there is also this:

https://jalopnik.com/here-s-what-hap...r-a-1792048817

sidekicknicholas 09-14-2017 7:40 AM

The other side of the equation -
https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/commen...on_turo_for_a/

09-14-2017 10:47 AM

Did you get the Job?

sidekicknicholas 09-14-2017 11:22 AM

Turned it down ... probably for the best considering a few months later:

From the company's website:
Quote:

However, today, after selling over a million Produce Packs, we must let you know that we are suspending the sale of the Juicero Press and Produce Packs immediately.
The job was to manage the project engineers / large capital investment into their "pack" production scale up. Really cool company, and I think they had something in the packs themselves, but the press was a joke. Oh well, I got a trip to LA and a day with a McLaren ... so it wasn't a total loss.


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