Caterham Hire New Forest area
Discussion
Hi,
I've been mulling over this for a couple of years but now the perfect car has turned up at quite a good price. There are at least 5 other companies offering this service, the closest to the New Forest being Bristol area.
My question is do you think there is a market in the New Forest with its blanket 40mph speed limits?
The horses also roam free within this area.
There are some decent driving roads north of the forest but the main area would be in the forest itself. With its sometimes busy roads full of tourists. It also has the Motor museum and Beaulieu auto jumble which could attract the right sort of customer.
As a petrolhead i couldn't think of a better way to get around, with a Caterham its not about high speed so maybe the 40 limit wouldnt be such a problem. Renualt twizzy's are now available to hire and i know which i'd prefer!
Obviously i would have to arrange the appropriate insurance.
Thought and constructive criticism please
I've been mulling over this for a couple of years but now the perfect car has turned up at quite a good price. There are at least 5 other companies offering this service, the closest to the New Forest being Bristol area.
My question is do you think there is a market in the New Forest with its blanket 40mph speed limits?
The horses also roam free within this area.
There are some decent driving roads north of the forest but the main area would be in the forest itself. With its sometimes busy roads full of tourists. It also has the Motor museum and Beaulieu auto jumble which could attract the right sort of customer.
As a petrolhead i couldn't think of a better way to get around, with a Caterham its not about high speed so maybe the 40 limit wouldnt be such a problem. Renualt twizzy's are now available to hire and i know which i'd prefer!
Obviously i would have to arrange the appropriate insurance.
Thought and constructive criticism please
I'm not sure there is enough of a market there to make a viable business out of it.
Like you say, the roads can get busy in-season, the horses, pigs, geese, deer etc roam free - they own the roads - and the speed limits are low. So you're not going to get lots of opportunity to use the cars performance.
The car is not very practical either - less of an issue if you are talking about day-hire, but more of an issue if you are thinking about hire for weekend breaks or longer - not everyone will be accustomed to packing light and tetrissing lots of small bags into the car.
Given the above maybe something like a Boxster would be a better option than a Caterfield?
Aside from that think about things like breakdown recovery, where/how you do maintenance and repairs, what you do when you've got hires and the car is off the road.
Someone on here set up a car hire business in an area that didn't have one - its called something like "Drive South West". Search for the thread on here - I think the user is MrH, it was a good read as IIRC it started out with his initial idea and he kept posting back to it as he got the business off the ground.
Like you say, the roads can get busy in-season, the horses, pigs, geese, deer etc roam free - they own the roads - and the speed limits are low. So you're not going to get lots of opportunity to use the cars performance.
The car is not very practical either - less of an issue if you are talking about day-hire, but more of an issue if you are thinking about hire for weekend breaks or longer - not everyone will be accustomed to packing light and tetrissing lots of small bags into the car.
Given the above maybe something like a Boxster would be a better option than a Caterfield?
Aside from that think about things like breakdown recovery, where/how you do maintenance and repairs, what you do when you've got hires and the car is off the road.
Someone on here set up a car hire business in an area that didn't have one - its called something like "Drive South West". Search for the thread on here - I think the user is MrH, it was a good read as IIRC it started out with his initial idea and he kept posting back to it as he got the business off the ground.
Matt - thanks for pointing this thread out for me!
DanCat - i'm the person Matt mentions. I started doing sports car hire 2 years back in Wiltshire, not too far from The New Forest. I started with a Boxster (the other option was an Elise). I did a year with the Boxster. I now have just signed up the 7th car! We now have a Gallardo, Aston, 2 x Porsches (inc boxster), SLK350, and 2 Ferrari's. I've done this through private owners, all of who approached me looking to hire their car out. We share insurance costs, and each owner earns from every hire.
There's a demand for it for sure, but the offering has to be right. I wanted to be different to "the herd" and affordable. The website should reflect this!
Self drive hire insurance is also very hard to get when you have one car, i was quite lucky. A lot has changed in this area of insurance over the past 12-18 months.
Are you based in the new forest? (i see your profile says North East!?). If you want to chat further let me know. We dont have a caterham for hire currently, so could chat about that option.
I'm also thinking at some point i want a base in the Poole/Christchurch area, as we get a fair few hirers coming from there, have a hotel package there, and we are the only option between Poole and ourselves in Wiltshire!
Happy to help!
Cheers, Mark
DanCat - i'm the person Matt mentions. I started doing sports car hire 2 years back in Wiltshire, not too far from The New Forest. I started with a Boxster (the other option was an Elise). I did a year with the Boxster. I now have just signed up the 7th car! We now have a Gallardo, Aston, 2 x Porsches (inc boxster), SLK350, and 2 Ferrari's. I've done this through private owners, all of who approached me looking to hire their car out. We share insurance costs, and each owner earns from every hire.
There's a demand for it for sure, but the offering has to be right. I wanted to be different to "the herd" and affordable. The website should reflect this!
Self drive hire insurance is also very hard to get when you have one car, i was quite lucky. A lot has changed in this area of insurance over the past 12-18 months.
Are you based in the new forest? (i see your profile says North East!?). If you want to chat further let me know. We dont have a caterham for hire currently, so could chat about that option.
I'm also thinking at some point i want a base in the Poole/Christchurch area, as we get a fair few hirers coming from there, have a hotel package there, and we are the only option between Poole and ourselves in Wiltshire!
Happy to help!
Cheers, Mark
MrH said:
Matt - thanks for pointing this thread out for me!
DanCat - i'm the person Matt mentions. I started doing sports car hire 2 years back in Wiltshire, not too far from The New Forest. I started with a Boxster (the other option was an Elise). I did a year with the Boxster. I now have just signed up the 7th car! We now have a Gallardo, Aston, 2 x Porsches (inc boxster), SLK350, and 2 Ferrari's. I've done this through private owners, all of who approached me looking to hire their car out. We share insurance costs, and each owner earns from every hire.
There's a demand for it for sure, but the offering has to be right. I wanted to be different to "the herd" and affordable. The website should reflect this!
Self drive hire insurance is also very hard to get when you have one car, i was quite lucky. A lot has changed in this area of insurance over the past 12-18 months.
Are you based in the new forest? (i see your profile says North East!?). If you want to chat further let me know. We dont have a caterham for hire currently, so could chat about that option.
I'm also thinking at some point i want a base in the Poole/Christchurch area, as we get a fair few hirers coming from there, have a hotel package there, and we are the only option between Poole and ourselves in Wiltshire!
Happy to help!
Cheers, Mark
Hi Mark,DanCat - i'm the person Matt mentions. I started doing sports car hire 2 years back in Wiltshire, not too far from The New Forest. I started with a Boxster (the other option was an Elise). I did a year with the Boxster. I now have just signed up the 7th car! We now have a Gallardo, Aston, 2 x Porsches (inc boxster), SLK350, and 2 Ferrari's. I've done this through private owners, all of who approached me looking to hire their car out. We share insurance costs, and each owner earns from every hire.
There's a demand for it for sure, but the offering has to be right. I wanted to be different to "the herd" and affordable. The website should reflect this!
Self drive hire insurance is also very hard to get when you have one car, i was quite lucky. A lot has changed in this area of insurance over the past 12-18 months.
Are you based in the new forest? (i see your profile says North East!?). If you want to chat further let me know. We dont have a caterham for hire currently, so could chat about that option.
I'm also thinking at some point i want a base in the Poole/Christchurch area, as we get a fair few hirers coming from there, have a hotel package there, and we are the only option between Poole and ourselves in Wiltshire!
Happy to help!
Cheers, Mark
I've dropped you an email. Have a look at my website, I have a Caterham in the New Forest...
http://www.newforestsportscarhire.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/NewForestSportsCarHire
Dan
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