You don’t have to own a Porsche to drive one.
Since 2012, Porsches have been available to rent on Turo, a company that helps regular car owners arrange rentals of their vehicles, usually for several days. There, Porsches are one of the top-searched cars.
This year alone, more than 1,600 Porsches have been added to Turo’s rental platform, bringing the total to more than 4,500. The average cost to rent one of those vehicles is about $200 a day, though it varies based on model, year, and rental location. (Among them is Turo CEO Andre Haddad’s 2006 Porsche 911, available for $227 a day.)
On Sept. 12, Turo announced an official partnership with Porsche in the US to create a special program, Porsche Host, dedicated to Porsche rentals. Turo is selecting top-rated Porsche owners and existing Turo members in San Francisco and Los Angeles to join the program. Those hosts will get training in all things Porsche at the automaker’s Experience Center in Los Angeles, making them akin to brand ambassadors.
Porsche is also launching a separate rental program, Porsche Drive, to let customers rent a Porsche for as little as a few hours or as long as a month or more. The program, launching in Atlanta, Georgia, will include “white-glove concierge delivery service” in the metro area within two hours.
Companies like Turo, as well as ride-hail companies, have presented a new challenge to traditional rental-car firms, which have had to innovate relatively little over the last decade. Automakers like Porsche and General Motors have also been exploring new business models as consumers buy fewer cars and rely instead on a combination of on-demand rides, public transit, and rentals.