Rent a classic car on your U.S. vacation
DriveShare is an enthusiast car rental program, but with one giant caveat for Canadians
It used to be that when you travelled, your choices of lodging were limited to hotel, motel or bed and breakfast. But with the advent of Airbnb you can now rent someone’s private home, condo or apartment. It allows you to stay in a wider variety of places with perhaps a bit more soul than a Best Western or Marriott.
This brings us to DriveShare by Hagerty. It’s essentially the Airbnb for rental cars. DriveShare has a 1,100-strong network of privately-owned enthusiast cars that you can rent. Everything from modern V10 Lamborghinis to adorable Ford Model As are on offer. And because the service is provided by classic car insurer Hagerty, the insurance side of the rental is part of the arrangement. It’s not an Uber-style “hope for the best” kind of setup.
Once you’ve selected your car from the website, the process to rent works much like an Airbnb rental. You write a short note to the owner explaining who you are and why you’re interested in the car and then the owner approves you (or does not) to drive the car and you’re booked.
Prices range from as low as US$85 for the daily rental of a more mundane classic, all the way up to $1,000 a day to rent an exotic supercar. Steve Haas, senior manager of DriveShare operations says that the average rental price people pay is about $440 per day. I personally found that most of the cars I wanted to drive were listed for between $250 and $400 daily.
With prices like that, it won’t be an economical alternative to a traditional rental car, nor is DriveShare supposed to be. The owners also set daily mileage limits on the cars and most are around 160 to 240 kilometres a day. So road trips in these cars are usually out of the question, unless you can find a very understanding owner.
But the biggest caveat for Canadian classic-car lovers is that DriveShare is currently a U.S.-only program. The cars are exclusively available in the United States and you cannot choose to rent out your own car unless you live in America. That said, Canadians can still rent DriveShare cars while visiting the U.S., but the website asks for a ZIP code to verify credit-card payment information and it wouldn’t let me input a Canadian postal code.
Haas had to override the system and manually input my payment information, but says a fix for that is planned for upcoming website updates. The last hurdle is that to rent a DriveShare car you must be at least 30 years old.
I assume they do this to keep sweet big-block muscle cars out of teenage hands, but as a 27-year-old I find this a bit draconian and wish they’d knock that requirement down to 25.
I decided to try out DriveShare for myself and picked out a cherry 1974 Triumph TR6 to drive during a recent trip to Los Angeles.
It was great fun to blast around L.A. in a classic sports car, but I ran into mechanical troubles and learned a great thing about renting through DriveShare: Hagerty roadside assistance.
When you rent a car, you’re covered with Hagerty roadside assistance, which I used free of charge twice in my two-day rental.
It’s nice to know that a mechanical letdown can only affect your schedule, not your wallet. I had a great time driving my rented TR6, and if I was 30 or older I’d be using this service on more of my trips to the U.S.
Take some time and scroll around the DriveShare website, I’m sure you’ll find something tempting.
I’ve got my eyes on a sweet-looking AMC AMX. Hopefully the next trip will involve fewer tows.