Want a fancy car? All you need is $4,500

THE next time you spot a $1.5 million Lamborghini Murcielago on the road, don't assume that the driver is a millionaire. Or the son of one. The super car could be a rented one. But renting one isn't cheap - expect to pay around $4,500 for a day's spin. This makes it the most expensive car for rent here.

The Lamborghini Murcielago is only being offered by 6Speed, a car rental company. It launched its business with a party at Timbre The Arts House two weeks ago. Exotic car rental is a niche business here due to the high up-front costs involved in purchasing these cars.

Then there are maintenance and insurance costs too. The annual insurance for such cars is about $20,000 a year, compared to about $1,000 for a family sedan. Replacing a clutch in a Murcielago can set you back $25,000. This is why only two companies here, 6Speed and Luxe Car Rental, offer rentals of high-performance marques such as Porsches, Ferraris and Lamborghinis. Both companies said the growing affluence of Singaporeans and the influx of foreigners working here have fuelled the demand for such cars.

6Speed director Denny Koh (right) said they have about 120 members who have paid between $10,000 and $50,000 for packages to gain access to their 15 cars, including a BMW 320i convertible, a Porsche 911 C4S and the top-of-the-range Lamborghini Murcielago.

About half his fleet is rented out every weekend. The cheapest luxury car to rent would be the BMW at $450 a day. And even if you have the deep pockets required for the Murcielago, the company does not rent the car to first-timers or to non-members, Mr Koh said.

The interested hirer has to rent the company's less expensive super cars first, such as the Lamborghini Gallardo or Ferrari F430. This is so Mr Koh can assess if the person is capable of handling the Murcielago.

He said: "When he rents our other cars, we can monitor (through an in-built computer in the car) if he is changing gears at the right time or if he's a dangerous driver who goes over the speed limits frequently on our roads. From there, we'll do a risk assessment and decide if we'll rent him the (Murcielago)."

He said they won't turn down the customer directly, but will tell him the car is unavailable if he asks for it. Mr Koh, formerly from Luxe Car Rental, said that thanks to the booming economy, Singaporeans are growing more affluent with a taste for luxury products.

After all, Singapore has the highest concentration of US dollar millionaires in the world, according to the Boston Consulting Group's latest Global Wealth report released in June. Such millionaire households jumped 35 per cent last year, reported The Straits Times in September.

About 80 per cent of Mr Koh's clients are locals and the rest are foreigners. Mr Koh noted that some of his foreign hirers even rent their cars just as a show of wealth - never mind if they don't necessarily drive them. He said one wealthy Chinese national paid over $40,000 to rent the Ferrari F430 to park outside his Sentosa Cove bungalow in August - just to show off to his neighbour, who owns the older Ferrari F360.

Said Mr Koh: "I knew he didn't drive it much because when we collected the car, the odometer showed only 40km on it. I was wondering if it (the odometer) was broken or whether there was something wrong with my eyes. We went back to the office and double- checked the odometer, and it was working. "The super rich can be very strange sometimes."