You can’t really call yourself a revhead until you’ve driven a Porsche. The Porsche 911 is one of the most iconic cars of all time, and the Stuttgart marque’s other impressive sports cars are all serious bucket list items.
But owning a Porsche is a pretty serious commitment. On top of that, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a generous soul who’ll let you have a no-strings-attached joy ride in their Germanic pride and joy… Or a sports car rental company that isn’t just a little bit dodgy. For many Australians, the dream of driving a Porsche has been just out of reach.
Until now, that is. Porsche Australia has just unveiled an exciting new program that gives mere mortals like us the chance to get behind the wheel of automotive perfection in a way that’s far more convenient and worry-free than any other offering on the market.
It’s called Porsche Drive Rental. Long offered in overseas markets such as Germany and Japan, it does what it says on the tin: lets Aussies access selected Porsche models from Porsche directly short-term use. It’s ideal for drivers who want casual access to a Porsche sports car or the chance to experience their dream ride.
Starting off as a six-month-long pilot program in Melbourne, Porsche Drive Rental will let customers rent one of three models (which happen to Porsche’s most desirable): the legendary 911 Carrera 4S, manic 718 Boxster S and the impressive all-electric Taycan 4S.
Program customers can book for a day, weekend or week, which includes a generous mileage allowance, lets you register a second driver, and even covers road tolls – so no need to mess around taking the E-Tag out of your own ride.
The cars are fully insured and are comprehensively sanitised between drives (very important during these COVID times). Better yet, when you pick up the vehicle you’ll get a personal handover and comprehensive instruction on how to drive your weapon of choice.
Watch Norwegian Olympic skiing star Aksel Lund Svindal recreate the iconic ‘Porsche Jump’ with the new Porsche Taycan below.
The big, unspoken advantage of the Porsche Drive Rental program is that because it’s run by Porsche themselves, you don’t have to worry about dealing with skeevy rental car businesses who might not take care of the cars in their fleet. Porsche Drive Rental’s vehicles all benefit from being serviced directly by Porsche, which means they’ll be operating at peak performance and safety.
There’s really only two catches: you need to be over 27 and Porsche require a $6,000 deposit upon vehicle collection. Which is perfectly reasonable, under the circumstances. Otherwise, it’s a seamless, trustworthy and convenient way to get behind the wheel of a Porsche.
Fingers crossed the pilot program is successful in Melbourne and Porsche offers the service in other cities. We’d quite like the chance to rent a cheeky Boxster for a cruise up the Gold Coast…
Find out more about Porsche Drive Rental here.
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