Irish car fans hoping for the present of a drive in a performance car for St Valentine's Day this Saturday will be disappointed this year, and can blame the high cost of insurance for their disappointment.
Ireland's principal performance car rental company has just suspended its service. It says that high insurance costs are the main factor which made it unviable.
Dublin-based Beaufort Performance Car Rentals, which supplied Ferraris, Porsches and Jaguar XK8s as rental cars, stopped offering the facility last month.
Insurance costs on performance cars is thought to have made the service prohibitive, with rental prices held as low as possible to stimulate demand but unable to cover costs. According to one employee of the firm, "even if the cars were going out every day, it just wasn't economic."
Typically renting a Porsche Boxster or Jaguar XK8 convertible for a day was priced at €370, including insurance, while a Ferrari for two days cost €995. Three days rental of a Boxster was priced at €875.
As part of the rental agreement the customer also had to make a €2,500 deposit through their credit card, which would be used in case of damage to the car.
Although popular in Britain, the US and Australia where drivers can rent Ford Mustangs, BMW M3s and more exotic cars, performance car rental is fairly new here.
Any demand that exists is thought to be confined to the summer and special occasions like weddings, birthdays, St Valentine's Day and occasional celebrity visits.
It was hoped that some of the market would come from those interested in renting the other types of wedding transport such as a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce or Bentley which typically cost around €380 for the day or a stretch limo at about €450.
Beaufort's main competitor, Driven Dreams, offers a self-drive super car wedding package from €350, though its office is temporarily closed for the next few weeks.
For wedding days, Ferraris have been rented to take the bride, or driven by the groom himself to the wedding. While the bride can opt for anything from a horse to the "prancing horse", one of the other alternatives for the groom, according to Ireland's Wedding Journal, is a Harley, available for rent through a Northern Ireland company.