1. A Little Piece of Heaven
Time shares for exotic vehicles make them affordable to almost anyone
who wants to drive one.
By Don Sherman, Photo by Vinnie Donizetti
George and Kathy Kiebala would love you to join their family. It’s really a pretty
good deal—you won’t have to pick up your room, do the dishes or take out the
garbage, but you will get to borrow the car. Make that cars. A couple of Ferraris,
a Jag E-Type, a Dodge Viper, two Corvettes, a Porsche Boxster S, a jaunty Alfa
Spider and several other tantalizing rides will be at your beck and call. This is
not a scam, nor do you have to win the lottery. But be advised: As a member of
the Kiebala family, you will have about 500 brothers and sisters.
Officially, the Kiebala clan is known as Exotic Car Share
(www.exoticcarshare.com), but don’t let that formality fool you. This is a happy,
hugging household and if you qualify for membership, an indelible smile is part
of the deal.
The walls of Exotic Car Share’s Palatine, Ill., reception center are plastered with
photos of joyful faces and ecstatic testimonials. “Great time!” exclaims a young
couple standing next to “their” lipstick-red Ferrari convertible. “Better than a
week in Hawaii,” beams another. “Thank you for the best experience in my life!”
raves a handsome young man with an arm affectionately draped over the
family’s Rolls-Royce. “I love this place!” volunteers another proud son next to his
Viper coupe. One member paints water towers for a living but his friends are
convinced he owns a sumptuous Rolls-Royce Silver Spur limousine.
Forty-six-year-old George Kiebala is so very active, he sleeps but 3 hours per
night. This card-carrying car nut races a vintage Alfa Romeo, maintains a
comprehensive automotive library and treasures his collection of 13 classics
plus one hulking truck. But he’s also a shrewd entrepreneur who stumbled
across a business opportunity eight years ago after establishing an exotic-car
storage business as a sideline to his hobby.
“Guys would spend $150,000 for a Ferrari,” Kiebala recalls, “store it with me and
drive it only a couple of weeks per year because they were busy and owned
several other vehicles. I did the math and figured their costs amounted to about
$20,000 per annum. When I asked how much they’d driven their Ferrari last
year, the response was always the same: only two or three weeks total.

2. “That sparked an idea. After talking with a few associates, we began thinking
about fractional ownership. It’s a common practice for business jets, motor
yachts, luxury condos and the like. So, four years ago, we started a fractional
ownership program for cars. The idea was attractive to people who wanted to
avoid all the depreciation, maintenance hassles, storage and insurance. We
charged $2500 up front, which gave you a certain number of points, which you
could use to share several vehicles. It was a concept that already worked in
England (www.classiccarclub.co.uk) but it just didn’t fly here. I’m not sure if it
was trust or what, but fractional ownership didn’t work at all.”
Kiebala says renting exotics didn’t work either, because there was no sense of
accountability. There was no pride of ownership or incentive for avoiding curbs
and potholes. He chalked it up as a learning experience.
Plan B
“The key to Exotic Car Share’s success,” he says, “is a relatively small
membership fee to cover processing costs. We do a background check that
includes insurance validity and driving record to make sure everything’s cool.”
After passing scrutiny, a member is eligible to sign out vehicles for a flat fee
that covers the entire use—insurance, unlimited mileage, one full tank of fuel,
even a prepaid tollbooth pass. A Standard membership, which is good for five
years, is only $250 for two family members. The company also offers two
alternative programs. The $125 Classic Car membership provides access to
eight automobiles ranging from a ’74 Alfa Romeo Spider to an ’82 Rolls-Royce
Silver Spur. The $750 Premier Membership—which 10 or 15 percent of all
members have selected—offers lifetime affiliation, the ability to book usage six
months in advance and a $250 discount on your first use of an exotic vehicle.
Members can use the vehicles for a 3-day weekend or, if they prefer, for a week
at a time. The fees range from $120 per day on a weekly basis for the Alfa, up
to $500 per day for a long weekend in the Ferrari, Jaguar E-Type or Viper. When
you consider all that’s covered versus the total cost of owning one of these cars,
it’s a deal.
Lots of Familiarity
Some members have come back a dozen times for a different car every
weekend. Others settle into just one favorite. Members meet one another and
like seeing all the pictures—maybe even theirs—on the wall. “We invest an hour
or two on orientation and their first drives are with one of us along for the ride,”
says Kiebala. “We make sure they’re comfortable with the vehicle and
recommend another model if they’re not.”
Thanks to Kiebala, driving off in a $50,000 to $100,000 exotic is utterly
painless. Only two activities are expressly forbidden: smoking in the cars and
venturing onto a racetrack. To keep tabs on the merchandise, every car is fitted
with two electronic countermeasures. One is a LoJack vehicle recovery system
that the police use to help track thefts. The other is a GPS transponder that
pinpoints a car’s location at the stroke of a computer key. In the event

3. someone’s running late at the end of his scheduled use, Kiebala can determine
whether he’s heading back to base or making a run for the border. Five full-time
and five part-time staffers maintain the vehicles—several of which are over 30
years old—in top condition.
After four years in business, the Exotic Car Share family is 500 members and
growing. Some participants live far from the Kiebala’s office and fly to Chicago
(roughly 30 miles from Palatine) for business. One couple traveled from England
to take a car on vacation. A wealthy gentleman with a garage filled with six
exotics purchased a membership because he hungered for more. Most members
live in Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana or Illinois. To minimize the youthful-
exuberance factor, 30 is the minimum age for membership, but exemptions
have been made down to 21-year-olds. Unlike a rental business, family members
take care of the cars as if they owned them.
Ignoring Practicality
“We specialize in very desirable but highly impractical automobiles, such as our
Plymouth Prowler. You wouldn’t want to drive that 2-seater every day but it’s
great for a warm weekend. We offer merchandise that people dream to own. In
many geographic areas, you can only drive a special car seven or eight months a
year. By purchasing a membership you’re only paying for what you actually use.”
Part of Kiebala’s insurance coverage was issued by Lloyd’s of London. Thanks
largely to the sense of responsibility established throughout his membership
family, there haven’t been many claims. Kiebala never forgets the close calls.
“One Sunday night, a member returned the Viper after dark. When I asked if he
enjoyed his weekend, his reply was a sheepish, ‘Well, yes, but.’ ‘But what?’ I
thought to myself. Feeling cold beads trickle down my back and not having seen
the car yet, I waited anxiously for his explanation. ‘I was cruising at a fairly high
rate of speed in Wisconsin when a deer jumped onto the road. Unfortunately, I
flat-spotted the right-front tire braking to avoid collision.’ I practically hugged
the guy out of relief. ‘Thanks for standing on the brakes!’ I said. We fixed the
car and didn’t charge a penny extra because this member took that incident so
seriously. Thankfully, no one has ever been injured driving one of our cars.”