Rent an R8 for $8,000 per day... not including the flight to Tokyo
by Jonathon Ramsey on Sep 4th 2008 at 6:02PM 
The Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong bought 13 Rolls-Royce Phantoms for shuttling guests around the city. The Peninsula Hotel in Tokyo has purchased just one car, and will leave the guest to drive himself. That car is an R8, finished in the hotel's trademark Brewster Green, with a gold Peninsula logo outside, and cognac leather inside. To avail yourself of it -- once you've gotten to Tokyo -- you'll need to book the Peninsula Suite, which goes for the ho-hum figure of ¥850,000 per night. That $8,000 U.S. every day to burble at single-digit speeds in Tokyo traffic, although you are allowed to take it outside of Tokyo. Come to think of it, the speeds probably don't matter -- if you have that kind of money, there's a good chance you've got an R8 or better in your own garage already...
[Source: Asahi via German Car Blog]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kumail891 6:09PM (9/04/2008)
who would want a R8 in tokyo?
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Randy 10:48PM (9/04/2008)
Good question. I wouldn't! However I do like exotics and if you or anyone else here would like nationwide access to my friend John's club visit http://www.theottoclub.com/ you can have access to his fleet of exotics. I've personally been to the club and the cars are immaculate. He has most everything you could want. Tell em Randy sent you! :)
Kazoo 6:45PM (9/04/2008)
I rould.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
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Harrison 6:56PM (9/04/2008)
I've got a funny feeling someone might touge that thing. Too bad Project D will win.
(drools at thought)
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nate_687 7:08PM (9/04/2008)
I would want an R8 in tokyo.. But then again if I had 8k a night to spend i'd probably rent my own personal house and have whatever car I wanted brought to me.
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Shiftright 7:44PM (9/04/2008)
That's a stupid amount of money. I know things are much more expensive in Tokyo, but you can rent a Ferrari F430 (which is much more expensive than the R8) in LA for about $1200 a day. Still, love that car...
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Beau 2:23AM (9/05/2008)
There's several comments here that seem to take the title of the article literally. Read the article.
It's not $8k to rent the car. It's $8k to rent a particular suite at the hotel. The car is complimentary.
kzak 7:56PM (9/04/2008)
Or go to Vegas and rent a Ferrari 430 (a superior sports car IMO) for a mere $1700 per day
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Stoneman 8:24PM (9/04/2008)
I've seen an R8 in person and they are pretty nice cars. I'm not a huge fan of the rear-engine glass display. The car sits really low to the ground, a mere few inches.
In Canada they sell for $163,000 dollars...check out the one I found on the east coast...
http://autorevu.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html#528874436448868044
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Adam 12:29AM (9/05/2008)
Makes sense to me: $8000 is about how much it depreciates per day.
If you really don't want the Lamborghini Gallardo unless it's wrapped in VW generic styling and detuned 20%, sure the R8 is a compelling vehicle, but otherwise, get the Gallardo. Having driven both, I'd rather deal with the stares and the "pretentious git" epithets than the "oh, it's just an Audi" disregard. Then again, I'd rather the Porsche GT3 and have a better car that's a lot more fun to drive and lot less depreciation (they're still selling over MSRP) and lot less of the show boat nonsense.
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Zane 12:04AM (9/05/2008)
I think the foreigners coming to NRT to live in a presidential suite would probably be more interested in renting a GT-R.
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John R 6:45AM (9/05/2008)
Funny thing is you can! For cheaper! $350 per day. Once again the GT-R proves itself a bargain.
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=JveHohEnMj0&feature=related
tragedy 5:27AM (9/05/2008)
Tokyo traffic isn't THAT bad. I've lived here and been driving here for 2 years. That would be pretty sad if that car had a "WA" license plate, but perhaps it does. I can't really see which hiragana character it has.
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trapezius 9:15AM (9/05/2008)
This is way too expensive. I am in Saudi Arabia, and there are a few rental places here where you can rent cars like that. At one of the places, you can rent an R8 for $3,200/day, and the Continental GT for $4,000/day.
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