Sydney  - Buy a Toyota Corolla and you won't have to worry much about insurance, maintenance or resale.

It's different with a prestige vehicle like a Lamborghini, a top- shelf Mercedes or Porsche: the purchase price can be just the start of it.

A Sydney-based property consultant, Chris Gray, fancied a new Lamborghini but depreciation costs and the worry of ownership put him off. Instead, he joined Supercar Club, an Australian company that offers members the pick of its stable of flash motors.

It's not cheap: there's a one-off fee and an annual membership charge of 28,000 Australian dollars (26,000 US dollars). The number of motoring days depends what wheels are borrowed and when.

Courtesy Cars, also Sydney based, runs a different scheme that gives car-nuts the chance to get behind the wheel of something they probably can't afford. It's essentially a hire car service, but with posh cars.

"We get people who hire just for the weekend, or to pick up an important client at the airport or for a special occasion," said Courtesy Cars' Anthony Walsh. "It's also for kicks and for a special occasion. And a big part of our business is gift-giving: people club together and buy a friend or relative a weekend away in a luxury vehicle."

Walsh says people do their sums and decide on a regular hire rather than a purchase.

"They think: 'what's the point of having a 140,000-dollar Porsche Boxster in the garage and only driving it a couple of times a month?'"

An innovation from Courtesy Cars is having mid-week motoring days where clients get to sample six different high-end vehicles before and after a slap-up lunch. (dpa)