Hi, My name is David the CEO of TheCarCrowd which i believe is the business being discussed on this thread. We had seen a bit of traffic come via this website so i wanted to check it out and see what members are saying.
Firstly thank you to those who have spoken to us and remain positive on the concept, we are a new business and so getting the word out there is difficult, especially when it appears people are very quick to be negative. To clarify a couple of points above.
The business is set up to help people get access to the strong returns delivered by classic cars since 2005. We are aimed at people who maybe can't afford their own classic but who love cars and would still like to feel closer to a car they have always loved. TheCarCrowd DO NOT Drive the cars and no one is paying for anyone's private collection. If you read the How It Works section of the website you will see that all cars are FULLY owned by the investors with no one from TheCarCrowd taking any shares. This is due to the FCA regulations around staff and immediate family buying any shares which would be considered conflicts of interest for the exact reasons a couple of people have outlined above.
We are looking to source modern classics to take advantage of the future spikes in residual values and not purchasing cars like E-Types or Austin Healey's that have already peaked.
All investors are charged a 5% fee on purchasing their shares to account for storage, maintenance and insurance, and the investors can view their car at any time at the storage center. We work on economies of scale to ensure the 5% covers the costs and will not charge investors another penny in management fees.
Anyone can list their shares for sale at any point via our bulletin board and there are no fees to sell your shares.
As we are storing the cars like works of art to maximize the return on investment we also invite investors to 4 track events per year with the charity Sporting Bears and Great British Sportscars to give investors the chance to drive track focused cars and have some fun.
I realise their is a lot of skepticism around businesses like ours but we are regulated by the FCA [
https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=0014G00002WzZDNQA3 - FRN 931554], we are full limited and we only exist to try and help petrol heads invest in something they love and might otherwise not be able to afford.
Hope that clarifies a few things and i appreciate it is not for everyone (especially if you can afford your own classic car collection) but i hope people can keep an open mind and support an automotive based business. thank you for taking the time to read this. David