Advice wanted on "auto wrap" free cars

ultrak3wl

This is where you get given a free lease car which has a wrap-around advertisement on it. I've never seen a private car like this myself although plenty of taxis.

Is it a con? I would love a free car and don't car about the ad. Just seems too good to be true though.

Couple of examples

http://www.autoboards.co.uk/

http://globalautowraps.com/index.html

highguyuk

"seems too good to be true" usually is. However, after looking on the site, whats the harm in signing up and finding out by the looks!

ultrak3wl

When you sign up you have to give them quite a lot of personal information. This is ostensibly so they can judge whether you are suitable to be trusted with their free car. You can see why they would want that, but suspicious old me wonders if it is all just an information harvesting scam for identity theft or something.

tonys_3

Quite a few of this type of site are scams.Most, if not all want money from you to
get the name of companies that do this kind of promotion. And the list that some of them give -if they give you one at all, may not be doing promotions at the moment-
so you have effectively done your money.
Try googling the subject as there was a site that exposed [ie named] the sites that
just scammed the public-whilst assuring everyone that they were legit themselves.

From what I can gather, most companies prefer to put their ads on existing cars,
rather than buy one for you. Doesn't have to be a new car, but they would want
a "good" make of car as well as it being in good condition. If selected, they do pay
quite good rates but they are looking for cars that are constantly on the road to give their ad maximum exposure and are very strict on correct driving. eg no speeding,
no points on licence etc etc.[I think they fit a tracker to monitor your driving behaviour-and they will cancel your contract if you don't conform to their t&cs.] Can't remember their stipulations if their ads are
damaged in an accident [since the ad would not be included in your insurance] but
you would need to have any dents and knocks fixed quickly.

At first sight these schemes look ok, but the closer you look, the less appealing they become.Try googling "car advertising" and "adverts on cars" as a start. If you find a
site you like, google the company to see if they have good feedback or are a scam site BEFORE PARTING WITH YOUR MONEY.

blue_haddock

Cut the middleman out (and potential for scamming) and go direct to a wrapping firm.

http://www.ad-wraps.co.uk/ad-wraps/index.htm