Investing in The Car Crowd

csgohan4

sounds like a Ponzi scheme. invest in things you understand and accept the risk 

Ash_Pole

"Registered with the FCA" should come with a warning all of its own. I was invested with a couple of P2P's that prominently proclaimed this and it means absolutely zip. 

Trust me on that.

jimjames

masonic said:

Yellabowley said:

At the end of the days the type of cars I would be investing in will never be worthless so I’m not so much worried about the investment, it’s more about what happens if they run into financial trouble or go bankrupt etc. and how much cover the FCA provide.

Don't forget about the possibility cars do a disappearing act.

Or depreciate. The appreciation has to be presumably more than their costs so they make money from it. If the car goes up 5% but their costs (storage, marketing etc) are 10% of the value then investors are still 5% down. 

Is it a majority decision when to sell? Otherwise you could have a number of investors stopping others from getting money back.

Not quite the same premise but Buy2Let cars were offering investors to buy cars, that didn't end well!

Yellabowley said:

Cus said:

Looks interesting on the website but I don't like the idea that the car is not sold unless the share holders want to.  Could you exit when you want?

Yeah you can sell your shares at any point. Presuming there are buyers out there.

What if there aren't?

jimjames

Yellabowley said:

ChesterDog said:

Sounds rather like The House Crowd (in its original form, where SPVs bought and operated BTLs).

The House Crowd is currently in administration and has been for some time, with investors still waiting to see how much might be repaid to them.

Ah that’s about as bad of a sign as I could have asked for. Cheers.

You say you've not invested before. Is there a reason you're not looking at standard investments in a S&S ISA or pension before looking at something like this especially if you are risk averse as you say?

Malthusian

ChesterDog said:

Sounds rather like The House Crowd (in its original form, where SPVs bought and operated BTLs).

The House Crowd is currently in administration and has been for some time, with investors still waiting to see how much might be repaid to them.

Buy2letcars was my first thought (Jimjames beat me to it).

The mere fact that it was advertised to the OP despite being completely unsuitable for them is in itself a red flag.

Yellabowley

jimjames said:

Yellabowley said:

ChesterDog said:

Sounds rather like The House Crowd (in its original form, where SPVs bought and operated BTLs).

The House Crowd is currently in administration and has been for some time, with investors still waiting to see how much might be repaid to them.

Ah that’s about as bad of a sign as I could have asked for. Cheers.

You say you've not invested before. Is there a reason you're not looking at standard investments in a S&S ISA or pension before looking at something like this especially if you are risk averse as you say?

I’m not risk averse. Far from it. I was just looking at alternatives to traditional investments. I’ve heard of things like investing in whiskey for example. Classic cars are probably as safe a bet as anything else out there and it’s something I am fairly knowledgeable about. I was just wondering if this was safe as I’m inexperienced when it comes to investments in general. While I can accept the risk that my investments may go down as well as up I didn’t want to get caught out with a dodgy scheme. It appears from previous replies that this particular scheme isn’t as rosy as it seems. A S&S ISA is probably what I’ll end up going with as there’s not much point me investing in pensions as I’ll never get anything like the returns I’ll get on my work scheme.

Grumpy_chap

Yellabowley said:

Evening all,

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience of ‘The Car Crowd’? I am starting to build up some monthly savings and have decided to keep half in a savings account earning interest, but with the other half, do something with a higher risk/reward. I have no interest in crypto but I have been looking at various other methods of investing. The one that caught my eye was The Car Crowd. I am a bit car mad and consider myself quite knowledgeable when it comes to future car values. I have made money on cars in the past by identifying appreciating models, but I’ve never had the money or the space spare to do it properly.

With the car crowd, they buy the car but then investors buy shares in that car and the company store and service it. The owners then vote on when to sell it and then everyone shares the profit. They are registered with the FCA but I don’t really know whether I need to look for any other assurances?

They seem to buy a car a month that they believe to be an appreciating asset, and then you choose which you want to invest in. As I’m going for a higher risk investment I figured this might actually be enjoyable at the same time, which I don’t think you can say for many investments. At the end of the days the type of cars I would be investing in will never be worthless so I’m not so much worried about the investment, it’s more about what happens if they run into financial trouble or go bankrupt etc. and how much cover the FCA provide.

I’m a naturally cautious person and I’m venturing into new territory so any advice would be much appreciated. I have very little experience in investing so don’t worry about teaching me suck eggs. There may well be eggs I am yet to suck!!

Thanks in advance.

Wasn't there a car scheme recently where you bought a car to then be leased and that did not end well.  I guess the difference was, that scheme was buying depreciating assets whereas this scheme is targeting the purchase of appreciating assets.

If you are "a bit car mad" and "quite knowledgeable when it comes to future car values", wouldn't the best way to invest in cars to be buying a car that is on the cusp of becoming a classic?  It does not necessarily need to be an expensive entry point, plus you get to use the car and have some enjoyment so not a total loss even if the value just plummets to total loss, PLUS (and this is a big plus) you actually know the car exists if you physically have it in your possession.  Here is one idea:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201051045367

eskbanker

Ash_Pole said:

"Registered with the FCA" should come with a warning all of its own. I was invested with a couple of P2P's that prominently proclaimed this and it means absolutely zip. 

Trust me on that.

Rather than expecting people to blindly trust you, perhaps it would be more illustrative to actually explain exactly how the FCA didn't fulfil the role you expected them to?  They're not some sort of guarantor but are responsible for setting policies and standards, and monitoring compliance with these, but inevitably regulated financial firms still can and do fail.

Malthusian

Yellabowley said:

I’m not risk averse. Far from it. I was just looking at alternatives to traditional investments. I’ve heard of things like investing in whiskey for example. Classic cars are probably as safe a bet as anything else out there and it’s something I am fairly knowledgeable about.

Any diversified mainstream investment is a considerably safer bet than some micro-cap company nobody has ever heard of that claims to be investing in depreciating assets.

As others have noted, if you have enough knowledge of the classic car market to be confident of making a profit from it, it makes no sense to trust your money to some third party.

masonic

eskbanker said:

Ash_Pole said:

"Registered with the FCA" should come with a warning all of its own. I was invested with a couple of P2P's that prominently proclaimed this and it means absolutely zip. 

Trust me on that.

Rather than expecting people to blindly trust you, perhaps it would be more illustrative to actually explain exactly how the FCA didn't fulfil the role you expected them to?  They're not some sort of guarantor but are responsible for setting policies and standards, and monitoring compliance with these, but inevitably regulated financial firms still can and do fail.

Perhaps a reference to the unlawful activities engaged in by directors of those P2P firms, that in at least one case (almost 3 years after initial enforcement action was taken) has led to the FCA bringing criminal proceedings against the directors under the Fraud Act and Proceeds of Crime Act. It would be important to make a distinction between the light touch regulatory regime of P2P firms vs mainstream investments.