New car club aims for difference
Choose the car and keep it for three months
Nissan 350Z fits the bill
The Carrot Club is the brainchild of founder Seth Love-Jones. Based around his own passion for regularly changing his sports cars, the club gives its members the car of their choice, to have and drive 24/7. But the best bit, is that after three months, members get to swap their car for their choice of another car from the club’s cars. The club maintains, taxes, valets and insures the cars so members can drive hassle-free.
"When you join the club you get to choose the car you want and we go and get it for you. It’s only fair, as you are growing the membership by one; we increase the car stock by one," said Love-Jones. "Once you are a member of the club, you get to keep a list of your thee top choices of cars from the club’s stock. At the end of three months, you simply hand back the keys to your current car and get into one of the cars on your list."
All cars that The Carrot Club runs have to meet three criteria. They must be sports or performance road cars with a showroom value from £18,000 to £25,000 and be under three years old. This takes in a vast range of exciting cars from Evos to Imprezas, S2000s to Elises and 350Zs to RX8s. the aim is to give petrolheads who like to swap their cars on a regular basis the ability to drive many different cars.
The club's cars so far include
- Alfa GT 3.2 V6 24v
- Nissan 350Z GT
- Mazda RX8
- Subaru Impreza WRX STI
- Lotus Elise 111R
- VW Golf R32
- Mini Cooper S Works
- Porsche Boxster 3.2S
- Honda S2000
- Audi TT 3.2
- Mitsubishi Evo VIII FQ340
- BMW M3
Members of the club also enjoy a club scene with social and driver-orientated events organised throughout the year. The primary events are the exchange events that happen every three months. This is where all members meet and swap stories and cars. They take the form of either a social or a motoring event - such as driving day, motor sports event or a simple meet for lunch at a convenient pub.
The club offers a single membership package, currently £595 per month plus VAT, and requires a one-off, fully refundable deposit of £3,000. Members can self-insure rather than taking the club's £95 a month insurance package.
Based in Bristol, the club is focusing its membership recruitment in the South of England and Wales.
Why "The Carrot Club"? Love-Jones said: "The club concept started life as a 'car rota' based around the idea that the club's cars swap between members. This quickly evolved into its current form and rather than being called 'The Car Rota Club' some bright spark coined the phrase 'The Carrot Club'"
You could easily get a 996, classic ferrari etc into that line up...
As it is, it seems a lot of money 11 grand in the first year (inc deposit) for run of the mill sports cars..
I'm sure you would.
But given that the TVR Sagaris drops by nearly double that in a year (not including servicing etc. etc.), I guess [as my mother says] "you'll know what it is to want then".
£595 a month to pick'n'mix £500/month cars is good value.
I'm sure you would.
But given that the TVR Sagaris drops by nearly double that in a year (not including servicing etc. etc.), I guess [as my mother says] "you'll know what it is to want then".
£595 a month to pick'n'mix £500/month cars is good value.
It's the price you pay to take the hassle out of buying and selling... if you're happy to take phone calls from canvassers, etc. then there are MUCH cheaper ways of doing it. If your spare time is worth £200-300 a month to you and you want all the risk taken out of it, it's probably a better option.
Me, I'd rather run my own (faster) cars for similar for cheaper, with a bit more hassle at buying/selling/servicing time. I'm tight like that.
I can't see how they can afford to finance, fully maintain, tax and insure all those cars for that amount per month.
Simon
Buy them at 18-24 months old, sell them at 36 months old - they'll already have avoided the real sting on depreciation. Arrange a bit of a deal re. servicing with a dealer network or 3, and insurance is paid for by the customer.
If you're really canny and buy/sell the cars every three to six months, you could actually turn a nice tidy profit on it as a car dealing basis in its own right, with £2500 or so every three months per member on top of that. Buy them at trade, sell them at indy prices.
However, the website's terrible. Give me a shout if you want a professional Internet presence, guys! (Edited to add: Not least because the links on the left don't work in Firefox. 
That's what you get for building it in MS Word!) 
you can buy and sell a sports car and not lose £1800 in 3 months so i see no point
I had 7 cars last year and changing them did not cost me £600 a month i can tell you.
i find that a little hard to swallow - if you don't mind me asking, what did you buy and sell at on each one?
I can't see how they can afford to finance, fully maintain, tax and insure all those cars for that amount per month.
Simon
Buy them at 18-24 months old, sell them at 36 months old - they'll already have avoided the real sting on depreciation. Arrange a bit of a deal re. servicing with a dealer network or 3, and insurance is paid for by the customer.
If you're really canny and buy/sell the cars every three to six months, you could actually turn a nice tidy profit on it as a car dealing basis in its own right, with £2500 or so every three months per member on top of that. Buy them at trade, sell them at indy prices.
You still need to finance the original purchase.
Unless the company was started by a lottery winner with pots of spare cash, that probably means a loan of some nature.
A business loan of £20000 over 3 years say, will cost in excess of £600 per month.
Or do you know of a way of getting a car with a value between £18,000 and £25,000 for free?
Unless the company was started by a lottery winner with pots of spare cash, that probably means a loan of some nature.
A business loan of £20000 over 3 years say, will cost in excess of £600 per month.
Or do you know of a way of getting a car with a value between £18,000 and £25,000 for free?
I'm with you on that one... Depends how reckless you're being with financing it, I guess. The initial £3k up-front from each customer is possibly covering those kind of costs until the business breaks even? Or there's the option of them not actually buying the cars - renting them from dealers/indys themselves, but branding it a club (economies of scale, choice of brands, etc)?
I'm with you on that one... Depends how reckless you're being with financing it, I guess. The initial £3k up-front from each customer is possibly covering those kind of costs until the business breaks even? Or there's the option of them not actually buying the cars - renting them from dealers/indys themselves, but branding it a club (economies of scale, choice of brands, etc)?
The more I think about this, the less I can see how it can possibly work at that pricing level.
The financing costs are always going to be considerable - surely?
Simon
Of more concern is the £3k up front to a company who's website simply shouts - done on a budget. The thing doesn't even work at all in Firefox (well not for me at least). The cynic in me wonders what is to simply stop them trading after 6 months having pocketed a large number for joining fees.
£1000 per month (inc VAT) to hire used "low end" performance cars?
WHY?
You can contract hire a brand new Cayman S/Boxter S/M3 CS/RS4/SLK 55AMG over 24 months with the same mileage restrictions for similar or less money (including tax/maintenance).
Biggest problem for me is that I don't find any of the cars on offer exciting.
Still waiting for the club that offers excellent examples of the best drivers cars of all time (E30 M3, Integrale, Audi Quatt, 968CS, GT3, M5 etc) for a good price. I think they could do some business.
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