New Car investment scheme unearthed. EDIT : It's a SCAM (pg. 2)

[adityapd]

Guys !!!

close on the heels of my earlier post , there is this another concern ( which happens to be related to the trust mentioned earlier) which goes by the name of " City Limouzines " and has an office in the Maker towers - an upmarket area in south Mumbai.

They have a scheme which works out as follows :

You invest in 25 % of the car value and the company would not only invest in the balance amount but would also pay for the petrol , maintainance cost as well as the driver's salary !!! Apart from that you would also receive a fixed monthly income for 5 yrs. The company would rent out the car to government institutions etc and would let you use the car for 2 - 3 days every 2to 3 months.

The deal on a Honda City ZX worked out as follows :

You enter into a deal to pay 2,25,000 /- and receive a monthly sum of 8000 /- for 5 yrs. After which the car will be transferred to your name and available for your use.

Unlike the previous deal, this is more of an investment option and the company pays you for renting out the car of which you are a partial owner.


It seems they are in business for the last 11 years and also have offices in Delhi and Bangalore and have recently started an office in Hyderabad.

The contact numbers of the H.Qs in Mumbai are 022 22028093 / 22028182.

So guys do you think this is a good ( and more importantly safe) investment option ? Does anybody on the forum have any clue / feedback on what this thing is all about ?

keep those inputs coming

~A

[GTO]

You enter into a deal to pay 2,25,000 /- and receive a monthly sum of 8000 /- for 5 yrs. After which the car will be transferred to your name and available for your use.

Thats a return of 42.66% per annum. Sounds a bit fishy, eh?

[esteem_lover]

i have seen the ads here too. only they ask you to invest fully in the car & hand it over to them for a fixed monthly sum for 5 years after which you can have the car or what remains thereof. lol

[sumitkalindi]

Ok, under the maintainance, is it regular engine oil, suspension tune up or even a major brakedown, including accidents and dent repairs.????

If all these are covered, then it is a fishy deal. Or you may also think that they use your money as downpayment, get the rest amount as loan. And just operate them. Good for them. If it is used at a government office, then they still make good money out of it. which may not be great for a single car but 4/5 cars and they can laugh all the way to bank. And when they hand over the car to you, be prepared to sell off that ramshackle car. Most probably with a new registration, as they surely will transferr the tourist taxi permit to a new car. A depreciation disaster.

[adityapd]

for those of you who are uninitiated refer this link to my old post on ths topic for a quick refresh

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...-new-cars.html (Has anyone explored the option of leasing brand new cars ?)

~A

[adityapd]

Originally Posted by sumitkalindi

Ok, under the maintainance, is it regular engine oil, suspension tune up or even a major brakedown, including accidents and dent repairs.????

If all these are covered, then it is a fishy deal. Or you may also think that they use your money as downpayment, get the rest amount as loan. And just operate them. Good for them. If it is used at a government office, then they still make good money out of it. which may not be great for a single car but 4/5 cars and they can laugh all the way to bank. And when they hand over the car to you, be prepared to sell off that ramshackle car. Most probably with a new registration, as they surely will transferr the tourist taxi permit to a new car. A depreciation disaster.

What you are saying is true Sumit !!! look at this purely as an investment option and not as a car which will be availble for your use after 5 years

~A

[saurabhb2000]

Hello. I have come across a company called City Limouzine ( ISO 9000 company).

The monthly income scheme works somethign like this.

We pay 2.5 Lacs upfront.
We Rs 16000 back every month for next 5 years.

At the end of 5 yrs, we don't get anything back.

How does it sound ?

[iceman91]

Originally Posted by saurabhb2000

Hello. I have come across a company called City Limouzine ( ISO 9000 company).

The monthly income scheme works somethign like this.

We pay 2.5 Lacs upfront.
We Rs 16000 back every month for next 5 years.

At the end of 5 yrs, we don't get anything back.

How does it sound ?

it sounds amazing!!! I get 9.6 lacs at end of 5 years somewhere something is not right

[Car-Agey]

I was told of such schemes around two years back, I thought this to be some kind of raket and stayed away from it.

But I know someone who invested Rs. 100000/- and gets a cheque of Rs. 3500/- every month. and is also suppose to get the Indica (baught in his name) at the end of this period.

[CorsaLove]

This is sounding really fishy my dear. Any reputed banking institution is not able to give you more then 11% return on any investment and you are talking about more then 71%+ returns.

I think it is better of not investing somthing like this..

[sammyboy]

The issue i feel is that if this car is used by criminals then its the owner of the car on the RC, that is us, who is going to get the stick not the company.
Better to stay away from such deals

[Tumbler]

Interesting indeed. Here's another perspective,

1. As GTO mentioned, in order for the company to give 42.66% return, they have to be making much much more. How much would that be !

2. If what Sammyboy says is correct, then we have a very profitable city taxi business for D Company.

[musicmanaman]

If it's all true then it's a very good investment, but something dosn't sound right in this case. Moreover what would happen if the car meets with an accident that involves a death by the car, since the car is in your name, you would have to run around to eternity I suppose. A 42+% per year return is too good to be true.

[Lalvaz]

Nah, This is a Ponzy scheme. The company City Limouzines is already facing legal scrutiny. Their modus operand is very simple. They guarantee amazing returns to lure unsuspecting investors. They pay a few people, then the scheme spreads by word of mouth. More folks jump onto the bandwagon, and then wham, the company stops payments, leaving all those hapless folks in the lurch. They dont have the car, they dont get any monthly payouts, nothing in fact except they get to make rounds of the police stations and courts. And the less said about that the better.

Simple rule: Any scheme which sounds too good to be true is usually fake.
In the end, every company/scheme has to be able to make business sense. As some folks have pointed out the returns promised here are fantastic, and thats cos they're only on paper, not in reality.

Stay away from any such schemes.

[anurag_p80]

Simple rule of economics- rewards are proportional to the risks for any investments/ asset class. Wherever this seems to be getting flouted, as in this case, there is something fishy.