[dZired]

MyChoize Self Drive cars has introduced a supercar self-drive program in India, offering customers the chance to drive supercars at the Buddh International Circuit. MyChoize is a self-drive brand that operates under Orix India, which is the Indian arm of Japan's second largest self-drive car rental company - Orix.

Under the new program, customers interested in driving supercars around the BIC will be able to participate in an online auction, which will be organised by the company on this auction page of its official website from Saturday (April 29). The first supercar slated to go on auction is the Audi R8. MyChoize has pegged the starting bid at Rs. 100, while every new bid will mark an increment of Rs. 50 on the highest bid.

The auction will continue for 2 hours. However, if a new bid is received in the final 30 seconds, the auction time will be increased by 30 more seconds. At the end of the process, the highest bidder will earn the chance to drive the supercar at the Buddh International Circuit for 30 minutes. MyChoize has officially claimed that the money collected through this new program and the auction bids will be donated for charitable purposes, which will help in providing easy and cheap transportation for school going children in villages.

This new program has been introduced to mark the completion of one year of operations of the MyChoize self-drive car brand in India. The company offers self-driving cars across nine major cities - Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

Link to Team-BHP News

[GTO]

Irrespective of whether this is a publicity stunt or not (I think it is), Delhi-NCR BHPians should definitely try their luck at the auction. Never know, you could have the experience of a lifetime at the Buddh. The R8 drives like a dream.

Before the launch, when I got to know that they will be introducing supercar rentals, my first thought was how they were going to ensure the safety of such expensive cars. Offering it in a controlled, monitored environment makes sense.

[shravan2k2]

Originally Posted by GTO

Irrespective of whether this is a publicity stunt or not (I think it is), Delhi-NCR BHPians should definitely try their luck at the auction. Never know, you could have the experience of a lifetime at the Buddh. The R8 drives like a dream.

Before the launch, when I got to know that they will be introducing supercar rentals, my first thought was how they were going to ensure the safety of such expensive cars. Offering it in a controlled, monitored environment makes sense.

Even I was there at the launch event and had the same question in my mind. Mr Sandeep Gambhir, MD and CEO of ORIX India, while chatting with him on a personal note, he clearly stated that at present, they are not planning supercar rentals to be driven on normal roads.

MyChoize has basically partnered with Rally Motors, stockist of supercars and exotic cars based out of NCR for this program. They would provide the cars for the experience.

While I asked for information on which other supercars would be available for auction, I got a very sore answer that at present it is just Audi R8. Other supercars are not yet decided.

Well, it is a marketing stunt by ORIX to promote their self-drive car rental division (MyChoize). Enthusiasts to at least try and dream of the hammer going down on their bid.

[Rehaan]

This is 2 days away and I can't seem to find any mention of it on their website. Is the auction page up yet?

They are obviously following the psychological model of starting the bids low to get more eyeballs & interest. This is a common practice on eBay too, where even if you want to sell a $500 item, you should start the bidding at 99-cents.

This works simply because it gets many people invested in the bidding process right from the start, and eventually they will drive up the price to the 'normal' market value. However, by this point you'll have way more invested and actively bidding parties than if you had just started the auction at close to the market value.

In this case however, the barrier to entry is a bit higher (ie. there aren't many people who are on the MyChoize site to bid) - though they do have an existing user-base.

I wonder if giving credit card details will be a requirement to bid? Or are they only going to allow existing MyChoize users with a linked credit card?


Also wondering why they didn't just start the bidding at Re. 1/-? It would just take 2 bids to bring it up to Rs. 100

[Omkar]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

This is 2 days away and I can't seem to find any mention of it on their website. Is the auction page up yet?

They seem to have a different page for the Auction. (Click here)

A security deposit of Rs. 50000 and the date is May 12, 2017.

Originally Posted by shravan2k2

While I asked for information on which other supercars would be available for auction, I got a very sore answer that at present it is just Audi R8. Other supercars are not yet decided.

The website has a section of upcoming cars, so I guess there will be other cars as well.

[Rehaan]

Any updates on what the final price was?

I visited the site the next day, but the page was bare.

Now it's showing the next auction for 15 days from now...

[IcySanders2497]

Does anyone know if we can still rent out a supercar to experience it at the Budh International Circuit?