The Problems We Address
Classic cars are deteriorating due to lack of investment and use
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Problems for classic car owners: Most classic cars are used as second vehicles and spend most of the time not being used (which is bad for any car). The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs reports that 27% of historic cars are not driven at all, with a further 30% used fewer than ten times a year! It's not surprising that many owners end up selling their classic because they cannot justify the cost of ownership.
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Problems for non-owners: Your options to drive a classic are extremely limited; you basically have to buy one (and maintain, and store it). And what if you like lots of classics? You can't buy them all. Many classic car enthusiasts are put off by the need to store and maintain a car they'll hardly use.
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How We Solve These Problems
OldenCars bridges this gap and offers a revolutionary way to enjoy classic cars. We provide owners a secure way to earn money from their car and meet fellow enthusiasts. We help owners keep their cars on the road, not stuck in the garage. We provide the platform, marketing, bespoke person to person car sharing insurance, payment gateway, and support between owner and driver.
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For car owners: Our platform enables classics owners to earn money from their car by sharing it with fellow enthusiasts in a safe and secure way when they're not using it. This helps to offset the cost of ownership.
For car renters: We provide convenient and secure access to a wide choice of everyday classics without long-term commitment, maintenance overheads, and storage requirements. Whether renters need a car for a special occasion, or just to try one out, we connect them with owners who want to share their passion.
OldenCars creates a community of enthusiasts, including all those people who've never had the opportunity to try out classic motoring first-hand.
Trust and Security
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We understand it is critical for us to build trust and offer a secure solution.
Some classics owners may not feel comfortable letting other people drive their car. To address this we:
- Focus on 'everyday' practical classics with a value less than £40,000.
- Arrange insurance that covers owners and renters for the period of the rental (so each owner's insurance policy is unaffected).
- Undertake stringent checks on renters (including information from DVLA) and operate a 'member rates member' review process.
- Give owners complete control as to when their car is available, how much they charge and who they rent it to.
Our booking process will be straight-forward and pricing transparent so renters can easily make their choice from all the appropriately located cars.
Renters may feel nervous about their ability to drive a classic car. We encourage the owners to provide detailed information about their car, including any of its individual characteristics. Renters meet the owners in person when they collect the keys - this is another opportunity to learn about the car.
Response and Feedback
We have received an encouragingly positive response to date, with key themes being:
- Lack of time on the road is a well-acknowledged (and expensive) problem for classics. Having a way to do this securely to pre-vetted drivers with a member review system was welcomed as a solution to this problem.
- Our decision to focus on modern, practical classics was validated in talking to hundreds of classics owners. Older cars are deemed too delicate and awkward for trouble-free hires.
- Enthusiasts who don't yet own a classic told us they see our platform as a gentle way to get more actively involved in classics without having to dive in at the deep end and buy a car.
- Owners who are very protective about their car will not post them (not a surprise), but we met many other owners who would like to earn towards the upkeep of their car.
The Plan
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Should our campaign reach its goals and demonstrate we have sufficient interest we'll start first thing in the New Year building our platform and implementing the marketing plan.
- Complete our prototype by adding the payment gateway and review system
- Run extensive tests on the rental platform and payment systems
- Post advertisements and articles in the classic motoring press
- Work with classic owners to get their cars registered and accounts setup
- Deliver perks to our supporters
- Go live!
The Team
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Anna is a Business Management graduate with broad leadership experience. Anna spent 20 years at Autodesk, where she held many positions including Vice-President of Professional Services, responsible for a $100m P&L. Anna is a classic car owner and has suffered the consequences of not using her car enough, requiring a full engine re-build.
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Allister is an Internet entrepreneur, mathematician and engineer who has held a broad range of engineering and leadership roles in large companies (Burroughs/Unisys, Lockheed Martin, DEC) as well as start-ups (Convergent Technologies, MIPS, TIS). Allister is a long-time classics enthusiast and has chosen to drive a practical classic as his ‘everyday’ car for as long as he can remember.
What's In It For You?
- If you own a classic and would like to earn money towards its upkeep, we offer you the way to do this securely. And to early supporters we are offering campaign perks that give commission-free rental for life (that's right: we are so grateful for your support that if you select one of these perks you will never have to pay OldenCars to rent your car through our site).
- If you're a classics enthusiast and want the opportunity to drive a variety of cars, we have great driving perks for you, too. (This applies to current classics owners, by the way. You may love your car, but wouldn't you like to try others once in a while?)
- The more backers we have, the greater our ability will be to reach a broad audience and get loads of interesting cars posted to the site. Your valued support helps us to help make your classics dream a reality.
- We're offering subscriptions to popular classic car magazines, bumper stickers and key rings which make great gifts for the people in your life.
- Last but not least you get that warm, fuzzy feeling from knowing you were one of the first people to support OldenCars in its mission to get classics where they belong: back on the road.
How You Can Help
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We have already built a prototype of our platform and engaged with many classic car owners and renters. We need help to launch a live version and build the community
- Buy our perks and become a founding member
- Tell people about your unique perks. Get them excited!
- Register your car with us and reap the rental income in our secure environment.
- Put the word out and tell your friends, family and fellow classic enthusiasts.
- Encourage classic owners to register their car with us.
- Use the Indiegogo share tools!
OldenCars Potential For Growth
The UK has thriving classics market with significant interest in, and demand for, classics.
In the UK alone there are an estimated 500,000 owners and a further 1.5 million 'highly interested' enthusiasts who spend time and money in the world of historic vehicles (figures courtesy of The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs). Today there are over one million UK historic vehicles (30 years and older) registered with the DVLA.
Of these, only 10% are in concours condition and clearly treasured. We do not expect these owners to post to our site, but their likely exclusion will not prevent OldenCars from succeeding in its mission.
The vast majority of registered historic cars are in a condition suitable for person to person car hire, with 56% being 'very good all round, but not perfect'. This is unsurprising: it is well-known that classics owners often live with niggles, putting off the expense of getting such issues rectified. OldenCars offers them a way to derive earnings to offset this expense (and for the owners to enjoy the car more too).
These numbers do not include the more modern classics (20 - 30 years old), increasing our opportunity to build a large, active community of enthusiasts.
