Automotive Business Opportunity – Two Season Leases

Posted by Darren on Mar 21, 2010 • (Comments)

Calling all entrepreneurs and car companies…   Curious to hear what you think about this potential business idea.

Today, there are three ways to have a car:

  1. Rent (think Hertz, Avis, Thrifty, etc)
  2. Lease
  3. Buy (includes finance)

Lets focus on #2, lease as that’s generally what I do with my cars.  When you lease a car, you lease it for a defined time period (24, 36, 39, 48+ months) and then return it back to the dealer on the due date.  Fairly simple and straightforward.

What I’d like to propose is a “dealer” lease where you can lease multiple cars from a dealer but only have one (or more) out at any time.  Lets use Mercedes for example and to illustrate my point.  In the winter, I’d love to have an AWD GLK350, which is ideal for the snowy conditions of Vermont and NY.   However, in the summer, I’d love to be able to trade in my GLK350 and swap into a CLK350 convertible or similar.

Essentially pay (for example) $700/mo “lease” for 36 months and be able to change my car once or twice a year to a pre (or not) defined car/truck.

This is a headache for dealer logistics but with enough demand for both season autos, this could be really interesting and net dealers additional dollars.

This lease program isn’t for everyone as I’m sure a premium would be necessary to support this – but I think this would be interesting, no?

Tagged as , , , , , , , + Categorized as Darren Herman
  • I love this idea.

    No idea how to do it practically... :)
  • Seems like a great idea for the customer, but probably not worth it for the dealers. They wouldn't be able to get rid of the SUVs in the summer or the convertibles in the winter, so they'd essentially need to charge twice the cost to have both vehicles available for each customer during their respective seasons.
  • But with enough demand, maybe dealerships can swap cars from cold and warm climates? Trying to get creative as I'd love for this idea to happen!
  • That's what I was going to say, so I'll just agree and hit the "like" button instead :)
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