A new online used-car marketplace is running a promotion in which, if you are a nerd who happens to have a lot of bitcoin saved up, you can purchase a car with that bitcoinand they'll pay the seller out in cash.
The site is called Beepi (I know...), and it's a startup that hopes to take some of the hassle out of car sales by eliminating dealers altogether and pricing cars well below their Bluebook value.
The company launched earlier this year, opening the site up to car sellers in the Bay Area in February and taking on its first buyers in April. Terrible name aside, Beepi uses the peer-to-peer marketplace model, eliminating the need for dealerships by sending certified inspectors out to a seller's location is to do a 185-point inspection on the car for sale. They then offer "no-haggle" prices that company co-founder Ale Resnik says "weren't previously possible."
Unlike existing sites like AutoTrader and Cars.com, all the cars listed on Beepi are from real people, and are inspected and certified. "Beepi guarantees both ends of the marketplace," Resnik says, "with a 30-day sell-through guarantee for sellers and a 10-day money back guarantee for buyers."
Currently they're only accepting cars from sellers in the Bay Area, from North Richmond down to to South San Jose, but they'll deliver cars to buyers anywhere in the country. Buyers in California get their cars delivered to them for free, and for out of state orders, buyers pay between $600 and $1000 for FedEx Overnight shipping. Beepi takes up to a 9-percent cut of every sale.
If we're to trust that all Beepi's inspectors are as trained and qualified as they say, it could end up being an innovative new model for used-car buyingno more going to dealerships, haggling with salesmen, and worrying about lemons on Craigslist. But there is one downside: You have to put all your trust in that inspection, and you can't take the car for a test drive before hitting the "buy" button. For now, Beepi cherry-picks cars in good shape that are 2006 models or later, with less than 60,000 miles on them.
In addition to accepting payment via multiple credit cards (up to 5), ACH, or personal check, Beepi is now taking bitcoin as a form of payment, and its currently running a promotion : The first three people to use bitcoin for car purchases over $10,000 will get a $1,000 rebate.
The company got a $5 million investment round earlier this year from Redpoint Ventures, which believes the company can change what has traditionally been an icky type of consumer transaction. As the Chron reported after their launch, Beepi aims to expand next into markets in Southern California, Texas, and Florida.
Anyone got some bitcoin to burn? There's a couple cute Mini Coopers on there right now.
