If buying a few drinks or gadgets with your bitcoin stash doesn’t get your heart racing, a Los Angeles-based car dealer will be happy to exchange your coins for a motor – and not just any motor at that.
Bitcoin classifieds site Eggify has struck a deal with McLaren and Lamborghini dealerships in California to offer a number of exotic vehicles for petrol heads through its platform. Of course, these aren’t everyday cars so they’re not exactly designed for shopping outings or family trips to the beach.
Fast payments, fast cars
The first dealership, McLaren Newport Beach, claims to have the largest selection of McLaren MP4-12Cs on the West Coast – and a few Spider models, too. Needless to say, they don’t come cheap.
The 12C spider is powered by an eight-cylinder, 3.8-litre twin turbo engine and features a number of pricey extras, like carbon ceramic breaks, a lightweight carbon fibre engine cover and plenty of high-tech goodies. The list price clocks in at 387.40 BTC, but you can try haggling.
If that’s a bit too steep, you might want to check out a 2014 Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Spyder. It packs a 5.4 litre V10 engine and comes with plenty of extras, all for the bargain price of 310 BTC.
Back to the Future fans might want to grab a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 which is also available on Eggify for 24 BTC.
If you can get hold of Doc Brown’s flux capacitor, you could even travel back in time to mine a few bitcoins back in 2010 – which would be much easier than betting on a bunch of football games.
Four-wheel drive
‘Outdoorsy’ types may be interested that another car dealership, Land Rover of Redwood City, began accepting bitcoin payments via BitPay just yesterday. The dealership chose to accept bitcoins after it was approached by a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who wanted to buy a vehicle using the currency.
Doug Doyle, the dealership’s general sales manager, said:
“Realizing we need to be ready to accept change in this constantly broadening virtual community, we agreed to our first bitcoin sale.”
He added: “Although the concept of bitcoin is hard to grasp, the process as put forth by BitPay is quite simple. Just send an invoice and the money shows up in your account. Simple and seamless, just as they said.”
The company has dealerships in California and Florida. In addition to brand new Land Rovers and Range Rovers, it also offers a choice of used vehicles.
Moving up a gear
This is not the first time a car dealership has chosen to accept the fledgling currency.
Last year, Lamborghini Newport Beach promised to accept bitcoins, but it later emerged that the dealership required buyers to convert their bitcoins into dollars – which doesn’t exactly qualify as a bitcoin deal. Now, however, it is offering its vehicles through Eggify.
Meanwhile, in Florida it is possible to charge electric cars for bitcoins, using Coinbase. Additionally, last December, UK car classifieds site Auto4You began allowing sellers to list their cars in bitcoin instead of pounds.