Drive a free car !! Get paid to drive your own car !!! Are these claims about free cars too good to be true? Are there companies who will actually provide you a free car?
Yes, almost, but not quite true. There's a little more to it. However, there's enough truth in it and enough potential opportunity to make it worth a serious further look.
The companies DO exist, and they DO pay people to drive, and they DO provide free cars. Real people are currently participating in these kinds of programs every day.
How Does it Work?
In short, you agree to drive a car that displays advertising for a company's product or service. Since you do the advertising, you get a free car to drive or get paid to drive your own car. In some cases, you may get a free car and get paid to drive too.
These arrangements are typically not handled directly by the company selling the product or service, but by an marketing or advertising company hired by the product / service company. Some of these marketing and advertising companies provide brand-new vehicles, some offer almost-new vehicles from their fleet, others may pay you to drive your own car.
The company "wraps" the car in an easily-removable paint-safe vinyl film that contains an attractive graphic ad that promotes a client company's product or service. For example, the ad may promote a cell phone service or a new restaurant in town.
Some ads might cover the entire vehicle (looks great on SUVs, minivans, PT Cruisers), some only partially, and some only on side or rear windows. Do not worry, you can see just fine through windows that have vinyl ads applied.
The company offering the product or service pays the advertising company, who pays you to drive your own car or provides you a free car with the advertising already applied.
The amount you get paid, or whether you get a free car, depends primarily on three factors:
- Number of miles you drive per month
- Where you drive
- Where you park
In other words, you're selected according to the number of people who will potentially see your wrapped vehicle in an average day. You'll be paid more and have a better chance at a free vehicle if you drive lots of miles and drive in a heavily populated and high traffic area. In some cases, you may be asked to drive a specific route every day. The more people that have a chance of seeing your car as it's driven or where it parked, the greater your opportunity.
If you only drive a few blocks to a part-time job, back and forth to school in the suburbs, or just to church on Sundays, you probably will not qualify for this kind of program.
It's not too difficult to figure out whether or not you might qualify for one of these cars-for-free programs when you consider the objectives of the advertisers. They simply want their ads to be seen by as many people as possible in a specific area.
What's the Catch?
You have to be at least 18 years old, have a drivers license, and have a good driving record. You pay for insurance and, in some cases, for maintenance, especially if you drive your own car.
New cars are not always available and you may not be able to drive the make / model of your choice. However, depending on the company, you may have enough choices that you can find something that you like.
You may or may not be able to select the ad that goes on your car or the duration that the ad stays on the car. Of course, if you do not like the ad program, you can turn it down and wait for a better one. Most ads are attractive and well designed so that you would not be embarrassed to be seen with it.
Keep in mind that the "free" car belongs to the advertising company, not you. At the end of the agreement, which could be as much as five years, you give the car back.
Also remember that the ad stays on your car 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can not take it on and off. If this is your only car, you must be prepared to drive the car everywhere you go – to weddings anderals, to work, to school, to the mall, and everywhere else that you drive.
Competition for free cars is very heavy, outstripping demand in many cases. It may take up to 90 days to get accepted into a program. Therefore, you have to be well qualified and patient in your attempt to land one of these deals. Free is not always easy.
But, for a car, it might all be worth it.
