You want a Lamborghini. You can't afford a Lamborghini. Instead of just fantasizing, you decide to have other people to buy it for you. That's right. One man wants you to pay for his Lamborghini, and you get absolutely nothing in return, other than knowing that he now drives a Lambo.
His website, www.helpmegetalambo.com, exists for the reason you think it exists.
I'd really like to get a Lamborghini Gallardo, so I'm turning to the Internet to try and make my dream come true. There are a bunch of sites out there today like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and others where people ask complete strangers to fund their projects. This is just like that — except you're helping me buy a Lamborghini.
He told me he's not sick. He's not dying. He isn't in recovery from a grievous injury. Nope. Dude just wants a Gallardo.
He then goes on to make a kind of dickish, yet totally honest, plea for you to fund his Lamborghini.
Wait, what? I want you to give me money so I can buy a Lamborghini Gallardo.
Well, what do I get? Absolutely nothing, except satisfaction.
So you want perfect strangers to give you money to buy a Lamborghini 'just 'cuz' and not get anything in return? Yes.
Once he reaches the amount needed, he'll buy and insure the car, and donate the rest of the funds to charity. He'll also use the car for charity events and drives once he has it, and plans on putting updates online.
But he hasn't chosen a charity or charities to donate to, although he knows the genre he wants them to relate to. He doesn't have a set goal for an amount to raise or a way to keep people posted on the progress to getting a Gallardo. He has a soft date (7/31/2013) of when to raise the money, but he will extend it if needed. He explicitly states that there will be no refunds of any kind to anyone if they donate the money — it becomes his. There is no guarantee that he won't use the money to pay rent if things get tight.
In an email conversation, Lambo Guy (real name was not given) told me this:
My ideal Gallardo would be an LP-560/4. If I can rustle up enough for a Superleggera, that'd be swell, but I'm fine with just the base. I'm only looking at coupes (not convertibles) and ideally would be able to find something in one of the flashier colors, like Verde Ithaca.
The priority here is getting the Lamborghini. I asked if he'd donate $1 of every $3 to charity or something like that, so people will know that some of their donation is also going to a cause. I was told that won't happen, and just the leftovers will go to charity. And he wants all costs covered before anything is donated. What does he mean?
I'm talking about final sale price, taxes, registration, insurance, a new set of wheels, blah, blah, blah up to 1 year's worth of maintenance costs. I figure, anything above that and I'm just getting greedy.
For a Gallardo LP560 alone, he's looking at an entry price of around $170,000 right now. But insurance will be astronomical. Maintenance surely isn't cheap. Taxes won't be either. I'd say, all in, he needs $250,000ish, maybe more. He says he lives in New York, so that means he'll probably take parking into account as well. He's looking into setting an actual goal to publicize. He's actually philosophical about getting the money:
Regardless of the outcome, I think this is going to be a fun social experiment. We're constantly bombarded by people and companies who try to get us to give them money under guises that aren't always honest. I thought it'd be fun to just straight up say what I'm looking to do and try to be as forthcoming about what I want. I wouldn't say it's "likely" to work, but a guy can dream, right? I'm taking a course on entrepreneurship and the instructor has had us tackle a number of challenges that are unlikely to work out so that we get comfortable failing. This isn't at all part of the course and is my own idea so I'm kind of riffing on his lesson.
And you know what, he has a great point. There are a lot of smoke and mirrors on the internet. He wants a Lamborghini. He can't buy a Lamborghini. So he's asking you to do it for him. He isn't putting it any other way. I definitely respect that honesty.
If he finds it impossible to reach his goal he'll "donate most of the money to charity."
I sent this site over to Lamborghini to see what they thought of it. What did they tell me?
Nice. I’ve often thought about why we don’t see more of these…
Lambo understands, and so do I. I wish Lambo Guy the best, but I also know that I won't be giving him any money. I need that money to buy myself a Gallardo. Good luck!