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Ferris Cars of Fourways made history in mid-April 2021 when it became the first car dealership in South Africa to sell a car in exchange for Bitcoin. And what’s more, it wasn’t just any car, but an immaculately-presented pre-owned Ferrari California. The occasion was marked by a glamorous cocktail function attended by influential guests at Ferris Cars’ recently-revised showroom in the Broadacres Shopping Centre. The highlight of the evening was the actual purchase of the beautiful California by one of the guests, live on-screen, demonstrating an actual Bitcoin transaction to the captivated audience.
It was no accident that the first formal Bitcoin transaction for a motorcar purchase was a Ferrari. Ferris Cars is South Africa’s most well-established dealership specialising in pre-owned Ferraris, and over the past decade has sold close to 300 of the machines that have made the Prancing Horse insignia one of the world’s most recognisable symbols of success.
“The idea of selling Ferraris using Bitcoin as a currency was in fact mooted a few months ago,” said Ferris Cars Co-owner and Director Tommy Roes. “We announced on March 5, 2021, through our newsletter, that we would now be accepting Bitcoin as a method of payment.
“Not only were we the first South African dealership to take this step, but to put things into a global context, less than three weeks after our announcement, Elon Musk announced on twitter that Teslas were now for sale using Bitcoin. So we beat Tesla to the draw by nearly three weeks!”
Prior to this, there had been a number of overseas reports of Bitcoin holders buying supercars with the proceeds of their early investment into cryptocurrency as a means to flaunt their new and excessive wealth. But Ferris Cars was the first dealership in South Africa to formally announce the direct acceptance of the decentralised currency as a method of payment.
The fact that the idea has great potential was reinforced within days of that first Ferrari being driven out of the Ferris Cars showroom in mid-April. Since then, Ferris has facilitated a second Bitcoin transaction for a customer buying a Ford Mustang, and days after this transaction, they were in the process of facilitating yet another Bitcoin payment deal on a Mercedes-Benz Gelandewagen. Interestingly, neither of these subsequent 2 cars were available at Ferris Cars, the Mustang was sold by a private individual in KZN, and the G-Wagon was for sale at a different dealership in Gauteng, Ferris Cars however gladly facilitated these purchase transactions for a nominal fee.
“At Ferris Cars, we recognise the incredible impact this digital phenomenon is having on the world and the significant potential it has to favourably impact our business,” says Roes. “We are exceptionally proud to be pioneers in this field in South Africa, and the first to do so in the local auto business. We see this as testament to our mission for a new, fresh and connected relevance at Ferris Cars, where we are ahead of the curve and with an ambitious roll-out of customer interfaces on the horizon.”
To enable the ground-breaking move to Bitcoin transactions, Ferric Cars called upon the expertise of the South African leaders in cryptocurrency exchange, AltCoinTrader. Established by Richard de Sousa in 2015, it has become the most trusted cryptocurrency trading platform in South Arica, and has amassed over 500 000 subscribers. AltCoinTrader routinely manages over 100 000 transactions each month, with a Rand value well over the 100-million bracket.
“The beauty of using Bitcoin, or one of the other cryptocurrencies currently in play, is that it is a peer-to-peer transaction. No approval is required from any third party, or authority,” enthuses Roes. Whilst cryptocurrency exchanges do charge so-called “maker-and taker” fees, crypto users are exempt from the litany of traditional banking fees associated with more traditional currency transactions. Since there is no governmental involvement, and no intermediary institutions to deal with, the costs of doing crypto transactions is kept very low. The transactions in a currency such as Bitcoin are extremely rapid, which means that typical authorization delays are avoided.
Importantly, personal information is not required when completing a Bitcoin transaction.
“We see our Bitcoin initiative as just the first of many to bring Ferris Cars in line with doing business in an increasingly connected, digital and media-savvy environment,” says Roes.
“Of course, we are also well aware that our traditional values in pre-owned Ferrari service, expertise and passion are at the core of success at Ferris, established over a decade ago. Ferris is widely acknowledged as the leading pre-owned Ferrari dealership, specialising in the famous Prancing Horse marque from Maranello.
“We have been the most prominent dealer specialising in pre-owned Ferraris of the last decade and offer a complete service facility through our fully-equipped workshop and highly experienced and well-trained technicians. Our sales staff have decades of Ferrari ownership and trading experience”.
“In addition to the peace of mind we bring to our customers, Ferris Cars also offers a full range of Ferrari merchandise and apparel through the recently commissioned Grand Prix Store at the Ferris Cars showroom, as well as Ferrari art and collectables. And incidentally, these can also now be paid for using Bitcoin!”
Apart from Bitcoin, Ferris Cars can also facilitate transactions in two other cryptocurrencies, these being USDT and xZAR. Ferris Cars is able to facilitate the purchase of any car from other dealerships or private sellers, using these currencies.
