Toys For Big Boys

How Big Boy Toyz, a Gurugram-based retailer of pre-owned luxury cars, isstriking gold with second-hand luxury cars ranging from 50 lakh to 4 crore

- Rajiv Singh

MARVIN DAVIS, THE LATE American industrialist, once famously made the quip that “as men get older, the toys get more expensive”. Gurugram based Ricky Mehta, a 40-year-old pilot with a private airline, would beg to disagree. In fact, he may want to argue that the toys only get cheaper. Here’s how:

In January, Mehta bought a 2015 model of the Maserati GranTurismo. The 2018 model carries an on-road tag of 2.5 crore. Mehta managed to shave a crore offthe price tag by opting for a pre-owned— second-hand, if you insist— model of the Italian beauty. For good measure, he also opted for equated monthly instalments (EMIs). “How does it matter? A luxury car is always owned, and never preowned,” grins the proud owner of a three-year-old GranTurismo. For those aspiring to own a piece of high-end luxury, Mehta lets on, there should be no distinction between new and used. “The smart ones buy pre-owned,” he beams.

It’s smart alecs like Mehta who have propelled a Gurugram-headquartered retailer of pre-owned luxury cars on a highoctane growth trajectory. Founded in 2009, Big Boy Toyz posted revenue of 250 crore in the fiscal year ended March 2018. Boasting a wide range of luxury models from brands such as Bentley, Ferrari, Cadillac and Aston Martin, cars sold at Big Boy Toyz straddle a price range from 50 lakh to 4 crore.

“For almost 40 percent of the cars that we sell, buyers don’t even come to the store for inspection. They check the pictures, make a payment and the car is delivered,” says Jatin Ahuja, founder of Big Boy Toyz. The company, he claims, has sold cars to over 8,000 customers so far, and counts celebrities such as cricketers Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh, and businessman Cyrus Poonawalla among others as his clients (on the sell side, celebrities tend to dispose of their Limos and Lambos rather quickly to make space for newer ones).