Gas lines, $500 cash and a surprising loan offer: This veteran journalist looks at his car options

By John Toth

The Bulletin

A financial institution mailed me a letter letting me know that I have been pre-approved for an auto loan for the purchase of a new vehicle.

Being pretty old-school when it comes to buying cars, that came as a surprise, since I did not inquire about a loan and have not thought about buying a new vehicle.

I had been pre-approved for $100,000 at 5.95% interest rate.

Maybe I am just too old- school, but $100,000 seems to be high for a new car. I didn’t pay that much for my house when I bought it in 1989.

The interest rate for that was 12.5%, but we were in the middle of some sort of financial crisis, during which the savings and loans were closing, and houses were being foreclosed on.

That’s the last time I had seen interest rates that high on real estate. I managed over the years to bring it way down by refinancing until the mortgage disappeared, so that turned out well.

My ideal price for a new car is about a third of what the offer was for. If I were in the market for a new car, I would  not be interested, I’d just buy some basic transportation that gets me from one place to another.

The repayment of $100,000 for six years would be $1,931 per month. That didn’t make me run out and buy a car. My house payment was a third of that. I know, that was a long time ago, but still. My ideal monthly payment for a new car would be around $400 a month, were I in the market to buy one. Maybe that’s not even realistic anymore.

I’m the guy who bought his first car in 1973 for $500 cash. It was a 1968 Volkswagen Fastback with four-on-the-floor (manual transmission). It represented freedom to go anywhere I wanted to, provided I could find a station that had gas.

It was in the middle of the first OPEC oil embargo, and gas lines stretched for blocks. Once, I was within reach of the pumps when the station ran out of gas. I just parked the car and took public transportation for a while.

The VW was a trip, though.

 I was one of the few kids in high school with a car, and I loved it, until I sold it because I got tired of trying to find a parking place in the big city all the time. But soon enough, I wanted a car again.

My second car purchase was also made for cash, again for $500. It was a two-door, 1968 Buick Skylark, with a V8 350 engine. It was a monster gas- guzzler, getting only nine miles per gallon. But it was all mine - bucket seats all around and an automatic transmission (no more shifting gears).

That’s the car I drove to my first journalism job in Texas, once I could find a station that still had gas. It was 1979, and we were in the middle of the second OPEC oil embargo of the decade.

I would end up selling that car for $400. I also loved that car, but I loved my girlfriend more, and she suggested that I should get something newer, which I did.

I’m still drawn to old cars and have several of them; all are my favorite.

I’m going to recycle this offer and keep what I have for a while longer. Why risk another oil embargo?

Dear reader, Do you have a good old-car yarn? Write it down and email it to me at john.bulletin@gmail.com. I’ll share it with our readers.