Interesting addendum to the buy-here-pay-here discussion

I’m middle aged, and I actually flip through the yellow pages

A few years ago, I needed the front windshield replaced on my mom’s car, and I flipped through the yellow pages and called a few of the glass shops

I did the same thing when I needed some work done on my rental property awhile back . . . I again flipped through the yellow pages

A few businesses actually asked how I heard about them, and I told them about the yellow pages ad.

[quote=“sgtrock21, post:100, topic:125699”]
A classmate at Ft. Huachuca, AZ arrived from Texas with a brand new hail damaged 1978 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
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One of my former colleagues told me that back in the day when vinyl roofs were popular, one of his cars got damaged in a hail storm, and rather than fixing the roof properly, he converted it to vinyl roof :smirk:

I was never a fan of vinyl roofs, whether they were factory or aftermarket. Tastes will vary, I suppose

But realistically, one of the reasons I wasn’t a fan . . . in later years, to be exact . . . is that there’s often all sorts of nastiness hiding under that vinyl. Such as those dents I mentioned, rust, etc.

I ALWAYS ask people how they heard about my business. That way I know which form of ads are working best and I can drop ones that are costing me but bringing no return. I can also tell which ones are bringing good customers and which are bringing in pains in the behind as certain ads his different demographics.

I was never a fan of vinyl roofs either. I understand it was considered an upgrade and usually seen on luxury type cars. I guess this came from the fact that it was easier to do this on limos during the stretch, rather than do a proper paint job. Then automakers started to imitate this on regular cars. They would always degrade, peel, and such. They look nasty after a few short years. Something else I would see are ones that had come loose towards the front of the car. I would see these going down the highway all domed up, looking like a sail sucking away whatever fuel economy that car ever had.

I dunno what you’re talking about.

That’ll buff out…

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Does anyone besides me remember the 1950 Ford Crestliner coupe with its vinyl roof? This was Ford’s answer to the Chevrolet Bel Aire 2 door pillarless “hardtop”. It was 15 more years before vinyl tops became popular.

I had several cars with half vinyl roofs. It was a styling thing and looked good on certain models but like everything else you had to take care of them. In 20 years though I never had any problem with them deteriorating if you took care of them. One of the worst looking ones was the 86 Buick Park Ave. with the simulated convertible top. It really looked terrible and we had it as a demo unit. It was the car the owner’s wife was driving. I always had to bite my tongue about that car so I didn’t offend them but still can’t see how anyone thought it was a good looking car.

a guy at work has a Maverick with a vinyl roof . . . it’s visibly bubbling at the front

I would as soon spray rubberized undercoating on the roof of a car as to glue vinyl on it. I recall buying a Mercury with a Landau top at a scrap iron price and selling it for a few dollars more and glad to get rid of it. I don’t recall ever having any others and I’ve had more cars than I have had birthdays. Many more.

As for the banks, I always seem to have good luck with the local hometown banks. It is usually fee after fee for bogus stuff with the big banks of course but the local banks are great. There are a few bad apples of course that would be right at home in the buy here, pay here world and know a guy who had his car illegally repoed by one. He didn’t know the proper steps to take but could have had this taken care of, gotten the bank in trouble, and made some money in the process from reparations but this was quite a few years ago.

I once missed a payment with my local bank. I had a ton of stuff going on and they called me. I made a point to drive in and pay them within an hour. They didn’t even charge me a late fee.

Small local banks were once very customer oriented but mergers and acquisitions have made even local banks part of large regional corporations that look poorly on personal attention. For years the manager of the local branch bank that I dealt with kept a key to my night deposit box and if I didn’t show up by lunch after dropping the bag off she would open it and run everything through then call me fill me if there were any errors or omissions. In the late 90s that bank merged several times and my branch manager became a mortgage loan officer and even then she stuck her neck out to take care of some problems for me. Even to the point of forging my name on one occasion. Life can be good when you have people you can trust to help deal with finances. It might amaze many to see the madness of reporting and paying taxes and mandated insurance even in a very small business.

I deal with a local, family owned bank and it looks like it will stay that way. The Pres lived just down the street and he turned it over to his kid and things haven’t changed much. I appreciate it. Once years ago a small loan got held up at the credit union and when I asked why it was because my local bank refused to release any information on me. I like that. I still deal with my credit union though and Wells Fargo.

I agree that the local banks are for the most part the best way to go.

There have been a few that are very crooked or at least very unethical in pulling things much like the buy here, pay here places we have discussed. There is one bank in my town that seems to cater to higher risk borrowers and often forecloses on and repos stuff. I have done some work for other banks and they basically told me that they make loans to people who have no business getting a loan, knowing that they will be able to take property.

I guess there was a nice section of vacant land near an industrial court that some developer bought wanting to build a subdivision. Anyway, they knew the guy wasn’t going to be able to pay and ended up with the land when he defaulted on the loan. Now they have some prime land for sale with easy access to the highway and near an existing industrial park and it is for sale of course!

Must be nice to be 22 years old.

I once bought a truck with a loan from a local bank. It was the bank where I had my personal accounts and where the business I was managing had its business accounts. I found a pickup truck I wanted but didn’t have all the cash on hand to buy it. It would have been no problem to finance it and I wanted to avoid having full coverage insurance, lienholders, etc. So I asked the loan officer for a “signature loan” for $5000 and had my money later that day, for the same interest rate a car loan would have had. That was back in the 1990’s.

It’s my understanding that they no longer do things like that.

After 2008 they really restricted how much you could get loans. For example, my parents went to buy a new car. They wanted to use a credit card so that they could get the travel points back but planned to pay it off in full. They would only allow like $2000-2500 of the car to go on the card because so many people were buying cars this way and then defaulting. Then there was no way to repo the car because they used an unsecured loan.

I guess you used to be able to buy a car on a credit card but those days are over as well. If you paid it off you would come out with a bunch of points and no interest.

I’ve bought used cars with a credit card more than once, but I’m talking about from the discount. bargain corner department, like in the $2000-$3000 range. Any major brand dealer is set up to take credit cards, and if you offer a quick easy deal to a motivated sales rep, it’s quite simple.

No, technically the laws have changed or maybe it is just the policy of the banks backing the credit cards. You can no longer buy an entire car on a card. Maybe for $2000 you can but not a $40,000 one like my parents were buying. They wanted to put the entire amount on a card and then pay it off so they could rack up all the travel points for flights and hotels.

People were buying cars on credit cards and then not paying the cards. This made the car impossible to repo.

Well the credit card bankers will find a way to scam US and they will also see to it that we can’t scam them. It’s that GOLDEN RULE thing again.

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That makes no sense to me, I don’t think I have ever heard of a merchant getting stuck because a buyer defaulted on their credit card. We got a used card for our daughter, she got a loan to help build her credit, we put $3,000 down on a credit card to help her out. Paid off the credit card, and got the perks of course.

No, it is the banks. They have no recourse if someone buys the car and doesn’t pay them. The merchant gets paid but there is no lien holder if it is paid in full with no traditional car loan. I guess a lot of the card companies got the shaft. Maybe it varies depending on the backing bank.

Why do they offer such a high credit limit for customers that they do not trust? Could they spend $40,000 on furniture without being rejected by the credit card company?

Car dealers are not going to accept a credit card for a new car purchase because they don’t want to pay the transaction fee.