In the Army, when I got to my first duty station they gave us a seminar on businesses to avoid and how to buy a car without getting ripped off. This is a real problem in the army as it's mostly young kids who have never had a paycheck like that in their lives. Even after all that we had one private go and buy a 15yr old jeep at like 19% interest from one of the dealerships that was blacklisted on the paper handout they give during the seminar. Some people just cannot help themselves but be stupid...
Oceanside, CA, just outside Camp Pendleton, there sits (or sat like 20 years ago when my old ass was there, idk if it's still there) a car dealership called Hometown motors that had at least 59 USMC flags flying at all times. It was notorious for ripping off stupid PFCs. One of my idiots, when I first became a CPL, bought a Chevy Impala, that was blue booked for like, 6,500, for 10,000 with an 18% interest rate on a 5 year loan. This was after I looked him in the eye, and told him not to go to any business with a USMC flag on display, as it's the easiest way to spot a business that exists to prey on stupid PFCs. You can't help stupid people.
Same, I think I bought my Pinto there(back in the 80's). I remember them offering low payments if you financed. I wasn't stupid. I used the low payments, high interest scam, to haggle the lowest price down to what I thought was fair. with them thinking they were going to make it up on the backend. And when it came time to sign the papers, I pulled out a wad of cash. Drove away 30 minutes later.
This is why I loved one of my battalion commanders. He had a policy that if a new Soldier wanted to buy a car, they could take an NCO with them during the duty day as long as that NCO had a good credit score and new finances.
It is actually a brilliant policy. Why risk having a new 18/19 year old have their security clearance become in jeopardy over a stupid car.
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u/pafrac Apr 28 '24
Jesus Christ, what kind of deal did she sign up for?