DeTomaso Mailing List: May 98, Message #257

disclaimer, sorry, this turned out to be quite long.  I actually have 3-5
pages of text written about the finding, purchase and later work on my car.

Hey guys I've done this.
   I was looking at these cars for a while (not as long as Asa) before I
bought.  I called a bank to find a loan, had the whole thing worked out.
The only thing required was an underwriter had to see the car first.  No big
deal, at that time I was going to buy one from Corey in Wis, 3 hours away.
All I was waiting for was the right opportunity.  But as the line goes, "the
best laid plans..."

I was out in San Bernidino on work.  Being from Chicago and knowing that I
was going to buy a Pantera, I spent a early Friday driving down to
Huntington Beach to join PI in person.  They set me up with Jerry and I was
looking at car in the evenings.

Now there was no way I could get an underwriter to "see" the car.  The whole
plan was gone.  I got on the phone, picked up a phone book and started
calling banks.  I got a hold of Bank of America and they gave me a personal
line of credit.  This plus a $4K cash advance on my Visa and a $1K loan from
my best friend and I was in business and was driving the car around LA by
the weekend.  I borrowed the whole thing, Excellent!!!  The only problem I
ran into was that I wanted all the money the day after I signed all the
papers.  It took some vigilance of a person at the bank and a HUGE amount of
patience from me, to get that cashier's check.  But hey, it is the
complicated things that are the best

Here's the real problem with financing.  It is difficult to get a bank to
even listen after you tell them you want to buy a used car more than 3 years
old.  I remember people saying "What year?... NO!"  It didn't even matter
that they had never even heard of a De-something Pantera.  I even told a few
I was trying to buy a Ferrari (name recognition) and still it was way too
old!

So, financing can be found, and I have to strongly suggest the line of
credit deal.  This way you've got the loan sitting there just waiting for
the perfect car.  Besides after you've paid the car off, you can re-invest
that credit in something else, like a new-stroker, EFI twin turbo,
supercharged engine!!!

By the way, my credit line is adjustable and has always been near 12%.  Not
as good as Mike, but then I'm not the talker (BS-er) he is!  At this point I
didn't own a house, I did own a beater Sundance.  So there wasn't a lot of
collateral.  Oh yeah, financing the house after financing the car seemed
MUCH easier than the other way around.  Around here, everyone usually maxes
out their income on a house, not leaving $400-$600 per month left over for
car payments.

Good Luck,
Paul
#9270

-----Original Message-----
From: Ted Stalcup <revtech@gte.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <detomaso@realbig.com>
Date: Monday, May 04, 1998 4:15 PM
Subject: This may be -the- stupidest question ever but...


>This may be the stupidest question ever but...
>
>
>So heres the stupid question...do I really need $20K+ in an alligator-skin
>attache case to buy a Pantera?  What sort of insitution finances such an
>animal?  What are the terms or do the terms make the cash option more
>attractive?
>Ted
>Revenant Technical Consulting: HTML, Hardware, Software and Networking.
>
>