1958 Woman of the Year, or the unwanted '57 Chevy

[ChrisBcritter]

I used to go through old human interest stories in TIME magazine at the high school library back in my teens; this one stuck with me so I looked it up, bought the magazine on eBay, scanned the story, and passed the savings on to you:

With an unusually modern follow-up:

This would have made a good scene for the movie Used Cars... Lesson learned: Always read the fine print!

To do the numbers, 18 payments of $57.10/month for 18 months would have added up to $1027.80. 30 months would have totaled $1713.

Edited August 12, 2023 by ChrisBcritter

[Mark]

I wonder what the final resolution was.  30 months would have been closer to correct IMO, unless that car had a ton of miles on it or was a rebuilt wreck.  The total is high but does include interest and (I'm sure) other charges including some hidden/bogus ones.

The Chevy was only a year old, and the '57s got a second life once people saw the '58.  A lot of people thought the '58 was too big. 

Whenever anyone mentioned '57 Chevies, my mom remembered one of her brothers buying one.  It was new, he bought it late in the model year when you could no longer order a '57 but the '58s weren’t available yet.  Right after the '58s first appeared, he had several people approach him asking if he'd consider selling his '57.  

[Snake45]

CAR GUY ALERT: No cool '57 Chevies were harmed in this story. It was just a 4-door sedan, Thank The Lord. 

CBC, that is an AWESOME story. Thanks for sharing it with us. 

I can see her now, in the last few seconds before the Money Shot: Hunched over the steering wheel, steely resolve in her eyes, and then, a war cry: 

"RRRRRRRRRRRAMMING SPEED!" 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Danno]

Similar concept to a very popular but notorious TV commercial that Discount TIres ran for years . . .

An announcer is saying words to the effect that 'If you are dissatisfied with one of our tires, please feel free to bring it back.'  The visual running in the background shows a little old lady - appearing much like the little old lady from Pasadena - pitching a tire through a large plate glass window of a Discount Tire store. 

 

See it here.

 

* By the way, it first aired in 1975!

Edited August 12, 2023 by Danno

[Snake45]

And I just realized: She did it without airbags, a helmet, seatbelts, or probably even safety glasses. 

Was America really THAT much more awesome in the 1950s than it is now? Why yes, I do believe it was. 

[iamsuperdan]

I want the followup story! What happened after?!

 

 

[BlackSheep214]

I wondered if her license plate was PMS-666….?

[espo]

While extreme to say the least, not all together uncommon to have a disgruntled customer. She did sign or initial the contract in 14 places according to the article. Pretty hard for her to say she didn't realize the number of payments or what she was paying for the new car. Depending on the circumstances the dealer might have been wiser to have worked out something with the customer that would be equitable for both of them. Wonder what the final outcome was of the lawsuits and what happened to the '57 Chevy. 

[RSchnell]

10 hours ago, Snake45 said:

CAR GUY ALERT: No cool '57 Chevies were harmed in this story. It was just a 4-door sedan, Thank The Lord. 

CBC, that is an AWESOME story. Thanks for sharing it with us. 

I can see her now, in the last few seconds before the Money Shot: Hunched over the steering wheel, steely resolve in her eyes, and then, a war cry: 

"RRRRRRRRRRRAMMING SPEED!" 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

What's wrong with 4 doors? I've owned a bunch of them from the 30s-60s and had no problem selling them when the time came. What cars do you have?

[slusher]

Some dealers don’t give people time to think she must have believed it was 18 payments instead of 30. Most new cars was 24 payments in the fifties according to my father telling me years ago…

[1930fordpickup]

If you think everyone is honest when making money, you may think she was told 30 months. I would bet in the 50's she was told one thing, and another was written on the contract. 

[MrObsessive]

8 hours ago, slusher said:

Some dealers don’t give people time to think she must have believed it was 18 payments instead of 30. Most new cars was 24 payments in the fifties according to my father telling me years ago…

Yep..........I can remember as a kid my Mom buying her first new car, which was a '68 AMC Javelin. I do remember her saying that it would be three years before it was paid off (she bought it in October of '67). She ended up trading it in about a couple years later for another Javelin (a '69 SST), and I think she ended up paying for two years with the other one as a trade in or something like that.

I do know the SST back then went for something like $3200, where the previous Javelin was maybe $2800? Back in those days, a few hundred dollars was a BIG deal, and could make or break a sale.

[iamsuperdan]

The number of people we get that say similar things is staggering.

"I didn't know there would be payments."

"What do you mean there's sales tax?"

"I was told the interest rate was 0.0%."

 

Customers say anything to get out of a commitment.

We have a guy we're dealing with right now. He came in in June, wanted a new F150. He sat with our sales person, came up with a spec to factory order. Went to the F&I office, completed a credit app, provided proof of income, got approved. He left a deposit, we ordered the truck and it arrived at the railyard on Thursday. We call him up to tell him his new truck is almost here.

"What truck? I didn't order any truck."

Now he's accusing us of being dishonest and stealing his info and his money, and he's threatening us with a lawsuit.  

Dude, if you have buyer's remorse, just say you can't take the truck anymore. No need to lie and get angry about your inability to commit.

[espo]

2 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

The number of people we get that say similar things is staggering.

"I didn't know there would be payments."

"What do you mean there's sales tax?"

"I was told the interest rate was 0.0%."

 

Customers say anything to get out of a commitment.

We have a guy we're dealing with right now. He came in in June, wanted a new F150. He sat with our sales person, came up with a spec to factory order. Went to the F&I office, completed a credit app, provided proof of income, got approved. He left a deposit, we ordered the truck and it arrived at the railyard on Thursday. We call him up to tell him his new truck is almost here.

"What truck? I didn't order any truck."

Now he's accusing us of being dishonest and stealing his info and his money, and he's threatening us with a lawsuit.  

Dude, if you have buyer's remorse, just say you can't take the truck anymore. No need to lie and get angry about your inability to commit.

Apologize to the man for mistaking him for a customer, Take the sales crew to the nearest watering hole and have a little of their finest with the deposit he left you. 

[tbill]

I want a $100 a month payment, ok, we can do that with either 15k down, or 84 month term, I don’t have 15k, but I want a $100 a month payment. Ok, we can do that. First time in the shop for an oil change, customer says, your sales dept screwed me, I got 84 months of payments on this thing…., had I known…..