Posted on 12/26/2007 11:48:41 PM PST by BGHater
Paul Brant calls himself a "penny pincher."
People who know him - including the staff at Mike Raisor Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep - might agree.
Accompanied by a police escort from the Clinton County Sheriff's Office, Friday he drove his old diesel pickup into the Raisor parking lot and bought himself a brand new, 2008 half-ton, shiny red Dodge Ram truck.
What made the $26,670 purchase even more interesting was the manner in which he paid for it.
Brant's payment was made up entirely of quarters and gold dollars he'd been saving since 1994 - the last time he traded enough of his hard-earned coins to buy a vehicle.
Friday, he handed over the coins, neatly rolled and stored in various containers - water jugs, coffee cans, piggy banks - that had ridden in on the bed of his pickup.
Lt. Joe Mink and Chief Deputy Mike Hensley of the sheriff's office were right behind him.
Being thrifty, Brant said, comes naturally.
"I reckon I was just brought up that way," he said.
His father always paid cash, he said, and it's a tradition he carried on.
Besides, he added, "Checks are no fun."
He makes it a habit to save his loose change, he said, explaining that he cleans out his pockets every morning, and doesn't hesitate to pick up stray coins from the ground wherever he goes.
"Once you drop them out of your hand, they're gone," he said. "They don't last very long."
The 70-year-old Clinton County native graduated from Frankfort High School in 1956 and went to work at the Kokomo-based Chrysler plant the same year.
Thirteen years ago, Brant bought a car and a truck from Kincaid's of Lebanon. That purchase cost him $36,000, he said, which he surrendered in coins - 100 percent quarters.
After that, while he continued to stash away his quarters for the eventual purchase of his next vehicle, a couple tellers at The Farmers Bank notified him that they had plenty of rolled, gold dollars available, if he wanted to buy them. He did.
"I just took them home and threw them in the jug," he said.
Keith Gephart, a sales consultant for Raisor, said he'd been after Brant for all those years to do it again, this time at Raisor's. With the numerous spectators and news people milling about the showroom, Gephart said the publicity will likely be good for business.
The truck, with several extras added on, retails for about $35,000, he said. Brant's price reflects his Chrysler employee discount and rebates, plus taxes, he explained.
As for how Raisor's cashier planned to handle $26,670 in coins, Gephart said, "No bank wants to take them. We've got a Loomis armored car coming."
Loomis personnel will count the change, he said, and let Raisor know the total within three days.
"Their count is final," he said.
Except those of us who need every dime they can scrape together to make it to pay day.
If he had invested that in something that gave a 4% return (like a US savings bond) he would have ended up with nearly $35,000
Yup. Sounds very "smart", but it was not that smart. Even earning a measly 4-5% on your cash starts to add up pretty quickly.
My High School math teacher told us that he did this when I was in school back in the 1970s. He said instead of making a car payment every month, he had a bank acount that he made his "car payment" into every month. After about every 5 years, he got himself a new car, with cash.
Ahhh, the magic of compound interest...
The problem with most Americans is they can't save $10 a month, let alone $170. Any saving they get starts to burn a hole in their pocket....
at least he bought an American vehicle...but a Dodge, ugh.
Exactly - and no doubt most of it in Sacajawea dollars, to boot. I would laud anyone with such a fine savings ethic, but this just defies credibility. This has "Ford dealer PR stunt" written all over it.
hehe...this is how I got my latest tattoo! Of course, it was significantly less than the $26k this guy came up with. I plan on doing the same thing to help finance the purchase of my next rifle - like many have said here, it adds up really quickly.
Why. one must ask, would the Ford dealer, sponsor a stunt in which Mr. Brant purchases a Dodge truck?
I recently took a half gallon purple Crown Royal bag full of change to the bank.
I was happily SHOCKED to realize $612...(chuckle)
can almost promise you that if he was pulled over and cops found all the money in his truck, he would never see it again.
Nope the cops would leave it alone that much change would be work to carry around and so they would not bother it
It will add up I throw all my change in jars and once a year roll it up and take to the bank its how I save up for my trip to the state fair. It is not hard to have $600-700 a year.
Haven't you ever heard of dime bags?
Zeugma ducks and runs for cover...
“at least he bought an American vehicle...but a Dodge, ugh.”
Your kidding right? All Dodge Rams are made in Mexico. Hondas are more American than GM, Ford and Chrysler. Almost all the big three make their vehicles in Canada or Mexico and then ship them to the US for sell. At least when you buy an Accord or Civic you are supporting an Ohio family.
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