New Boydstun Cylinder Strap Truck

No, those aren't screw actuators... those are actual cylinders!

Car buying trip

The front end of my 1999 Mercury Grand Marquis started making some strange noises last week. A trip to my buddy the mechanic revealed about $1000 worth of repairs would be required. Hmm... I have a ten year old car with 125,000 miles on it... the auto industry is in crisis. I figured it might be a good time to go down to the local car dealer. I found a great little Ford Focus for $10,000. When I tried to buy the car, the salesman told me "they like to see 30% down". I asked what the interest rate was going to be. They had about three different people sit down with me and try to talk about payments. I insisted I wanted to know what the hell the interest rate was. Finally somebody told me what the interest rate was 10%. I walked out. One of the reasons why I have really good credit is because I try to avoid over-paying for stuff!

On my way home from the Ford dealer, I saw Toyota had 0% financing signs in the windows. I know I won't be able to get one of their cars for $10,000, but I'll get that back when I go to trade it in.

For those of you that are interested, I was offered $400 for my old Mercury!

US Bank: "No loans for owner operators."

Got a call from Therese at Capital West. She said that unless a company has five or more trucks in their fleet, they will not loan money to any long haul trucker. Doesn't matter if your credit score is perfect. Doesn't matter if you've always paid your loans on time. Doesn't matter if you have a contract to haul cars. She said that the underwriters at US Bank are concerned that if a loan goes south, anybody with fewer than five trucks will be hard to find in the event they need to repo the truck.

If you do have more than five trucks, here is what you should expect to provide for a loan of $200,000:

Two years tax returns.
Personal financial statement.
Proof of home ownership.
Last 3 month's bank statements.
At least 10,000 average balance in your main banking account.

I asked what sort of interest someone with a perfect truck payment history could expect, with five year's prior experience in the industry. She said around 11.8%, but that was on a lease deal.

The freeze in Florida.

Talked to a customer yesterday who said that the auction in Ocoee, Florida was laying off 80 workers. He said the auction's business was down 69%.

Truck Finance Update 3

Was up at Tec Equipment in Portland and spoke briefly with Duane Zeigel, one of the auto transport sales reps. He says he's getting some deals done through Volvo credit, and has been able to get financing for customers with FICO scores below 700.

Truck Finance Update Part 2

Just spoke with Benny Dean at North East Auto Truck Brokers. He's telling me guidelines from lenders are tightening up. If you've got a 670 FICO, then you might be able to get an 8.5% rate. If you've got less than perfect credit, you're looking at anywhere from 10-14%.

There is money out there available, but you're going to pay more for it.

I call B.S.

Nov. 7: Ford’s CEO Alan Mulally discusses his company’s financial report on CNBC. During the interview, he says that Ford has adjusted output to sales.

Nov. 6: I talked with someone at Hansen and Adkins in California who said that the main freight they're hauling these days is for Ford.... to new storage lots they're leasing for the Ford XLT Lariat Crew Cabs nobody is buying.