What’s behind the “Camaro” reason that soldiers mention when you ask them why they joined the army?
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A lot of people enlist and suddenly have more money than they’re used to and a lot of them are young macho dudes so they immediately go out and buy fast cars with that money. And dealers know it so they tend to offer them with low down payments and really high interest rates.
It means they wanted to be able to afford a sports car… it’s cliche that a soldier blows their pay on a Camaro, Mustang, Charger or giants truck.
For a lot of soldiers, right after their training finishes is the first time they have a decent sized paycheck. So one of the things they want to do is buy a cool car. Chevy Camaros, Dodge Challengers or Chargers, and Ford Mustangs are all cars that offer high performance models but also offer a base model that looks the same and has a normal sized engine. Car salesmen know this, so dealers near military bases will approve financing on any of the lower tier cars for a small down payment, usually covered by the first paycheck, and the assurance that the army will be paying them for at least 4 years.
The joke comes from a lot of people buying these cars, so when you visit military towns you see a lot of them.
Drive around outside a base and look at all predatory businesses. They are there because it is profitable.
Its basically an inside joke. Young soldiers often blow their salary on sports cars like cameros. Drive by a parking lot on an army base sometime and you’ll see what I mean
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