Red Bank Woman Wins $1 Car Contest In Toms River

TOMS RIVER, NJ — News of a $1 car sale at a Toms River auto dealership this past weekend spread like wildfire. People drove in from as far as King of Prussia, PA to the Toms River Volkswagen on Rt. 37 and waited in line overnight, in the cold, for the sale to start on Saturday.

And a Red Bank woman, Abby Entwistle, was one of the three lucky winners. An estimated 300 people showed up in the lot on Saturday, said Tom McMenamin, the owner of Toms River Volkswagen and Toms River Mitsubishi.

Tom — clad in a green shamrock jacket, no less — is the man who conceived the idea for the $1 car sale.

"I know a lot of people thought this was a scam," McMenamin said afterward. "I'm glad people came in and got to see it was real."

The way it worked was people selected cars they'd like to buy and McMenamin selected three lucky winners: Entwistle received a 2012 Volkswagen Jetta she'd picked out, which was reduced to $1 from its original price of $14,892.

Joe Cordero, from Galloway, was the second winner, winning a 2018 Mitsubishi Mirage (originally priced at $15,042).

The third $1 car went to Nadia Salimbene of Toms River, who got a 2006 Mitsubishi that had been priced at $8,918.

The $1 winners were charged sales tax on the $1 sale price — McMenamin said the sales tax is required under state law — and the fee to register the car with the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission.

The original plan was to slash prices only on the used cars, and many of the prices were cut in half. A handful of older models were offered at prices below $1,000 and snapped up by people looking for first cars for young drivers. But so many people showed up for the promotion that McMenamin offered deals on new vehicles as well.

"This means so much to me," Cordero said as he hugged McMenamin. "Thank you so much."