Toms River Dealership Selling Cars For $1 On Saturday

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Car dealers perpetually offer "no money down" deals to buy a car, but a Toms River dealership is turning that on its head and offering the mother of all bargains: a car for a buck.

The only catch (there's always a catch, right?) is that you'll need to have a little luck on your side.

Toms River Volkswagon is holding the promotion on Saturday at its dealership on Route 37. The dealership has more than 100 preowned vehicles in stock, and will be slashing prices on all of them.

"It will be our lowest prices to date," said Megan Loder, the manager of business development for the dealership. And for three lucky people, the slashed sticker price will be $1.

Here's how it works:

At 8 a.m., the dealership will open and the doors on the preowned vehicles will be unlocked. Participants can get in the cars and sit in the front seats of the vehicle they choose.

At 10 a.m., the manager will walk around the lot and mark down the sticker prices of every preowned vehicle. Three of those will be marked down to $1. If you're in the driver's seat when the manager comes around, you have the right to the vehicle at the discounted price. If you pass on the discounted price, the person in the passenger seat gets second dibs to accept the discounted price.

"Every preowned vehicle will be marked down, so even if you aren't in one of the three lucky $1 vehicles, you'll still be able to get a great deal," the dealership said in promotional materials.

Loder said the idea for the promotion came from Tom McMenamin, the owner of the dealership, who wanted to try something a little different. They sent out 20,000 mailers announcing the event, and have received dozens of inquiries.

"People are calling in and asking where they can sleep tonight. Unfortunately, they can't spend the night on the lot," Loder said with a laugh. One woman even asked if she should bring a beach chair, she said.

"The owner just wanted to try to offer this to the public. We're just trying to help people who might not have great credit get into a reliable vehicle that they'll love," she said. "We want to make them a lifetime customer."

They are expecting a large crowd and are urging people who want to participate to arrive early; Loder said they are expecting to see people lining up as early as 6 a.m.

The dealership is at 256 Route 37 East in Toms River. It is a three-tenths of a mile walk from the Days Hotel parking lot, which is on the same side of Route 37 as the dealership.

Click here to get Patch email notifications on this or other local news articles or get Patch breaking news alerts sent right to your phone with our app. Download here.

Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Toms River Patch on Facebook.