Almost to the day of the very last loan payment on Big Yellow Car, GMAC (General Motors’ credit arm) sent us an offer to buy another new car. How tempting … or not.

It sounds like desparation on the part of GMAC, thinking that someone will actually bite on their “loan pre-approval” incentive, when that person is just finishing paying off a car loan. Do they want customers to think that a three-year-old vehicle is not good enough? Or that the old 0% interest rate promotion is still attractive enough to commit new acts of financial insanity? I decline.