Buy new cars? When I was a kid not many people drove around in new cars, especially people who were out of work. Film makers always get cars from the same year as the film is supposed to take place, but the people would probably be driving cars that were 5 to 10 years older than the year it takes place. They said the kid died in '58 and everyone had a '57 model car.
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The Josh Lucas character was amazingly clueless about money, so maybe he would buy a new car that he couldn't afford.
Those 1957 sedans had 20 gallon gas tanks, and the belligerent gas station guy wanted "$9.57" or something like that for a fillup: $0.48/gallon. Gas prices in 1958 were half that. Not only does the out-of-work tight-on-cash poor widower pay twice the market rate without flinching, he gives the guy a $10 and says something like "keep the change". That's like giving the gas station guy a $10 tip in today's money. And paying double for the gas in the first place is like forking over an extra $70 at today's rates that he didn't have to.
I realize he wanted to defuse a sticky situation, but 43 cents would have paid their next meal and/or gone a long way to paying for their room that night, and the extra $5.50 that the gas station guy pocketed is some serious cash. I wanted backstory on all that over and above "He just wanted to get the hell out of there". He had no idea where his next $5 was going to come from and that gas station guy had $5 of his that he shouldn't be taking. Or, maybe being an isolated filling station, the price was twice the market rate. In that case, and especially when you're poor, you ask for a dollar's worth at the exorbitant rate and try for something better in the next town; you don't say "Fill it up". People have always driven for hours to try to save 10 cents on their fillup, that isn't a modern phenomenon. Josh's character had a very cavalier attitude towards money.
WARNING!
Objects under T-shirt are larger than they appear!
I don't think he could have gotten the car in the first place.
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Car used to be a lot cheaper. They're one of the things that went up beyond inflation. My mom said that in 1983 she bought a brand new car for $4,000. Now you can't really find a new car for under $20,000.
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People used to make a lot less money. A new car cost about $2000 in '57. I bought a cheap Chevy Cavalier in '84 for almost $8000. What was only 4 grand in '83?
What we have here is failure to communicate!share