I could pay the loan off today if I wanted to. In fact, I got a lower price for my last (used) car by taking a three-year, high-interest loan instead of paying cash, then paying off the entire loan amount the following month.
My whole point of this post is that sometimes folks in this situation can work a scheme (Jolly’s wording) which results in paying less than the cash or short-loan methods would cost. My question was simply whether this “scheme” had some hole in it which I was overlooking, or was Clark’s advice really for those who must borrow money for a car.