By Craig Marx, Editor

The CoVantage Loan Rally is a yearly event in Antigo that some people wait for the entire year in order to make their vehicular purchases. Held at the Langlade County Fairgrounds, the lot that typically stands empty except for the county fair and hockey or event traffic is packed with new and used cars, trucks, ATVs, and campers amongst other equipment.

Special interest rates, as low as 1.25 percent APR in some cases, highlight the three-day long event that began on Thursday and concludes tomorrow afternoon.

Area dealerships and providers include Parsons’, Brickner’s, Langlade Ford, Quinlan’s Equipment, and Verne’s Honda. In addition to perusing the outdoor showroom, families and potential buyers can enjoy hot dogs and a raffle chance to win a glider swing.

“It is a lot of fun, especially with the hot dog cart outside here. It’s just a nice family day where you can look at cars. We have ATVs, we have side-by-sides, so we really have a number of things here,” CoVantage consumer loan underwriter Chad Luerssen said.

Luerssen is one of a number of loan officials on site ready to help with immediate financing.

“We have the special interest rates available and the dealers also do special pricing,” Luerssen explained. “They are better rates here than if you were to just walk into the dealership [any other time]. It’s actually a pretty big event. There are a lot of people that wait until this time of the year to go car buying here.”

The CoVantage Loan Rally has been going on for decades. Luerssen has been working with the credit union for 15 years and has seen the event held at different venues along the way.

“We’ve done it every year that I have been here and it wasn’t always at the fairgrounds. Before, we’ve had it at the empty K-Mart parking lot or at the dealerships themselves even,” Luerssen said.

The large collection of vehicles will disperse on Saturday as the CoVantage Loan Rally wraps up its last day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“They spend a lot of time bringing all those cars out to fill this lot and then, all of sudden on Saturday, there’s an empty fairgrounds again,” Luerssen added.