**It could work if a lender explicitly agreed to those terms, but it would not normally work at a U.S. bank.** The joke’s crucial assumption is that using a car as collateral includes cheap physical storage.

Ordinarily, a lender takes a **lien on the car**—a legal interest allowing it to repossess the vehicle if the borrower defaults—while the borrower keeps and drives it. Even short-term car title loans generally leave the car with the borrower. Thus, offering an expensive car as collateral does not itself get you a parking space. [CFPB explanation of vehicle title lending](https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/201605_cfpb_single-payment-vehicle-title-lending.pdf)

There are businesses that actually take possession of cars in exchange for loans. For example, New York’s GEM Pawnbrokers advertises vehicle pawn loans and stores the car until repayment. However, its terms expressly say **parking fees are additional**, and vehicles must be delivered to a Long Island branch. This is quite close to the joke’s transaction, with the missing expense restored. [GEM’s vehicle-loan terms](https://www.gempawnbrokers.com/pages/vehicle-loans)

Nor does taking possession legally oblige a lender to provide storage for just the interest payment. In the joke’s usual setting, New York, UCC § 9-207 requires reasonable care of collateral in the lender’s possession, but also makes reasonable custody and preservation expenses, including insurance, chargeable to the borrower. [New York statute](https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/UCC/9-207)

The large difference between the loan and the car’s value is not the main obstacle: collateral can be worth much more than the debt. The obstacle is finding a lender willing to handle and store a valuable car for the small amount it earns from a tiny loan.

So **a specially negotiated arrangement could produce cheap parking**, if its total interest and fees were below the price of ordinary storage. But there is no banking loophole that entitles someone to that arrangement; the joke assumes the bank voluntarily supplies the very service the customer wants at a bargain price.