Comaneci Uses Traveler’s Checks to Buy Car

Nadia Comaneci plopped down nearly $20,000 in traveler’s checks on a Camaro convertible and shopped her way through clothing stores this week, sales clerks said.

Escorted by Constantin Panait, the married roofer who has accompanied the Olympic gold-medal gymnast since she fled Romania, Comaneci was staying in a $130-a-night suite at the Best Western Beachcomber Resort and Villas here through Wednesday morning.

Thomas Martin, a salesman at Maroone Chevrolet here, said he sold Comaneci the Camaro, a black convertible automatic with gray bucket seats.

She originally had her eye on a used Corvette, he said, but Martin--on his first day as a salesman--steered her toward the convertible.

“She fell in love with it,” he said. “In her country, all they have is stick shifts.”

Dealership manager Ken Pataki said Comaneci whipped out a wad of traveler’s checks to close the deal.

At a department store she got a 30% discount on a $184 dress, said Phyllis Paul, a clerk at the store. She also stopped at the cosmetic and shoe counters, she added.

The stay at the hotel and some of the shopping spree and her bar tab were apparently paid by British tabloids, which sent writers and photographers to accompany Comaneci, hotel employees said.