base at

[Andrea Morrow]

I was just in New Orleans for the 4C's, and while I was there, I heard
a strange usage: "to base at," meaning to cost as the base price.
Both times I heard it, it was about cars.  The first time, I was
standing in line for Mother's Restaurant (awesome po'boys), and two
men behind me were talking about an F-250 truck on the street: "That
thing bases at $28,000."  "No way you could get one like that for
under $40, though."  Then later, at a pizza place in Metairie, I heard
it again, this time about a Dodge Viper, "They aren't that expensive.
They base at about $80,000."

I have never heard "base at" used as a verb phrase before, and google
doesn't turn up much with a quick search.  As anyone else heard this?

Andrea

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