High-Tech RepoMan 452
PlayfullyClever writes "A new gizmo is upping the odds that even the most hard-knock customer will come up with the car payment. Hooked into the ignition system, the gadget comes in a handful of versions with one common conclusion:
No pay, no start.
It's worked wonders at Norfolk's Patriot Auto Sales, where nearly every car that drives off the lot is outfitted with a PayTeck Smart Box, a system that hands over a five-digit code in exchange for each payment. Come due date, the car won't crank until the customer punches the code into a palm-size keypad wired into the dash.
I would think this "Smart Box" would get hacked way too easily, leaving car companies without their money."
Re:What the hell (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hmmm.... (Score:3, Interesting)
You can break through a window and unlock the front door of my house from the inside easily enough, but that doesn't mean that putting installing a deadbolt was a bad or worthless idea.
Problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, worst case scenario, but a liability nonetheless. The reason this system won't be accepted is because the current system is one based on trust and legal consequences. You purchase/lease the car with the expectation that it starts whenever you want it to. Even if there is a problem with the billing system of your credit card company or bank, or with the company who maintains the payment records for your car.
They are assuming some amount of risk by letting you make your payments over a period of time and in return they tend to get more money than if you paid it all up front. That is how the system has always worked, and thats how it will continue to work because not enough people will be stupid enough to lose their end of that bargain.
as an aside.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Er.. (Score:2, Interesting)
"I would think this 'Smart Box' would get hacked way too easily, leaving car companies exactly where they are now."
Surely it's not like this box makes it *easier* for someone to stop paying?
Michigan (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:What the hell (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What the hell (Score:5, Interesting)
You don't own it, the lot owns it, you're making payments and they are allowing you to drive the car. Once you pay off the loan its yours to do with as you wish, but if you fall behind on the payments, its their right to seize their property.
I'm sorry, but in virtually every sane auto contract that is not so.
If I buy a car from a dealership then I am going to get a bill of sale. I will eventually get a title from DMV that shows that I own that car. The title will also reflect the security interest of whomever gave the loan for that car (assuming I didn't buy it outright) -- but the fact remains that I own the car.
A security interest is not the same as them owning the car. The lot got paid for the car by whomever I got the loan from. It's the same theory behind a secured credit card (another typical ploy used to screw people -- WTF does a secured credit card with no risk to the issuer require massive fees and 20% interest??). The bank doesn't own the funds you deposited into the account to get the card -- they only have a security interest in them.
Now I can't speak for the contracts that you sign if you buy a car from a carshark "buy here, pay here" type guy. I'm not stupid or desperate enough to do business with one.
Re:Problem (Score:3, Interesting)
No, more like "no liability". You think there's not something in the contract about this already? Besides, as long as it's not willful, vehicular malfunction that doesn't directly contribute to the death or injury is unlikely to result in liability regardless of contract. Would Motorola be liable for you not being able to dial 911 on your cell because the '9' button was faulty? Would Abercrombie and Fitch be liable if your A&F belt failed, causing your pants to fall down, making you trip and drop your only phone in the fish tank, thus preventing you from summoning an ambulance? It's just such craptacular ignorance of the basic workings of law that makes our jury system so fail so spectacularly, particularly in civil cases.
Re:Michigan (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What the hell (Score:5, Interesting)
Those liens are callable if you default, and since most car/land loans are secured with the property in question, it's the bank/dealer's right to seize their property if you are in default.
You are entirely correct -- but for the use of the word "their". It should have been "your".
It's also a little known fact that in virtually every state if they seize the property they have to make every attempt to sell it for maximum market value. Anything gained above the amount of money they are owed has to be turned over to the owner of the property. Of course with a car loan you are screwed because cars never gain value -- but if they seize your house and the market will pay twice what is owed on it then they have to send that excess cash to you.
Of course nobody knows this and being the nice industry that it is most people get screwed over anyway by the credit sharks.
You know, it's very easy to slam someone for not being able to pay their bills. But why don't you take a look at the credit industry sometime before sticking up for them. A lot of them are bloodsucking motherfuckers that pray on people.
Re:What the hell (Score:2, Interesting)
Seriously. If a person has credit that bad, I'd rather not do business with him in the first place. Someone with nothing to lose is going to be a lot more likely to take extreme measures to keep what he has.
That being said, any scumbag who uses something like this in a Buy here Pay here scheme that winds up having his head used as wallpaper paste probaby got what he deserved.
Re:Great...what's next? (Score:3, Interesting)
Remember This (Score:1, Interesting)
Anyway, among the prior art (evan at that time) were these types of systems. The first few would not check the engine status when the time of month came and often shut off when the deadbeat driver was on the highway or in heavy traffic. Hilarity ALWAYS ensued.
Re:What the hell (Score:3, Interesting)
Big time. They started coming down hard on these fly by night organizations in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area several years ago. These scumbag dealers would sell cars knowing full well that the customers would default on the loans, then repo the cars and put them back on the lot at the same price *that same day*. Some other fool would come along, buy the car, default, wash, repeat, rinse. Didn't matter if you only had one payment to go, and the state was able to show that this was a specific business strategy for them. Unfortunately, the people that buy from these sharks are those that can't get financing anywhere else, and thus have to deal with the ridiculous finance terms plus the fact that the cars are usually sold *way* in excess of book value.
Re:What the hell (Score:3, Interesting)
Remember when your math teacher in Junior High said, "you will use this stuff everyday?" Well, for you and I he was right. We use those lessons every day of the year to decide whether or not we can afford a certain purchase, or whether or not the terms on a certain line of credit are worth accepting. The average person that goes into a "Buy Here Pay Here" car lot failed to comprehend the importance of basic algrebra, and they will pay for the lack all of their lives.
If these people had a lick of sense instead of agreeing to these terms they would go out and buy a much less expensive clunker automobile (my first car cost less than $200) and save their money until they could afford to put down enough money to get accepted on a traditional auto loan (or better yet simply buy a newer vehicle outright when they saved enough money).