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from the scorn-the-poor-man-as-a-thief-in-country-and-in-towne dept.
Auto loans to borrowers considered subprime, those with credit scores at or below 640, have spiked in the last five years with roughly 25 percent of all new auto loans made last year subprime, a volume of $145 billion in the first three months of this year. Now the NYT reports that before they can drive off the lot, many subprime borrowers must have their car outfitted with a so-called starter interrupt device, which allows lenders to remotely disable the ignition. By simply clicking a mouse or tapping a smartphone, lenders retain the ultimate control. Borrowers must stay current with their payments, or lose access to their vehicle and a leading device maker, PassTime of Littleton, Colo., says its technology has reduced late payments to roughly 7 percent from nearly 29 percent. “The devices are reshaping the dynamics of auto lending by making timely payments as vital to driving a car as gasoline.”
Mary Bolender, who lives in Las Vegas, needed to get her daughter to an emergency room, but her 2005 Chrysler van would not start. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender remotely activated a device in her car’s dashboard that prevented her car from starting. Before she could get back on the road, she had to pay more than $389, money she did not have that morning in March. “I felt absolutely helpless,” said Bolender, a single mother who stopped working to care for her daughter. Some borrowers say their cars were disabled when they were only a few days behind on their payments, leaving them stranded in dangerous neighborhoods. Others said their cars were shut down while idling at stoplights. Some described how they could not take their children to school or to doctor’s appointments. One woman in Nevada said her car was shut down while she was driving on the freeway. Attorney Robert Swearingen says there's an old common law principle that a lender can’t “breach the peace” in a repossession. That means they can’t put a person in harm’s way. To Swearingen, that would mean “turning off a car in a bad neighborhood, or for a single female at night.”
(Score: 4, Interesting) by _NSAKEY on Friday September 26 2014, @07:15PM
1. These devices can't just disable vehicles. They are also able to show real-time location, and will even (As of around 5 years ago) show an approximate speed if it's traveling. The ones I saw up close in 2008-2009 operated through GSM towers, with no actual GPS functionality (Although that never stopped sales guys from referring to their wares as a GPS).
2. That being said, if the vehicle is in an area that doesn't offer GSM coverage, they simply can't be pinged. Disconnecting the battery will also make it unreachable.
3. A lienholder CANNOT disable a vehicle while it's running. The command can be sent, but the vehicle won't be disabled until after the person driving it has parked and stopped. After that, it won't start up again. Anyone claiming otherwise probably just suffered from car trouble after the shut down command was sent, and blamed their lienholder when their car wouldn't start again.
4. I once got to see an installer put one of these in. It took him around 10 minutes (He took the time to explain stuff to me; It would have taken him less time if I wasn't bugging him). They just strip one hot and ground wire each in the wiring harness and solder it in. The antenna is usually ran so that it comes up through the dash on the driver's side (Generally near the VIN plate). Someone who isn't scared of electricity or cars can do a quick uninstall, but shouldn't be surprised if that's considered grounds for immediate repossession.
5. If I recall correctly, the going rate for the device + installation was around $350 in 2008-2009.
(Score: 1) by arashi no garou on Friday September 26 2014, @08:57PM
A quick hack would be to desolder it, then connect it to a 12v battery, and place a dummy load across the kill switch pins. keep it in the glove box of the car so it can be seen to be moving by the system. If you know you're going to be late on your payments, put the device somewhere stationary so they think it worked.
Or, screw all of that and don't buy a car from a scummy dealer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mrchew1982 on Friday September 26 2014, @11:20PM
They also usually cut you a break on interest rates when they install a device like this. No one seems to want to mention that fact. When the risk is high the interest rate is also high. By reducing the risk to them they can cut you a break on the interest rate. If they don't then you need to negotiate that or find a new dealer.
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Saturday September 27 2014, @04:40AM
These things work by disabling the starter motor. If you have a car with stop-and-go where the engine stops at idle and then starts again when put into gear what do you think will happen? Do you think the people installing them bother to check if the car has this feature?
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