Well, pay your car note….or don’t finance one.

Nice to see the dealership is taking care of itself. Perhaps this function will also allow the car to drive itself to the dealership when warranty repairs are needed.

The first time one of these "repossessed" cars runs someone over, Ford will say that Joe Schmoe or XYZ Bank was the actual owner and they have no liability. Can't wait to see how this plays out in court.

We had a saying, “Miss 2 payments and we’ll put you back on your feet.”

Manufacturers are already facing an inventory crisis from overpriced cars jam-packed with too many overpriced unnecessary options. Making cars self repossessing is just going to drive the price the up. They also have a habit of saying FU to customers and making unnecessary options mandatory or part of a package every dealer orders, and this will drive the price up on people paying cash and those with almost zero risk of repo.

It's like they're a bunch of liberals who only learn the most fucked up "lesson" possible. During COVID, manufacturers got back into subprime lending (i.e. giving new car loans to people with really, really shaky credit) and it was a double whammy as the new car price skyrocketed making repos even more likely. Instead of thinking, "hey, let's quit giving subprime loans" these rocket surgeons think "let's add even more expensive options on cars so we can keep giving subprime loans."

I see this as being not too far from the proposed "kill switch" legislation, or similar tech installed by shady buy-here-pay-here places. With my negative-Nancy hat on, I see a struggling mom in a bad neighborhood trying to pick up the kids from a weekend with a crappy dad, and the car not working (or worse, being gone) when she goes to leave.

And I agree fully with tatortodd: automakers are making vehicles so overdone with unnecessary technology, it's hard as heck to buy, maintain, or repair one. Somewhere around here I've got a link to an article about $3800 Ford pickup taillights. Do they turn red any better than "normal" taillights? No. But they're shiny and high-tech and expensive, and way more susceptible to theft. Functional? Yes. Necessary? No.

I was kind of looking forward to the resurgence of repo men.

Ha! As if I needed another reason to NOT buy a Ford POS.

Your "keyless entry" models today are theft prone due to thieves using the cloned signal from your key fob. I would guess repo men use the same tech. Ford has just cut out the middle man!

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:
We had a saying, “Miss 2 payments and we’ll put you back on your feet.”

Boot the car if your are behind....

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
Ha! As if I needed another reason to NOT buy a Ford POS.

Probably not just Ford. We are having some of the highest delinquencies on car payments in history. I think it will be an EV thing not so much a Ford thing.

Autonomous driving is being worked on and continually improved on and since ICE car development is dropping dramatically the improvements are going to be done to EV’s.


I have mixed emotions about it because I hate big brother type of stuff but if you don’t want it to happen pay your payment. It will take repo jobs away which is bad but probably save some lives along the way which is good.

I’m fairly certain that the Covid payouts funded a lot of car “purchases” that ended up with missed payments when the tap was turned off. Hopefully it results in the used car market returning to somewhat reasonable now that the chip problem seems to have stabilized, and a glut of cars getting repossessed. I’m in the market for a reasonably priced starter car for a teen and it has not been easy.

BHPH (buy here pay here) car dealers have done something like this for decades, minus the self-driving part. They put GPS trackers and remote shutdown devices in cars they sell. Really, the best solution is prevention, i.e,, to make your payments. Sometimes things do happen that might prevent this, but non-subprime lenders will work with you. (Don't ask me how I know this.)

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
I see this as being not too far from the proposed "kill switch" legislation, or similar tech installed by shady buy-here-pay-here places. With my negative-Nancy hat on, I see a struggling mom in a bad neighborhood trying to pick up the kids from a weekend with a crappy dad, and the car not working (or worse, being gone) when she goes to leave.

And I agree fully with tatortodd: automakers are making vehicles so overdone with unnecessary technology, it's hard as heck to buy, maintain, or repair one. Somewhere around here I've got a link to an article about $3800 Ford pickup taillights. Do they turn red any better than "normal" taillights? No. But they're shiny and high-tech and expensive, and way more susceptible to theft. Functional? Yes. Necessary? No.

When I retired from dealership parts departments in 2017 it was SOP to see a 1k plus headlight or taillight plus labor to remove the front bumper for installation.

Much of the used cars at auction are in no shape to be re-sold. People that don't pay evidently also don't take care of cars that are in danger of repo

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
I’m fairly certain that the Covid payouts funded a lot of car “purchases” that ended up with missed payments when the tap was turned off. Hopefully it results in the used car market returning to somewhat reasonable now that the chip problem seems to have stabilized, and a glut of cars getting repossessed. I’m in the market for a reasonably priced starter car for a teen and it has not been easy.

My next door neighbor has had good luck finding such at the city's monthly auction. He low balls clean vehicles, and often wins them with something like a $500 offer.

My grandfather once told me about his first job in the 1950s. He worked for an appliance supplier that sold refrigerators with a coin box attached. You had to add coins to the box daily or the fridge would shut off. His job was to collect the money from the boxes. After you paid the box for a certain amount of time, the fridge was yours, and they removed the coin box.

This seems similar to that. I don't have a problem with it, provided it's evenly applied to every purchaser.

Sounds like a hacking opportunity to have a large number of cars all park somewhere amusing.

I would ask if the car could be commanded or decide on it's own to drive you somewhere you didn't want to go.