Miss a Payment? Good Luck Moving That Car

[crimethink]

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/09/24/miss-a-payment-good-luck-moving-that-car/?src=twr

The thermometer showed a 103.5-degree fever, and her 10-year-old’s asthma was flaring up. Mary Bolender, who lives in Las Vegas, needed to get her daughter to an emergency room, but her 2005 Chrysler van would not start.

The cause was not a mechanical problem — it was her lender.

Ms. Bolender was three days behind on her monthly car payment. Her lender, C.A.G. Acceptance of Mesa, Ariz., 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 Ms. Bolender, a single mother who stopped working to care for her daughter. It was not the only time this happened: Her car was shut down that March, once in April and again in June.

This new technology is bringing auto loans — and Wall Street’s version of Big Brother — into the lives of people with credit scores battered by the financial downturn.

[Cebu_4_2]

Yes there is financial fuck but to get a newer car to replace junk you couldn't fix? Now you want newer fuck that runs and want it to run forever... go solos biatch.

[ShortJohnSilver]

1. root of problem - single motherhood. Sounds judgmental but it is true.

2. She stopped working to care for her daughter - where is the money coming from? So she is on welfare also, and we are supposed to f***ing fund a car for her?

3. Las Vegas has plenty of cabbies last time I checked. A lot cheaper than $389 in an emergency.

4. If she is on welfare then she is also on Medicare/Medicaid... she could call an ambulance in a true emergency.

5. It had happened 3 times before ... some people don't learn easily.

[crimethink]

1. root of problem - single motherhood. Sounds judgmental but it is true.

2. She stopped working to care for her daughter - where is the money coming from? So she is on welfare also, and we are supposed to f***ing fund a car for her?

3. Las Vegas has plenty of cabbies last time I checked. A lot cheaper than $389 in an emergency.

4. If she is on welfare then she is also on Medicare/Medicaid... she could call an ambulance in a true emergency.

5. It had happened 3 times before ... some people don't learn easily.

I cannot argue with your points, but what everyone should be concerned about from the article is remote control of "your" car. What happens when the finance company "accidentally" turns "your" car off? You pay every month, on time, yet some fool in India pushes the wrong button? You call in, and it's "we are sorry, our records show your payment is two weeks late..."

And, better, you car stops in downtown St. Louis or East LA.

[ShortJohnSilver]

I cannot argue with your points, but what everyone should be concerned about from the article is remote control of "your" car. What happens when the finance company "accidentally" turns "your" car off? You pay every month, on time, yet some fool in India pushes the wrong button? You call in, and it's "we are sorry, our records show your payment is two weeks late..."

And, better, you car stops in downtown St. Louis or East LA.

Sure, I agree with that as a problem. However if you are borrowing money, it is not "your" car until you pay it off.

What is even more worrying is GM bragging about how in concert with the cops, they can remotely track your car and shut it down. I will never consider a car that has such a feature, as one that I would consider buying.

[crimethink]

What is even more worrying is GM bragging about how in concert with the cops, they can remotely track your car and shut it down. I will never consider a car that has such a feature, as one that I would consider buying.

This "feature" will be on all new cars soon enough. Looks like you - and I - will be driving older cars until the end of our days.

[Cebu_4_2]

I like older cars

http://gold-silver.us/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6817&stc=1

[Santa]

Just wait till they put this technology in prosthetic devices and artificial organ transplants.
I wonder how many paraplegics will be able to afford to pay cash for their cool new bionic legs or hands.