Devices can halt cars with tardy payments - billingsgazette.com: "Devices can halt cars with tardy payments
Knight Ridder News
DALLAS - Most of the credit-damaged customers at North Texas Motorcars learn to live with the lights.
They're attached to a black box on the dashboard and start flashing on the first day a car payment is late. On the fourth day, after two more days of warning lights, the car won't start.
'I would not undertake buy-here/pay-here without this system,' said Ray Williamson, president of North Texas Motorcars, which sells about 50 vehicles a month and installs boxes in each of them. 'There's just too much risk.'
The box - called a starter interrupt unit - is used mostly at used-car dealerships that provide financing to customers with bad credit. But other segments of the auto industry may adopt it, particularly if consumers' credit ratings continue to decline.
'I can see this coming,' said Michael R. Linn, chief executive of the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association, which is based in Arlington and represents 19,000 used-car dealers nationwide.
'The technology is there. Look at something like General Motors' OnStar. It can already open doors and notify emergency authorities, and all of that. It could certainly shut a car down.'
The On Time unit Williamson uses is marketed by Payment Protection Systems Inc. of Temecula, Calif., and is one of three or four such systems available. Mike Simon, president and chief executive, said On Time sales have increased 40 percent since 1999.
The company has also begun selling On Time units equipped with GPS that some mainstream used-car dealers are installing on $20,000-plus luxury cars.
'Some people have the income and assets to buy a Mercedes-Benz but still have credit problems,' Mr. Simon said.
He believes the devices could be used in the new cars as well."
Knight Ridder News
DALLAS - Most of the credit-damaged customers at North Texas Motorcars learn to live with the lights.
They're attached to a black box on the dashboard and start flashing on the first day a car payment is late. On the fourth day, after two more days of warning lights, the car won't start.
'I would not undertake buy-here/pay-here without this system,' said Ray Williamson, president of North Texas Motorcars, which sells about 50 vehicles a month and installs boxes in each of them. 'There's just too much risk.'
The box - called a starter interrupt unit - is used mostly at used-car dealerships that provide financing to customers with bad credit. But other segments of the auto industry may adopt it, particularly if consumers' credit ratings continue to decline.
'I can see this coming,' said Michael R. Linn, chief executive of the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association, which is based in Arlington and represents 19,000 used-car dealers nationwide.
'The technology is there. Look at something like General Motors' OnStar. It can already open doors and notify emergency authorities, and all of that. It could certainly shut a car down.'
The On Time unit Williamson uses is marketed by Payment Protection Systems Inc. of Temecula, Calif., and is one of three or four such systems available. Mike Simon, president and chief executive, said On Time sales have increased 40 percent since 1999.
The company has also begun selling On Time units equipped with GPS that some mainstream used-car dealers are installing on $20,000-plus luxury cars.
'Some people have the income and assets to buy a Mercedes-Benz but still have credit problems,' Mr. Simon said.
He believes the devices could be used in the new cars as well."
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