According to the WSJ (Jonathan Welsh, March 25, 2009), used car dealers sometime install a device in the car that warns you to make a payment, then if you don’t, the car won’t start at a certain point. They are called disablers.
These used to be installed by the fly-by-nighter dealers, but now the biggies are also using them.
Satellite-based locators are also built in sometimes—so no hiding the vehicle from Mr Repo.
These geniuses like to call these behavior mod devices—to persuade us to pay. They patterned them on cell phones—people pay those so they won’t be cut off.
Don’t forget—more people are buying used—so they are seeing a bigger market.
One customer said their car is under house arrest.
But another woman said it helped her build better credit by making her pay on time (no points for excessive sucking and positive positioning, lady).
Yet another said these are a disturbing layer of surveillance. They call it electronic repo.
Soon—expert say—these will be in new cars, too.
They say customers don’t mind that much.
We are used to sneaky treatment by now, we probably don’t.
By the way, did you even think is was possible for the entire financial system to disappear—our trusts—our 529s, credit lines, etc?
Me either.
By the way—anyone know how to disable a disabler?
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