REPO MADNESS
How subprime lenders use starter kill switches to plague struggling car owners
ONE SPRING EVENING in 2012, after getting off a shift at Señor Frog’s bar and grill in Las Vegas, Candice Smith drove to the Palace Station casino to cash her paycheck. When she returned to her car, it wouldn’t start. She knew what the problem was: the starter kill switch her lender had installed on the vehicle. To restart the car after business hours, she needed to call the device manufacturer’s hotline number and get an unlock code. That night, the process took four hours.
Smith had bought her used Chevy Cobalt the previous
