Car Repossessions A Big Issue In Newest Sign of Depression

Though the media is white-washing the new depression we’ve entered, the truth is that Americans are greatly hurting financially.

One component of recent years were sub-prime lending for CAR LOANS, which encouraged people to buy cars they could barely afford, and the pandemic is going to make that blow up in our faces all at once it appears.

From The Seattle Times:
Repo men face a big year in 2021 as car payments go overdue

While many hard-pressed consumers fight to cover mortgage and rent payments during the pandemic, growing numbers are struggling to hold onto their main economic lifeline: their cars.

When Congress passed its coronavirus relief act in March, the legislation included protections for mortgage holders and some rental property owners holding federally backed loans. But nothing was done to shield auto owners with delinquent car loan payments. As a result, many who are unable to keep pace with their payments are potentially exposed to reduced credit scores — or worse — having their cars towed away.

Paradoxically, the pace of auto repossessions has been slow since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, industry experts say. That’s largely because of leeway given to owners by lenders on their car payments. But consumer lawyers and analysts believe repo men could be back in force in 2021 — particularly if Congress fails to produce a new round of financial relief for troubled households.

For many car owners, the time to scramble is now.

3 things are complicating this issue:

~ These days cars are last-ditch shelters for homeless people across the nation, without a car, people lack any private shelter at all, so this is a big deal. Many people have been able to ‘deal’ with homelessness because they at least have a car.

~ America is a nation so dependent upon car travel that in most of the country, you can’t even get in a line for food without having a car (even before the pandemic) so many services are impossible to get without a car. Further, jobs are pretty much impossible in many places without one. If you lose your car, you lose your hope.

~ Most cars these days are sold with remote location technology that allows repo men to find the car no matter where you happen to be. Gone are the days you can stash your car or move and evade the Repo Man.

I don’t know if this will become well known in the news cycles at any point, of if will remain on the back page of news stories.