How technology has redefined the job of the repo man • Hacker News Board

Re: How technology has redefined the job of the repo man

#51

Post by lsc » Mon, May 21, 2018, 4:00 AM UTC

djrogers wrote: post #29

I honestly don’t get why anyone goes in to debt to buy a car in this day and age. You can buy a car (or truck) for $3000 that will last several years without requiring any huge mechanic bills or exotic maintenance - heck, I’ve done it. I would much rather take the bus/bike/walk and save up $500/mo for 6 months to be a free man than buy or lease a car for $500/mo and be a space to my creditors. Besides, hoopties can b…

>You can buy a car (or truck) for $3000 that will last several years without requiring any huge mechanic bills or exotic maintenance - heck, I’ve done it.

I've done it, too. The thing is, even if the car is perfect, a car 10-20 years behind in safety features is dramatically less safe than a new car. On top of that, a $3000 car is not going to be perfect. Your suspension will have a lot more slop, etc, etc...

I mean, I'm not saying that a $3000 car is necessarily unsafe, just that it's less safe than a new one, and if you carry adequate liability insurance, the tco might not be that much lower than a cheaper new or nearly new car.

Now, most people only carry a few tens of thousands of dollars in liability insurance, and don't really concern themselves with risk to other people above and beyond that, if nothing else, out of financial necessity, and in that case, yes, the $3000 car is the clear choice.

Re: How technology has redefined the job of the repo man

#52

Post by lsc » Mon, May 21, 2018, 4:03 AM UTC

stale2002 wrote: post #50

graeme wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a societal scale, those $3000 cars likely only exist because others are frivolous and buy new cars on debt. Some strategies work for individuals but not universally.

Well, if people start buying the cheaper cars, it seems like a win for society, as there will be less people getting into debt. Seems like a win win to me.

On a societal level, we externalize most of the costs associated with auto crashes. I suspect that if we better rolled the true cost of injuries into the cost of car ownership (say, by increasing the minimum liability insurance to the cost of several statistical lives) the cheapest cars to own would be small and fairly new.

Re: How technology has redefined the job of the repo man

#53

Post by TeMPOraL » Mon, May 21, 2018, 4:09 AM UTC

modzu wrote: post #16

unrelated, but REPO MAN (1984) is an excellent film.

Repo Men (2010) is even better.

In the future, beyond repossessing cars, why not also repossess artificial organ replacements?

Re: How technology has redefined the job of the repo man

#54

Post by camhenlin » Mon, May 21, 2018, 4:50 AM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #37

wallflower wrote: post #23

At least 10 years ago, a friend forgot where he parked his car in the Airport parking lot after a long trip. When he went to the booth embarrassed to tell them this, they said it was no big deal and did a quick tap-tap-tap on the keyboard using his license plate number to determine its exact location. They apparently scanned all the license plates in all their lots twice a day.

> They apparently scanned all the license plates in all their lots twice a day. I'd bet this is to prevent people from claiming they lost their ticket after parking in the garage for a month in order to pay the daily max rate instead of a month's worth of fees.

Yes I have lost my ticket before, and the attendant was able to look up how long my car was parked by the license plate and charge me appropriately

Re: How technology has redefined the job of the repo man

#55

Post by Paperweight » Mon, May 21, 2018, 5:04 AM UTC

ncallaway wrote: post #41

montecarl wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will be in need of a car soon. I don't drive much but just need something that works and is safe. Do you have any tips on how you find your $3000 cars? Are you a car guy?

My general approach is to look at craigslist (one example query: https://seattle.craigslist.org/search/cta?query=used+car&sor... ) to get a sense of the market. Spend a little while (maybe a week) checking in on a search like that to get a sense of the market. Once you feel like you've got a sense of what "normal" prices are for cars in your price range, get a consumer reports subscription†. Use CR to evaluate the ma…

There's also http://www.carsurvey.org/

Re: How technology has redefined the job of the repo man

#56

Post by X-Istence » Mon, May 21, 2018, 5:43 AM UTC

jpatokal wrote: post #18

Bluestrike2 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's slightly better I guess (though at driver in the article claimed otherwise), but the driver is still under the expectation that their vehicle will start when they turn the key. What happens when the car won't turn on in an emergency?

Is that any different from the car not being there because it's been repossessed?

You stall in the middle of the highway and need to get it going again?

Re: How technology has redefined the job of the repo man

#57

Post by X-Istence » Mon, May 21, 2018, 5:46 AM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #53

modzu wrote: post #16

unrelated, but REPO MAN (1984) is an excellent film.

Repo Men (2010) is even better. In the future, beyond repossessing cars, why not also repossess artificial organ replacements?

Repo! The Genetic Opera IMHO is even better with a similar premise.

Re: How technology has redefined the job of the repo man

#58

Post by twblalock » Mon, May 21, 2018, 6:03 AM UTC

djrogers wrote: post #29

I honestly don’t get why anyone goes in to debt to buy a car in this day and age. You can buy a car (or truck) for $3000 that will last several years without requiring any huge mechanic bills or exotic maintenance - heck, I’ve done it. I would much rather take the bus/bike/walk and save up $500/mo for 6 months to be a free man than buy or lease a car for $500/mo and be a space to my creditors. Besides, hoopties can b…

You have an interesting concept of being a "free man". Debt is a tool, not a form of enslavement.

For example, many people who could pay cash for a car take a loan instead, because they know they will have more money at the end of the loan term if they invest their cash, or because taking the loan will cost them less money than cashing out some investments and paying capital gains taxes.

You can get car loans these days with less than 1% APR. At that rate, it almost never makes sense to pay cash, at any price -- the interest rate on the loan is less than the rate of inflation!

I've bought cars for $2k or less several times, and I kept each one for several years. If I hadn't known how to work on them myself, they would have ended up costing a lot more than what I paid initially. I bought my current car new -- it is a lot safer than the cars I used to drive, it gets excellent gas mileage, it has a great warranty, and it will last me a long time.

When I retire several decades from now, I certainly won't regret having purchased a new car back in the 2010s -- the price I paid will be a drop in the bucket compared to the amount I will have earned and saved by then. All I would get if I buy a $3k car is unnecessary suffering and inconvenience, and significantly higher risk of death in an accident, that wouldn't amount to much savings in hindsight.

Re: How technology has redefined the job of the repo man

#59

Post by gizmo686 » Mon, May 21, 2018, 6:11 AM UTC

stale2002 wrote: post #50

graeme wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a societal scale, those $3000 cars likely only exist because others are frivolous and buy new cars on debt. Some strategies work for individuals but not universally.

Well, if people start buying the cheaper cars, it seems like a win for society, as there will be less people getting into debt. Seems like a win win to me.

The question is, how many $3,000 cars can we actually produce. At the moment, we do not actually produce any. Instead, we produce expensive cars, and a non-trivial amount of people then choice to sell their current car at a lower price then it cost to construct the car in the first place.

Re: How technology has redefined the job of the repo man

#60

Post by tzs » Mon, May 21, 2018, 6:29 AM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #53

modzu wrote: post #16

unrelated, but REPO MAN (1984) is an excellent film.

Repo Men (2010) is even better. In the future, beyond repossessing cars, why not also repossess artificial organ replacements?

>> unrelated, but REPO MAN (1984) is an excellent film

> Repo Men (2010) is even better

That's not a very widely shared assessment.

Repo Man (1984): 98% on RT, average rating 8/10. Ebert 3/4. IMDB 6.9/10. 75% Metacritic.

Repo Men (2010): 22% RT, average rating 4.2/10. Ebert 2/4. IMDB 6.3/10. 32% Metacritic.

1984 had a lot of science fiction movies: The Terminator, Dune, The Last Starfighter, The Adventurers of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Starman, Repo Man, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; Night of the Comet, The Philadelphia Experiment, 1984, The Ice Pirates, Supergirl, The Brother from Another Planet, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Dreamscape, Firestarter, Electric Dreams, C.H.U.D, The Return of Godzilla, The Toxic Avenger, and more.