Tough Times for Some, Good Times for Others
"It's one of those rare businesses: when the economy struggles, Henry McCarty's work thrives," reports KHOU (via CNN). Henry McCarty's "work" is repossessing cars from those who've fallen behind on the payments. Just how good is the repo business in the Houston, TX area these days? "We're running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just to keep up," says McCarty, who runs Citywide Lien Enforcements. McCarty says "There's a lot of people out there that fall on tough times," and default on car and truck loans. "They're bankers, they're police officers, they're… you know, even doctors." KHOU reporter Kevin Peters says that nationwide, about 1.5m vehicles were repossessed last year, up 15 percent from 2006. He adds that "experts" predict another "10-percent jump" in the number of repos this year. As for repo man McCarty, he says most folks don't try to stop him when he shows up to tow a vehicle away, in fact, most people expect it. "People are just givin' up these bigger cars because of gas prices, you know, they're going to the more economicals." English skills aside, McCarty's knows the good times for his business come at the expense of those less fortunate: "We're not out there to try and be the bad guys." In other words, don't take it personally- it's just business.
Glenn is a baby-boomer, born in 1954. Along with his wife, he makes his home in Connecticut. Employed in the public sector as an Information Tedchnology Specialist, Glenn has long been a car fan. Past rides have included heavy iron such as a 1967 GTO, to a V8 T-Bird. In between those high-horsepower cars, he's owned a pair of BMW 320i's. Now, with a daily commute of 40 miles, his concession to MPG dictates the ownership of a 2006 Honda Civic coupe which, while fun to drive, is a modest car for a pistonhead. As an avid reader, Glenn enjoys TTAC, along with many other auto-realated sites, and the occasional good book. As an avid electronic junkie, Glenn holds an Advanced Class amateur ("ham") radio license, and is into many things electronic. From a satellite radio and portable GPS unit in the cars, to a modest home theater system and radio-intercom in his home, if it's run by the movement of electrons, he's interested. :-)
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@canfood: Same can be said for the Dallas area. Except it isn't quite as humid.
Repo Man is a great flick. Frustrated punk rocker Otto (Emilio Estevez) quits his supermarket job after slugging a co-worker, and is dumped by his girlfriend at a party. Wandering the streets in frustration, he is approached by Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), who needs a vehicle driven out of a "bad area." After discovering his parents have donated his college fund to a televangelist, he joins the Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation and is apprenticed to Bud, veteran repo-man, with some bad habits. The plot thickens when the repo men are told about a Chevy Malibu with a $20,000 bounty on it. The soundtrack features punk rockers: Iggy Pop, Fear, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, and Suicidal Tendencies. Strippo's quote above is from the movie. The first car I ever owned was a Chevy Malibu of that vintage (1965). With a basic small block and nothing in the way of accessories, it was fun to drive. I bought it for $450 in 1969 (it was probably $2,000 new) drove it for three years and had it towed away for $100 in 1972.
Steve_S; I'd be a bit wary about taking home one of these vehicles. I suspect the owners stopped paying for maintenance long before they defaulted on their loan.
Here in New Mexico, a problem we have here in town is that the indigenous population that resides on the rez often buys an item or vehicle (F-250s are popular) over time, maybe makes the first payment, and then hides out on the rez with the item. No more payments are made and no repos are possible. After all, the ___ Nation is a sovereign nation and only the FBI and the ___ Nation Police are permitted on the reservation. And then when merchants in town are reluctant to do business with said population, they are branded as racists. Your tax dollars at work. Funny. When the ___ Nation needs help from the US they play the race card, usually to their advantage. When the US needs assistance from the ___ Nation, then they're a sovereign nation and can't be bothered.