.... Similar to the Internet, the technology was original implemented
for military use in order to help precise control of troops as well as
getting accurate information about enemy troops and armament placement
and movement...
http://personaltechinfo.googlepages....and_its_future

On Oct 9, 3:30?am, wrote:
... Similar to the Internet, the technology was original implemented
for military use in order to help precise control of troops as well as
getting accurate information about enemy troops and armament placement
and movement...http://personaltechinfo.googlepages....and_its_future


GPS has completely re-invented BHPH (by here, pay here) auto sales. I
was in that business for a half dozen years or so, and making money
was tougher than it should have been. The biggest risk is that
somebody will just take off across the country with your collateral,
make no payments, and you're out an entire car. One solution is to
sell such wheezing junk that the $1000 down payment or so will cover
the wholesale cost (and then you're lucky to
get any payments at all- the buyers get testy about making payments on
a car that just discombooberated into four large pieces on the
freeway). Most of my cars were decent enough that I would be upside
down in the loan for the first several payments, but the majority of
time they would run until paid for and if repairs cropped up they
would be something minor and we would often help out by doing the work
at a steep discount and tacking a few payments onto the end of the
term.

About seven out of ten customers would pay without much collection
effort.
Another one out of ten would be a real PITA to collect, and we'd wind
up stealing back another two out of ten (repo!) when the buyers got
delinquent and we were able to find them.

I'd say we just plain lost about 1 car out of 20. Some people would
buy a car
without any intention of ever making a payment, and drive it until it
either crapped out or was finally spotted and recovered. That 5% was
enough to
stand a profitable business model on its ear- to the point where most
BHPH operators had a lot of capital at risk but were working only for
decent wages rather then realizing any type of serious profits.

Nowdays, each BHPH car is equipped with a GPS transponder. The
transponders are supplied by private companies. When a car goes
missing,
the BHPH dealer calls the tracking company and unless the car is
inside a builiding it can be located in real time anywhere in the US.
I'm not sure what keeps the bad actors from simply ripping the
transponder out- (maybe it's welded to the body or something?) Some of
the tracking units allow the tracking company to disable the ignition
so the car can't be restarted, even with a key.

I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar in the boating
industry.
Nobody runs a BHPH boat business, but boat loans are riskier than car
loans even when the buyer has decent or better credit. When the
economy goes through one of its regular cooling off periods and things
begin to get tougher, there are people who will keep up the payments
on the family cars (have to get to work, you know) but begin falling
behind in paying for a boat that is considered a pure luxury. If Joe
Doaks gets 60-90 days past due on his bow rider and decides to park it
at a friend's house until he can get current again the bank has a
better idea just where to begin looking for their collateral.

I wouldn't be all that surprised to see GPS transponders eventually
become standard items in any type of mobile collateral including all
cars, motorcycles, boats, and motor homes. The downside is that with
such an infrastructure in place it would make it very easy for the
government to track everybody; and if we have learned anything in the
last 15 years it's that you can't trust either major party.