Colorado Woman’s Vehicle Remotely Disabled for Missing Payment During Medical Emergency: “I Lost Complete Control”

A Colorado woman, Duffi Frazier, revealed that her vehicle was remotely disabled by the dealership for missing a payment. She found herself in a scary situation on I-25 while rushing her son to the hospital when she lost control of the car, and the steering wheel locked.

The state of Colorado allows lenders to repossess a vehicle if one payment is missed. CBS News reports that auto loan defaults have reached a record high in the last fifteen years, with over a million vehicles being repossessed last year.

However, the incident with Frazier raises questions about this kind of remote possession of the vehicle that could endanger the lives of people who have missed their payments.

Describing the incident where the dealership locked her vehicle, Frazier said:

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“I lost complete control of everything. The steering wheel locked. I couldn’t turn the hazards on. And we were right in the middle of traffic. It was really scary.”

She added:

“If they would have just given me a few days to help my son? But because of the way they handled it, they could have killed us.”

Bill Proposed to Prevent Dealers From Disabling Vehicles

There could be genuine reasons for missing a payment, and state Rep. Javier Mabrey has introduced a bill that would prohibit dealerships from disabling a vehicle and give owners more time to make the payment. Mabrey argues that one could miss a payment just by getting sick, but that could lead to further problems. He said:

“You get sick, you miss one car payment, you could then lose your car. If you lose your car, you could then lose your job.”

Apart from preventing dealerships from disabling vehicles, the bill proposes that owners be given 34 days instead of 20 days to make a missed payment before their car is repossessed.

If a car is repossessed, owners must be given 48 days to settle their debt with reasonable fees. Any violation would be treated as a deceptive trade practice, which is punishable by up to three times the damages.

The bill also allows buyers of used cars to return them within three days for a refund and prohibits dealerships from charging for repairs or excess mileage.

However, the bill has been opposed by credit unions, banks, and car dealerships. Matthew Groves of the Colorado Auto Dealers Association said that the new bill would make dealers and lenders financially responsible for a wide range of costs. He said:

“They’re not allowed to withhold any unreasonable fees. Without having definition to unreasonable they really don’t know what is okay and what’s not. They’re going to have to learn that through years of lawsuits.”

Groves also highlights that there are several parties involved when a car purchase is undone. He said:

“There’s a lender involved, there’s the warranty companies involved, there’s the DMV.”

The bill will be presented before the House Committee on Business Affairs & Labor on Thursday afternoon, but Mabrey does not have enough votes yet. He said it is up to them to decide who to support:

“My colleagues are going to need to decide are they more concerned with the people who might benefit from two extra weeks or do they believe the banks, credit unions and auto dealers who say that alone is going to put them out of business when the banks, credit unions and auto dealers are telling us they hardly ever repossess cars anyway. So, which one is it?”