plus 3, Videos From the Web: Car Videos - San Francisco Chronicle

Videos From the Web: Car Videos - San Francisco Chronicle
The Wired Repo Man: He's Not 'As Seen on TV' - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Exeter/West Greenwich coach Mike Messier dies in crash - Providence Journal
Arlington GM workers to take home new cars to try out - Dallas Morning News

Videos From the Web: Car Videos - San Francisco Chronicle

Posted: 27 Feb 2010 02:59 AM PST

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The Wired Repo Man: He's Not 'As Seen on TV' - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Posted: 26 Feb 2010 11:03 PM PST

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BUSINESSES of every sort have been sucker-punched by the recession, but at least one enterprise has continued to grow through the downturn: auto repossession.

More than 1.9 million cars were recovered on behalf of lenders in 2009, a jump of 90,000 over the previous year and the latest in a decadelong string of annual increases, according to Tom Webb, chief economist of the consulting arm of Manheim Auctions.

But even in this boom, recovery businesses are trying to do more with less, taking advantage of computers and digital imaging. They are improving efficiency and reducing the need for tedious legwork in tracking skips -- those delinquent borrowers who are the hardest to find -- using technologies like automatic license plate recognition, which allows them to troll city streets and instantly identify cars whose loans are in arrears.

The electronic plate-reading systems may also help to reverse the unflattering image of repossession agents, as they prefer to be called. Lampooned in the 1984 film "Repo Man" and typically portrayed as shifty strongmen on cable television, they are saddled with a reputation for a willingness to do just about anything to grab a car, including staring down pit bulls, breaking into garages or playing the heavy with angry owners.

No doubt some of this behavior crops up in actual repossessions. But repo men -- sure, there are women in the business, but it is still largely a guy's game -- can, at the cutting edge, be smooth-talking computer-savvy entrepreneurs who scour databases and digital maps to track down wanted vehicles.

At the core of this technology-intensive trend is a set of high-speed digital cameras mounted on the hood and trunk of a vehicle that snap pictures of license plates while passing other vehicles, even at 80 miles per hour. Photos of the plates (including the time the photo was taken and the car's GPS coordinates) instantly pop up on a laptop computer inside the repo man's vehicle. Optical character recognition software converts the plate numbers to text.

The process gets more technical: the plate numbers are checked against an encrypted database of delinquent cars, compiled from lenders and stored on the computer, which is refreshed continuously using a wireless link.In most cases, the license plates photographed are attached to cars with no payment problems. But when a plate on a wanted list is found, the computer screen displays further information, including the make and model, its vehicle identification number, or VIN, and the name of the lender. The data is used to confirm that the right car has been found -- scofflaws sometimes swap license plates, for instance.

If the car is parked, a tow truck can be called in; if not, the repo man can follow the car and, with luck and tact, negotiate a handover when the driver parks.

In their short time on the market, the camera systems sold by MVTRAC, Recovery Tech and others have upended the way repo men do their jobs. Instead of visiting a long list of addresses where a car might be, repossession agents are driving through parking lots, shopping malls and neighborhoods in search of wanted vehicles.

"This technology allows the tow truck driver to find the needle in the haystack," said Martin Alper, chairman of PlateScan, which supplies plate-reading technology to Recovery Tech and others. "This allows you to automate what used to be done by hand."

Though seemingly more random, automated plate recognition holds great promise for recovery companies and for auto lenders, who have seen the number of car loan defaults skyrocket in the past few years.

"Every month we're putting on more and more lenders," said Scott Jackson, chief executive of MVTRAC, referring to the growth of his company's database of wanted cars. "A month from now, two months from now, the acceleration of the organism will grow. You should buy stock in flatbed trucks."

As is often the case, one person's technological innovation is another person's potential weapon. Privacy advocates say that collecting license plate numbers on public streets raises concerns -- and they have substantial questions over where the numbers might end up once they are collected.

Protective of their public image, banks and auto lenders refuse to discuss plate-reading technology. Repossessions have been a fact of life in the industry for decades, but finance companies try to keep their distance from the sometimes messy practice of reclaiming cars.

"That part of the business is there, but it is something to be avoided," said Mike Stoller, a spokesman for GMAC.

As is the case with other surveillance technologies, automatic license-plate recognition was originally developed for the military. Mr. Alper and others said it was first used in Britain to track the cars of suspected terrorists.

The technology soon spread. For instance, drivers entering London's congestion pricing zone do not use radio-frequency transponders -- the technology behind the E-ZPass toll payment system -- but instead have their license plates photographed and bills sent automatically to car owners.

Police departments around the country now use the plate-reading technology to identify stolen cars. Instead of manually typing plate numbers into a computer, officers on patrol can check thousands of cars against stolen car databases as they pass them on the street.

MVTRAC's early use of the technology depended on some 8,000 fixed cameras placed in parking lots, toll plazas and other busy spots. The company has since moved to mobile cameras because they let repossession companies spot the cars and recover them more quickly.

Typically, a repo operation covers a limited area like a single city or county, so its own list may contain only a few hundred wanted cars. By working with MVTRAC, access is expanded to a national database of some 100,000 wanted cars. This improves the chances of finding a car and earning a recovery fee of $200 to $400.

Brian Mason, chief executive of Seven Star Recovery Services, which operates primarily in Orange County, Calif., found a wanted car in MVTRAC's database while driving on Interstate 5. When his computer matched the plate with the list of wanted vehicles, the ka-ching sound of a vintage cash register rang out. Mr. Mason followed the driver home, where he handed over the car.

"It's definitely the tool of the future," Mr. Mason said. "It's a great feeling when you get a hit. It's like a slot machine in Vegas, only now I don't have to go to Vegas."

A subscription for MVTRAC's camera and computer system costs $600 a month, a luxury for small repossessers. But because new car sales have slowed and banks are tightening lending standards, the number of repossessions is expected to slow through 2012, according to Mr. Webb of Manheim Consulting.

This means repo men in the coming years are going to fight over a shrinking pool of cars. For repo men like Rodney Myers, who runs All Valley Recovery in Harlingen, Tex., MVTRAC is now more of a necessity.

"It was a big step that I was nervous to take," said Mr. Myers, who has doubled the number of cars he recovers each month. "It's a lot of money, but once I took the step, it's been a relief."

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Exeter/West Greenwich coach Mike Messier dies in crash - Providence Journal

Posted: 26 Feb 2010 08:54 PM PST

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Mike Messier, head football and softball coach at Exeter-West Greenwich High School, died in a one-car accident on Mishnock Road in West Greenwich late Thursday evening. His truck crossed the center lane and struck a tree during heavy rain as he was headed home.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

Mike Messier may not have been the most vocal high school football coach in Rhode Island, and he may not have had a four-star coaching resumé when he first became the Exeter-West Greenwich head football coach five years ago. But as I watched him coach the Scarlet Knights over the past few years it seemed he was the type of man you would want your son to be associated with.

In the grand scheme of life, that's the ultimate tribute I could pay a high school coach.

"If you wanted your kid to learn about heart and determination, Mike was the guy," said Jim Alves, Exeter-West Greenwich assistant principal and assistant football coach.

All of which makes Messier's death in an auto accident Thursday night so tragic. The 55-year-old coach died instantly when his westbound car crossed the center lane on an unlit portion of Mishnock Hill Road in West Greenwich in heavy rain, left the road and struck some trees. It did not appear he was wearing a seat belt.

Messier was an electrician for the West Warwick school system, where, on Thursday, he had been working late. But he loved living and working with the people in the community of the Exeter-West Greenwich school district.

In addition to being the Scarlet Knights head football coach for the past five years, he also had been an assistant coach for several years before that. That means he had been associated with the Exeter-West Greenwich football program for about three-quarters of its 15-year existence in Rhode Island Interscholastic League competition.

He also had been the Scarlet Knights girls softball coach for well over a decade.

"I don't think Mike had an article of clothing that didn't have some type of Exeter-West Greenwich logo on it," Alves continued. "He loved the school, and he loved working for and with the people in this community, especially the students."

Exeter-West Greenwich is one of the newest public high schools in the state. It's also a comparatively small high school from a school district that is a somewhat strange blend of an old-time farming community and modern, up-scale residential development.

All of which can make building a sports tradition a challenge, but that never bothered Messier. He did all the things necessary, whether it was leading a fundraising project to manually working on the condition of a playing field. It was all so Exeter-West Greenwich student/athletes would know their community cared about them.

"Mike would do whatever was necessary so the kids could play," said Alves. "He never told a kid he or she couldn't play. When we ran out of helmets one time, he went to another school and got a helmet so a kid could play. If we needed more uniforms, somehow he raised the money for them."

And while he might not have had an extensive coaching pedigree when he first became head football coach, he knew how to put together a good coaching staff. He added Alves and his brother Steve Alves, both who had head coaching experience at other schools. In 2007, Exeter-West Greenwich earned the school's first football Super Bowl berth, and the following year, the Scarlet Knights won their first football state championship with a victory in the Division IV Super Bowl.

Several members of that 2008 state championship team graduated the following spring, so nobody was really surprised when the Scarlet Knights only posted a 5-3 record during the regular season last fall.

I remember talking to Messier early in the season and he told how he was a little disappointed that after the championship season in 2008, they didn't have more new players come out for the team. The 2009 roster actually had fewer players than the 2008 team.

"But we have a great group of great kids. We will be OK," Messier said that day.

Indeed they were. After finishing fourth during the regular season, the Scarlet Knights came back and won another Division IV state title with two straight victories in the playoffs. They won the championship with a 14-point victory in the Super Bowl over a team that had defeated them by 27 points during the regular season.

"Last year was nice because that was our first one, but we were in first place most of the year, so we kind of expected to win. This one here, we came out of the ashes like the phoenix," said a delighted Messier that night back in early December when the Scarlet Knights won the title.

It's probably not surprising Messier's work for his players didn't stop with the final buzzer at the Super Bowl.

"He has been putting together the fundraisers so the players can have rings and other things to remember the championship," said Alves. "He was always working for the kids. He was here the other day already working on the softball field. He was really looking forward to this year's softball season."

A school and a community have lost a special person.

jgillool@projo.com

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Arlington GM workers to take home new cars to try out - Dallas Morning News

Posted: 26 Feb 2010 08:19 PM PST

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Employees at the General Motors Assembly Plant in Arlington, who already put in plenty of overtime weekly, may soon be asked to take work home.

Hundreds have already volunteered.

On Monday, a tractor-trailer rig from Detroit will arrive at the Arlington plant with six new vehicles aboard – cars and crossovers that GM employees will be able to check out and take home for a night or weekend as part of a new "GM Vehicle Plant Tour." The vehicles will be at the plant for a month.

"We had so much interest in it we had to use a lottery to determine who would get to be a volunteer," said Enrique "J.R." Flores Jr., president of United Auto Workers Local 276, which represents most of the plant's 2,400 workers. "People are really excited about it."

GM, which went through a painful, highly public bankruptcy last year, wants to get employees involved in its products, believing they can be credible proponents for GM cars and trucks with neighbors or friends who might be in the market for a new vehicle.

For years, the bosses in Detroit and managers at GM's plants have enjoyed the privilege of driving new GM models – partly to provide feedback on them.

Last year, the company began taking vehicles to various GM offices in the Detroit area so employees could drive them. This year, the program was expanded to include the workers at GM's 40 assembly, powertrain and stamping plants in the U.S. and Canada.

"We want to engage employees to do underground marketing for us," said Wendy Stachowicz, coordinator of the GM Vehicle Advocate Program. "You look at where the company has been and where it has to go. Everyone has to help."

The Arlington plant, which builds full-size SUVs, will be one of the first four factories to get the new vehicles for a month. The other factories are in Shreveport; Tonawada, N.Y.; and Defiance, Ohio.

Each will get a Chevrolet Camaro, Chevy Malibu, Chevy Equinox crossover, GMC Terrain crossover, Buick LaCrosse sedan and Cadillac CTS wagon. After a month, the vehicles will move to the next four plants.

Arlington was among the first selected because it is in the South, where winter weather is a little less harsh than in other parts of the U.S. GM executives also chose plants that were not launching new products or engaged in special projects.

Employees with good driving records will be permitted to take the vehicles home on weeknights or over weekends, Stachowicz said. If someone decides to buy a GM vehicle, they can qualify for discounts that typically lower the price to near wholesale levels.

But the employees don't get commissions or rewards, Stachowicz said.

"This is a tool to empower people, to get them really engaged with our products," she said.

Though Stachowicz declined to say how much the program will cost GM, she described the expense as small. The vehicles that are part of it were used initially in quality tests.

"We're reusing them," she said.

George Hoffer, a professor of economics at Virginia Commonwealth University who follows the auto industry, said the program makes sense. Employees will be more effective in discussions and demonstration drives with neighbors and friends than any dealership salesperson could be.

In addition, the vehicles – when they are retired from the program – should fetch good prices at auction because most should be well-equipped, low-mileage models.

"It makes a lot of sense at a very, very low cost to the firm," Hoffer said.

Stachowicz also plans to get GM retirees and suppliers involved in the program.

"We have all these great new products," she said. "But the first thing we have to do is change the perception of GM."

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