Riding with the repo man (update)

Summary

Planet Money: “Riding with the Repo Man (Update)”

Date: February 4, 2026
Hosts: Kenny Malone & Preeti Varathan

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Overview

This episode of Planet Money explores the intensifying world of car repossessions in America—using the classic “Rashomon” approach to tell the story from three distinct perspectives: the used car dealer, the buyer, and the repo man. The hosts revisit a 2019 segment and update listeners on the evolving realities of the auto loan market as repossessions surge to levels rivaling the Great Recession. Through first-hand accounts and expert insights, the episode lays bare the economic forces and human consequences behind a growing “subprime auto crisis.”

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Anatomy of an Auto Repossession

• The episode kicks off with Kenny and Preeti riding along at 1AM with Larry Baker, a veteran repo man in Ohio, as he quietly repossesses a black Chevy Cruze from a suburban driveway.
• Kenny shares: “My heart is genuinely pounding pretty hard, like there's a chance somebody is gonna wake up and come out here.” (02:00)
• The immediacy and emotional tension underscore how disruptive repossession is for everyday Americans.

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2. Three Perspectives on the Car Loan Crisis (Rashomon-Style Storytelling)

A. The Dealer: Rick Reichert

• Rick Reichert, third-generation dealer near Columbus, describes the process and jargon of subprime lending:
  • On welcoming all customers: “As you’re walking on the lot…by the way, we have guaranteed credit approval. If that’s something you think you may need.” (07:18)
  • He calls this “the Columbo” method—an old-school, subtle way of acknowledging questionable credit without offense.
• Rick admits the risks: “A lot of lenders have gotten very loose…extending money to individuals that probably shouldn’t have had those loans.” (08:26)
• He notes his default rate is 6%, lower than average, but says zeroing out repos would mean turning away all riskier borrowers:
  • “As long as we want to play in that field of lending, there's always going to be some form of repossessions.” (10:37)
• Responsible subprime lending, he argues, focuses on helping people rebuild credit and keeping them as future customers.

B. The Driver: Stephanie Waldrop

• Stephanie, a bubbly goth from Mississippi, experiences both the promise and peril of subprime auto loans:
  • On her motivation: “I was like, I have the money, I have the means. I’m getting a car today.” (11:10)
  • Upgrades from a rundown Ford Explorer to a red Ford Fusion—"Being colorblind, that's the one color I could see very well. So that's why I wanted that red car." (13:02)
• She describes her unfavorable loan: 23% interest on a $12,000 car, monthly payments of $466, nearly double the car’s value over 48 months (13:13).
• Stephanie ultimately falls behind after taking a lower-paying, less-hostile job for her mental health:
  • “When it comes to your mental health and something that's material, the mental health outweighs material any day.” (15:20)
• On seeing her car towed: “I'm like, tell my boyfriend. I was like, I have a situation. I was freaking out.” (16:12)
• The repo drops her credit “like a bad habit.” (25:08)

C. The Repo Man: Larry Baker

• Larry shares practical and emotional lessons from years in the trade:
  • “Lesson two, do your repossessions in the middle of the night. Because if people are sleeping, there will be less conflict, but that doesn't mean zero conflict.” (17:41)
  • On the risks: “That's why I carry a .45 automatic.” Only twice in 15 years did he pull it; guns have been pulled on him four times. (17:50–17:58)
  • “Most people are good. And remember, you are meeting them at one of the worst moments in their lives.” (18:10)
• Larry admits lending companies now use GPS trackers, making it far easier to repossess cars:
  • “Nowadays, Larry says, part of the deal when you buy a car with a subprime loan is that the lender is going to stick a GPS tracking device onto your car.” (20:26)
  • “GPS don’t lie.” (20:58)
• The business gets easier for lenders, harder for the vulnerable borrower.

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3. How the Crisis Got Worse: 2026 Update

• Rising Repos: Repossessions have climbed steadily, even surpassing Great Recession levels: “...final tally for 2025…estimate it will end up as more than 3 million cars repoed last year. And that would be more than 2019.” (27:03)
• Adapting Borrowers: People have become more desperate and creative in hiding their cars to stave off repossession, leading to dangerous confrontations: “My brother in law was shot in the leg trying to repossess a car before.” (26:50)
• Dealership Economics: Cars have gotten more expensive, subprime borrowers are offered longer 84-month loans at greater ultimate cost, and repossession rates have doubled at dealers like Rick’s. (28:12)
  • “In 2019, you could find a $10 to $15,000 car for a subprime loan. Now…you're looking $20, $25,000 vehicles.” (28:24)
• Credit Deterioration: As of Fall 2025, 6.6% of subprime borrowers were at least two months behind on payments—a post-financial crisis record. (29:12)
• Not Mortgage Crisis Scale, But Personal Disaster: “There is just way less auto debt…But an auto repossession is clearly a crisis when it is your car.” (23:24)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Four years of college and I chose to do this." – Larry Baker (03:56)
• "This is what happened when I laid this down in order to pick up another part in my life." – Stephanie Waldrop, on losing her car after prioritizing a healthier job (16:30)
• "Lesson two, do your repossessions in the middle of the night." – Preeti Varathan (17:41)
• "GPS don't lie." – Larry Baker, showing how tracking has changed the repo industry (20:58)
• "I feel for some people... you know, taking somebody's property and... making them... stranded. You know, they could have... a couple kids, and you're really going through some hard times." – Larry Baker, on the emotional fallout of his job (22:46)
• "It dropped like a bad habit." – Stephanie Waldrop, on her post-repo credit score (25:08)
• "Honey, sometimes I don't even know." – Stephanie, on how she gets around after losing her car (25:50)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:03–03:26]: Real-time car repossession; emotional landscape of the process
• [05:21–10:47]: The dealer’s perspective on credit, subprime loans, and ethics of lending
• [11:07–16:38]: Stephanie’s journey as a buyer—her loan, struggles, and repossession
• [16:57–23:17]: Larry the repo man: his methods, risks, industry changes
• [23:17–24:36]: Framing the current surge in repossessions as a potential crisis
• [26:06–29:47]: Updates as of 2026: repo industry, dealership, and Stephanie’s fate

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The Human Side, Finale, & Listener Impact

• Stephanie’s story touched listeners after the 2019 episode: “The donations poured in. She was able to go back and buy her specific car back.” (29:21)
• Larry has now retired from the business, while Rick’s dealership is run by a new family member.
• Stephanie’s current whereabouts are unknown, but her story offers hope and caution for people navigating America’s increasingly precarious economy.

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains Planet Money’s trademark blend of sharp reporting, human stories, and dry humor. Both hosts and guests deliver anecdotes and candid insights in a conversational, sometimes wry style—balancing empathy for those affected with a clear-eyed analysis of broader economic realities.

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For further updates, the show encourages listeners to check out their upcoming book and reach out if they have similar stories.

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Transcript

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

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[Kenny Malone]

Planet Money is going on tour to celebrate the release of our first ever book. We are holding about a dozen events around the country. Details on cities and [e-mail] that's planetmoneybook.com.

[Preeti Varathan]

This is Planet Money from npr.

[Kenny Malone]

This seems like a pretty nice neighborhood.

[Preeti Varathan]

Yeah.

[Kenny Malone]

Every house here, the lights are all out. Some people are asleep, and we're sneaking.

[Larry Baker]

Up quietly on the car.

[Preeti Varathan]

Larry Baker is a repo man. We're crammed in a surprisingly small tow truck creeping through the suburbs in Ohio tonight.

[Kenny Malone]

Larry's job is to find and repossess a black Chevy Cruze. The person who bought that car is about six payments behind. And the finance company wants its car back.

[Larry Baker]

It's right there.

[Kenny Malone]

What's that?

[Larry Baker]

It's right there. Okay, let me see. I thought I'd seen lights on here.

[Kenny Malone]

We pull up to, like, a charming little house. There's a little garden. There's a couple of bird feeders in the yard.

[Preeti Varathan]

The Chevy is sitting right in the driveway. The house is totally dark.

[Larry Baker]

What time is it?

[Kenny Malone]

It's about one in the morning.

[Larry Baker]

Yeah. I'm not gonna knock on the door.

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

Okay.

[Preeti Varathan]

Yeah.

[Larry Baker]

I'm just gonna grab it and I'm.

[Kenny Malone]

Gonna drag it out.

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

Okay.

[Kenny Malone]

My heart is genuinely pounding pretty hard, like there's a chance somebody is gonna wake up and come out here.

[Larry Baker]

And if they do, then we deal with it.

[Kenny Malone]

We were out with Larry that night because we wanted to see on the ground what it looks like when a car gets repossessed. What when somebody stops making their car payments. And in this case, it's that black Chevy Cruze. Larry hooks it up to the back of his tow truck. So you're 100% sure this is the right car, huh?

[Larry Baker]

Yeah.

[Kenny Malone]

Usually Larry and his wife Maggie do these repossessions together as a team. She's out sick tonight, and it's left Larry a little exposed. He looks at the Chevy Cruze, then at the house. Still no sign. The guy who bought this car is awake.

[Larry Baker]

See, usually My wife stands by the door of the car in case he runs out, and that way she can stop him from jumping in the car.

[Kenny Malone]

That certainly would be some exciting radio. We went on this ride along with Larry a few years ago in 2019, because at that time, there was this really alarming trend in the United States. About 7 million Americans were at least three months behind on their car payments. That's about the time that your lender starts thinking about repossessing your car. And today we're revisiting all of this because in 2026, even more people are behind on their car payments. Even more cars are getting repossessed. Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Kenny Malone.

[Preeti Varathan]

I'm Preeti Varathan. A repossession. It's kind of the end of a story, one that's playing over and over again in this country with the same three characters.

[Kenny Malone]

Today on the show, we're gonna do something a little different. We're going to tell this story three different ways, Rashomon style, from three different characters perspectives.

[Rick Reichert]

The salesman, if used car salesman, is the worst person in the world. I am the king of the worst people in the world.

[Kenny Malone]

The driver.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

I had the money, I had the means. I was like, I'm getting a car today.

[Preeti Varathan]

And of course, the repo man, four.

[Larry Baker]

Years of college, and I chose to do this.

[Kenny Malone]

What'd you study?

[Larry Baker]

Economics.

[Kenny Malone]

And today we're going to have an update from 2026. How dire car loan market has become, why more repossessions are happening, and is this a big warning sign for the economy?

[Preeti Varathan]

This message comes from BetterHelp. February is full of flowers, candy, and lots of relationship talk. It can feel like everyone has it all together in their love lives, but the truth is they're still figuring it out. And whether you're married, dating, or prioritizing being single, just remember you're right on time. Therapy can take the pressure off and help you feel lighter. Just a little outside perspective from a professional can lead to new understanding and a lot of progress. Visit betterhelp.com NPR for 10% off.

[Kenny Malone]

Heads up. You're gonna hear a lot of numbers in this upcoming section of the podcast. They're all accurate as of 2019, but we're gonna update those at the end, so don't worry about that. Okay, so today we are following the life cycle of a delinquent car loan. We have three characters with three stories, and they're not directly related in real life, but they are all part of this same basic story that is happening over and over when a car is repossessed. So just know not related stories, but we will be cutting in and out of them over the course of the next three chapters.

[Preeti Varathan]

Chapter one.

[Rick Reichert]

The salesman in our industry Ph.D. stands for Papa has a dealership.

[Kenny Malone]

Aha. Well, isn't that true for you?

[Rick Reichert]

I technically do have a PhD though.

[Kenny Malone]

Okay, I see. I got it. Rick Rykert, like his father before him and his father before him, runs Rykert Automotive, founded in the 1950s near Columbus, Ohio. And as a third generation car salesman, Rick talks in this great old timey car lot jargon, PhD for example, but also towers.

[Preeti Varathan]

That's where the sales directors sit, thinking about credit scores and loan approvals, what.

[Kenny Malone]

Kind of car a customer will actually be able to buy. And while the salesmen are on the lot with customers, sales directors are running numbers up in their ivory towers.

[Rick Reichert]

They don't sit above everyone else anymore and look down. Yeah, they did when I started. They looked down on the salespeople, they looked down on the customers. Now we have everyone eye to eye. Their primary job is to know how to put that puzzle together.

[Kenny Malone]

To some degree, our auto loan story starts here with the towers.

[Preeti Varathan]

Because when you walk into a car dealership, there's a fundamental question the salesman needs to know to do you have good credit or do you have bad credit?

[Rick Reichert]

And you'd never want to, as a salesperson, look at a guest and say, hey, how's your credit? Do you think it's good or bad? Because if that person has good credit, they're offended and they're saying, oh, wait a minute, are you implying that I might not have perfect credit?

[Kenny Malone]

That's how good credit people talk.

[Rick Reichert]

Yes, yes, that's how they talk. Actually, it's funny, I lifted my chin up and I kind of tightened my vest up.

[Preeti Varathan]

If you have good credit, odds are you won't have trouble getting a loan. With the low interest rate, you're in good shape. You can drive off with a great car.

[Kenny Malone]

If you have bad credit, you're a riskier bet to lenders. You're going to have to pay a higher interest rate for a loan, assuming someone is going to give you a loan. And Rick says there's this special move his salesmen use just to float the idea that all people and all credit ratings are welcome. At his dealership, we do what's called.

[Rick Reichert]

The Colombo, where as you're walking on the lot to look at cars, you turn back over your shoulder and you say, and by the way, we have guaranteed credit approval. If that's something you think you may need.

[Kenny Malone]

Why is that?

[Rick Reichert]

The Columbo from the old TV show Columbo? That's what the sales trainers have called it for years. It's that kind of like look over the shoulder and give that squinty eyed. By the way, I notice this, it's kind of a smooth way. They just call it the Columbo.

[Preeti Varathan]

The Columbo is a subtle way to let customers with bad credit know that Rycar can still sell them a car and a car loan.

[Kenny Malone]

Reichert also has a subprime financing company. And let's just talk about the term subprime loan for a second. Because subprime does not mean bad loan. It just means loan to somebody who has bad credit. It is a riskier loan and the interest rate will be higher. And some people think that this practice on its face is predatory, that lenders can push people into cars they can't afford with incredibly bad loan terms.

[Preeti Varathan]

And Rick says part of the reason we are seeing more and more people fall behind on their car payments is that there are more and more questionable subprime auto loans.

[Rick Reichert]

A lot of lenders have gotten very loose. They have been extending credit and extending terms and extending money to individuals that probably shouldn't have had those terms of those loans and been able to buy those vehicles.

[Kenny Malone]

That Rick says is the irresponsible way to be a subprime lender.

[Preeti Varathan]

And you'll hear stories about this. Companies stuffing people into expensive, crappy used cars, wringing out as much money as they can, repossessing the car, even garnishing wages.

[Kenny Malone]

Rick says there is a responsible way to be a subprime lender and that is to think about the next car a customer with bad credit is going to buy. If Rick hands that person a lousy loan for an unaffordable car, he's going to have to repossess that car and wreck that customer's credit, which is bad for future business with that customer.

[Rick Reichert]

Oh my gosh. Me as a dealer, I want them to make the payment. I want that car to get them where they need to go. I want their credit re established to where we can get them in a prime loan and really get someone back on their feet.

[Kenny Malone]

The subprime auto loan market is a critically important market when it is working well because people with bad credit and without a lot of money still need a car to live their life, to go to work. And without subprime, they would not be able to get the money to get that car.

[Preeti Varathan]

And it's worth underscoring that the vast majority of people in this country with subprime loans are not defaulting on those loans. At least 92% of people who got subprime auto loans are paying them off on time, or at least they're not seriously behind on payments.

[Kenny Malone]

We asked Rick how many of the subprime loans his company issues result in repossession. And compared to other lenders, it is a low number.

[Rick Reichert]

I'm going to sound really nerdy because I think it's exactly 6% over the past two years consistently.

[Kenny Malone]

So that is 6% of people given a loan and then a car and then it doesn't work out. That is very bad for that group of people. Like not good for their life. It's bad for their credit. Is there a way to avoid that? Just get that number down to zero?

[Rick Reichert]

Yeah, but one of the ways. So if we did that, that would mean that we're basically declining and just telling people we aren't going to give them a loan.

[Kenny Malone]

Right.

[Rick Reichert]

So, you know, as long as we want to play in that field of lending, there's always going to be some form of repossessions.

[Sponsor/Ad Narrator]

There's just.

[Rick Reichert]

There's just no way around it.

[Kenny Malone]

But also, Rick says there's no surefire way to predict who is going to default and who isn't. Credit scores don't tell you if somebody is going to be be in the hospital in a year or lose their job.

[Preeti Varathan]

There's just no perfect way to predict what's going to happen in somebody's life when they walk into a car dealership.

[Kenny Malone]

Can I ask a question before you go to the dealership?

[Stephanie Waldrop]

Okay.

[Preeti Varathan]

Chapter two the Driver.

[Kenny Malone]

So what car do you have in that moment?

[Stephanie Waldrop]

I believe it was a 2007 Ford Explorer.

[Kenny Malone]

Okay. A nice car.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

Yeah. And it had almost like 400,000 miles on it.

[Preeti Varathan]

Yeah.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

That's driving a Ford Explorer. That's shaking a little bit. You tend to want to get something different.

[Kenny Malone]

Was it shaking a bit?

[Stephanie Waldrop]

Oh, yeah. It hit that 70 mph mark on these highways. It gets a little sketchy.

[Preeti Varathan]

Stephanie Waldrop lives in a small town in Mississippi. She's 23 now, and a year ago she was working at a fast food fried chicken restaurant.

[Kenny Malone]

She'd been there for a while, started as a cashier, moved up to shift leader, then to manager.

[Preeti Varathan]

So you got this new job and I imagine it came with more pay.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

Yes, honey, it did.

[Preeti Varathan]

So you were making pretty good money.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

It was great money. Look, it was money that I didn't understand.

[Preeti Varathan]

What to do with Stephanie was making four grand a month, and she kind of did understand what to do with it. Upgrade her crappy Ford Explorer.

[Kenny Malone]

Did you have a dream car in mind?

[Stephanie Waldrop]

Well, you know, I'm a very. Not really simple. I'm complex, but simple at the same time. You know, I'm very much an SUV person.

[Kenny Malone]

Okay.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

So I wanted a Ford Flex.

[Kenny Malone]

We had to look up the Ford Flex, and it is an unusual looking car to pick as a dream car.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

To me, it looks like a hearse, and I think that's kind of cool. So therefore, I wanted that. Like, I'm kind of gothic, you know, But I'm actually quite bubbly sometimes.

[Kenny Malone]

So bubbly Gothic is the best way to describe you.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

Yeah, yeah, I'm a bubbly goth. So.

[Preeti Varathan]

Just before her birthday, Stephanie drives her shaky Explorer to a dealership in Mississippi.

[Kenny Malone]

Salesman there says, bad news, Stephanie. We cannot get you a loan for the Ford Flex because you've got bad credit. Stephanie can't remember her exact credit score, but she says ballpark was like 600. Not great.

[Preeti Varathan]

But the good news, this dealer could still get her a subprime loan for a different car. A used Ford Fusion.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

You know, it was. It was red. Like, that's my favorite color. Being colorblind, that's the one color I could see very well. So that's why I wanted that red car. I was like, it is red. So let's go for it now.

[Kenny Malone]

Let's just talk about the terms of subprime auto loans for a second, because Stephanie was not going to get a favorable loan, to say the least. This was about a $12,000 used car. Her interest rate on the loan was going to be 23%. So with fees and taxes, her payment was going to be $466 per month for 48 months. And she was going to end up paying almost double the sticker price of the car.

[Preeti Varathan]

Some people say this is why subprime is predatory, but others say this is kind of the deal. This is what it costs to cover a higher risk of default when someone has bad credit.

[Kenny Malone]

But these are the kinds of terms on subprime auto loans. Interest rates in the high teens, low 20s, and sometimes they'll be stretched out for seven or even eight years.

[Preeti Varathan]

So Stephanie's looking at a car that's not her dream car and thinking it's better than the shaky Ford Explorer.

[Kenny Malone]

She's looking at a loan that is definitely not her dream loan and thinking, I mean, I can't afford it. 466amonth. I make four grand a month. Okay, let's do this. And over the next year, she made her payments. She kept working at that fast food restaurant making great money. But she says there were things at that job that just started to take a toll on her.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

I am a transgendered woman, so there's a lot of discrimination that comes along with that. It just kept happening more and more frequently. I had a couple workers there that would call me it, and then the guests, the customers and stuff that would come into the store. It was. It was something else. I mean, they would sit there and just ask, what are you? Blindly just ask that. And so it started weighing on me for a while. I was like, I don't really care. But in the back of my mind, it. It really weighed on me really hard.

[Kenny Malone]

Eventually, she says it was just too much. She found a new job that was better for her and she quit the restaurant. The problem was that this new job, it paid a third of her old salary. She knew there were going to be huge trade offs, including that expensive auto loan.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

When it comes to your mental health and something that's material, the mental health outweighs material any day.

[Preeti Varathan]

So Stephanie missed her first payment, and the finance company starts calling.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

They're calling, asking what I'm going to pay. And they'll just sit there and pressure me and like, well, we need you to pay something now. I'm like, we're. Well, when the manna from heaven falls, then I'll pay you. It's like, it's kind of hard right now.

[Kenny Malone]

After three months, Stephanie was about two and a half payments behind. That is when her lender decided they wanted the car back.

[Preeti Varathan]

It was the morning, a weekday. She had the day off from her new job, and she was in her kitchen.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

I'm there at the dishwasher, putting dishes in there, cleaning up afterwards. And our window points straight towards the driveway. And I see this white tow truck hooked up to my beautiful red car.

[Rick Reichert]

Oh, no.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

And I'm like, tell my boyfriend. I was like, I have a situation. Like, I was freaking out. I was like, no, no, no, I'm not that far behind. Why are you taking my car?

[Kenny Malone]

But, I mean, it must cross your mind that you're like, this is what happened, I guess, when I skipped those pages.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

Yes. It's like, this is what happened when I laid this down in order to pick up another part in my life.

[Kenny Malone]

Wait, so you're 100% sure this is the right car, huh?

[Larry Baker]

Oh, yeah.

[Preeti Varathan]

Chapter three. The Repo man when we met, Larry Baker it was about 9:30 at night. He was waiting for us in his tow truck, which was parked in front of his boat, which is named Final notice.

[Larry Baker]

And the final notice on the boat means if I come, I'm your final notice. Ready to load up?

[Kenny Malone]

Yeah. Larry's wearing an Ohio State crewneck sweatshirt. He's got a small hoop earring. He smokes Pall Mall cigarettes, but he's trying to quit. And at least tonight his radio was tuned to the classic rock station in Columbus. You like this song?

[Larry Baker]

Yeah, it's the best. Guns Erosion.

[Preeti Varathan]

We rode along with Larry from 9:30pm to around 1:30 in the morning.

[Larry Baker]

This time of night, I always get coffee. You guys drink coffee or no or.

[Kenny Malone]

Oh, yeah.

[Larry Baker]

Okay, well, Speedway Coffee's the best.

[Kenny Malone]

Wait, really?

[Larry Baker]

Oh, my God. Yes.

[Kenny Malone]

Speedway Coffee. That is repo lesson number one. Here is what else you'll learn over the course of four hours with a veteran repo guy.

[Preeti Varathan]

Lesson two, do your repossessions in the middle of the night. Because if people are sleeping, there will be less conflict, but that doesn't mean zero conflict.

[Larry Baker]

Yeah, that's. I didn't bring it tonight. That's why I carry a.45 automatic.

[Kenny Malone]

How many times have you had to pull a gun?

[Larry Baker]

Twice in 15 years and you've had.

[Kenny Malone]

A gun pulled on you about four times. Okay, but lesson number three, most people are good. And remember, you are meeting them at one of the worst moments in their lives.

[Larry Baker]

You know, when they treat me with respect, you know, I have a heart too. So there's been times where I've left cars. You know, finance company wanted me to get a car and, you know, I looked at the paperwork. They only owed 300 some dollars. And I thought, you know what? This car really is a piece of junk car. The poor girls paid for it for, you know, two years. I just left the car. I told her to go hide it.

[Kenny Malone]

The repossession business has changed dramatically over the course of Larry's career. He's been doing this for more than a decade. And here's how he says it worked. When he started a lending company would get in touch and say, hey, Larry, so and so stopped paying. We need her car back.

[Preeti Varathan]

So in those olden days, Larry wouldn't get much more information than that. A name, an address, a phone number. But maybe so and so moved. Maybe she isn't picking up her phone now. What?

[Kenny Malone]

Larry then had to become like a kind of detective. He would go on the social media of the day, MySpace, and he would see if so and so was posting pictures of herself. What's in the background of the picture? Does Larry recognize it? Can he drive there? Maybe the car's there.

[Preeti Varathan]

He'd also check databases to find other addresses, other phone numbers. And if that didn't work, he'd try to find so and so's family members and just start making phone calls.

[Larry Baker]

You have to do a little trickery. And, you know, I might call a cousin and say, hey, this is John from Rent a Center. Your cousin so and so came in to get a, you know, widescreen tv. We want to get it delivered to her, but we need to verify three pieces of information. So now I got our new address.

[Kenny Malone]

Are you allowed to do that?

[Larry Baker]

Yeah, I mean, I'm not going after the person that I'm talking to. If he wants to volunteer the information, then that's on him.

[Kenny Malone]

Okay. The point here is that those were the old MySpace days, when it was a ton of work to track down somebody's car. And there was a decent chance that Larry would never find so and so's car, and the lender would just be out of luck. They'd never get it back.

[Preeti Varathan]

So you could imagine lenders were a little more reluctant to give out subprime loans back then. But things have changed. It's gotten way easier to get a car back.

[Kenny Malone]

All right, so what's next?

[Larry Baker]

Okay, I'll show you.

[Kenny Malone]

Larry pulls out this iPad to show us the next car on his repossession list. It's a black Chevy Cruze. The car was bought with a subprime loan. The buyer has stopped paying. But here is the catch. Nowadays, Larry says, part of the deal when you buy a car with a subprime loan is that the lender is going to stick a GPS tracking device onto your car.

[Preeti Varathan]

So now Larry doesn't need to go on MySpace or fake a phone call. He just opens up an app on his iPad and punches in this car's GPS number.

[Larry Baker]

GPS don't lie. Okay, so we'll ping it.

[Kenny Malone]

Oh, you like? We pulled up the live GPS here.

[Larry Baker]

Yep.

[Kenny Malone]

Up pops a map that shows a little dot in a pretty nice neighborhood. This is where the car is?

[Larry Baker]

Yep, that's where it's at.

[Kenny Malone]

What if it's in the garage?

[Larry Baker]

It's not. Okay. This thing pings pretty much accurate.

[Kenny Malone]

Does seem like your job is much easier now.

[Larry Baker]

Oh, yes.

[Preeti Varathan]

Larry says finance companies now know that if they issue a risky loan, it's going to be much easier to get their car back if someone stops paying.

[Kenny Malone]

And that is definitely a part of the reason we are seeing more subprime auto loans. When you know, you can get the car back, it is that much less risky to issue the loan. And it is amazingly easy to find a car this way.

[Larry Baker]

That's right there.

[Kenny Malone]

This is, in fact, the car we were repossessing at the very beginning of the episode. Larry is running around the driveway hooking this Chevy Cruze up to his tow truck. All right, so it's like one in the morning. We're still standing in someone's driveway. As far as we can tell, they're asleep. This is like, legitimately, Larry, do you not dread somebody waking up in the middle of this doesn't scare you?

[Larry Baker]

If they do, I just tell them something, you know, explain to them. I just tell them, you know, sorry, you know.

[Kenny Malone]

Larry trails off. He's focused on his actual job, which is getting into his truck, pressing a button that pulls the Chevy into the tower position. Nobody wakes up, nobody runs into the car. Larry hits the gas, and he drives away. That's it.

[Larry Baker]

That's it. Call me tomorrow.

[Preeti Varathan]

Is this what a normal repo looks like for you, Larry?

[Larry Baker]

Yep.

[Preeti Varathan]

Five minutes.

[Larry Baker]

Five minutes.

[Kenny Malone]

It would genuinely be miserable to wake up and not have your car the next morning. Like, that person might have to go to work, right?

[Larry Baker]

Well, yeah. I mean, it is. I mean, I. I feel for some people, I really do. You know, taking somebody's property and, you know, making them, you know, stranded. You know, they could have, you know, a couple kids, and you're really going through some hard times. I mean, we've even. We've even taken a car and gave them money, you know, because they didn't have any money to get catch a bus. They had to go to work or catch an Uber. You know, we all have to pay our bills. This is how I pay my bills. This is how I, you know, feed my family. So it's just a job.

[Preeti Varathan]

Millions and millions of Americans are on the verge of having their car repossessed. Some people are calling this a subprime auto crisis.

[Kenny Malone]

But look, this is a different kind of crisis than the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007. There are a lot of reasons why, but probably the simplest is that there is just way less auto debt. The mortgage market was and still is much, much bigger than the auto loan market. That said, an auto repossession is clearly a crisis when it is your car.

[Preeti Varathan]

Being taken after the break. What really happens after a repossession?

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[Stephanie Waldrop]

Yes. Yes, it is.

[Kenny Malone]

When the day came for her car to be repossessed, Stephanie Waldrop says she actually recognized the repo guy. He used to come into her chicken restaurant when she worked there. He was a nice guy, she says. Even gave her time to clean out her car, grab her beloved umbrella.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

It's wonderful. It's huge. It's just black. It's just massive.

[Kenny Malone]

It's like a funeral umbrella. This is your gothic side. It's like a funeral.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

Yes, it's a gothic side coming out.

[Preeti Varathan]

One of Stephanie's goals with that car was to build her credit back up. But the repo has not been good for her credit score.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

It dropped like a bad habit.

[Preeti Varathan]

Honey, how did you feel when you saw your credit score?

[Stephanie Waldrop]

I was a little offset, you know, I was put back a little bit. But it's like, I'm going to fix this.

[Kenny Malone]

And technically, she still does have time to fix this. Here's the situation. Stephanie's car has not yet been auctioned off. And until that happens, she can get the car back. She'll need to start making regular payments again, plus a new $700 repossession fee.

[Preeti Varathan]

So her plan is to find a second job to get the money she'll need to get her car back.

[Kenny Malone]

Of course, all of that will be harder because she doesn't have a car anymore.

[Preeti Varathan]

How are you getting around now?

[Stephanie Waldrop]

Ah, honey, sometimes I don't even know.

[Kenny Malone]

Yeah. How are you getting home?

[Stephanie Waldrop]

Oh, my boyfriend's mom. She's gonna take me to work after this. I'm going to work.

[Preeti Varathan]

Oh, okay.

[Kenny Malone]

Well, good luck on the car. Update us if you get the car back.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

Okay.

[Kenny Malone]

Okay. So that is where we left things in 2019. And since then, there have been a lot of things that are worth updating. So let's start with just the repo business in general. It's been very busy. Now, there was a brief lull in collections during the pandemic, but otherwise, repossessions have been rising steadily. And when we went to talk to Larry Baker, the repo man that we followed, he told us that he had started to see People cook up all sorts of new ways to stop him from towing away their cars. Over the last couple of years, they.

[Larry Baker]

Knew that they had paid her payments, so they block them in, put them in the backyard, I mean, park them by the front door. It just started the last two or three years, I mean, it's just been crazy.

[Kenny Malone]

Larry told us that his brother in law was shot in the leg trying to repossess a car before.

[Larry Baker]

They just didn't care. Come get it. I don't care, can't pay for it. Now it's, I want to keep it no matter what.

[Kenny Malone]

So desperation is the biggest change that Larry says he has seen. Now there are whole companies that track numbers of repossessions in the economy and they are still working on the final tally for 2025, but they estimate it will end up as more than 3 million cars repoed last year. And that would be more than 2019. And it would also be on par with how bad it got during the Great Recession. Now meanwhile, Larry Baker himself, his biggest update is that he is now out of the repo business.

[Larry Baker]

It was a good run. We've been doing it since 06. We made a good lick of money and time to say goodnight.

[Kenny Malone]

Larry retired in April. Now onto an update of the second side of our car loan. The dealer Rick Reichert left his business as well. His old dealership is now in the hands of a different Reichert. The process hasn't changed.

[Rick Reichert]

I think the tools in which we.

[Kenny Malone]

Use to get there has changed a little bit. His cousin Jared told us that the, the Colombo method of selling a car that left with cousin Rick.

[Rick Reichert]

Yeah, the Colombo method is Rick Rykard. Rick's a way better salesperson than I am.

[Kenny Malone]

Jared told us that repos on his lot are close to double what they were in 2019. And he says a big reason for that is that cars now are simply more expensive. Because, you know, in 2019 you could.

[Rick Reichert]

Find a 10 to $15,000 car for a subprime loan. Now, I mean, you're looking 20, $25,000 vehicles.

[Kenny Malone]

So that's why we're reaching the banks.

[Rick Reichert]

Saying, hey, can we stretch this loan? You usually do it 60 months.

[Kenny Malone]

Can we do it 84 months? Now the downside to a longer car loan is that the car owners will end up paying more in interest and then overall, which means a higher chance borrowers might not be able to pay for it, which means, means more risk for everybody. And remember, this whole trend is mostly about subprime borrowers, people with bad or even just okay credit scores. And last fall, 6.6% of subprime borrowers had fallen at least two months behind on their auto payments. That may sound small, but that is the highest it's been since like even before the financial crisis. Now, all of this is part of what feels like an affordability crisis for so many Americans, as we've reported on a few times already. Which I suppose brings us to our final update. Our car buyer, Stephanie Waldrip. Now shortly after we aired the original episode, people started reaching out asking how they could help Stephanie. The donations poured in. She was able to go back and buy her specific car back.

[Stephanie Waldrop]

I drove it all the way back home. It took about 20 minute drive. Oh it felt so great. It felt so great when I got behind the wheel of my car.

[Kenny Malone]

We were not able to track Stephanie down again in 2026. So Stephanie, May, may you still be driving the car you love with a check engine light that never comes on and a full tank of gas. Give us an email if you hear this. We would love to know how you're doing. If you like stories like the one you just heard and if you also like reading stories, well, Planet Money has a book coming out in April. And look, you can find a link to order the Planet Money book including from your local [e-mail] It's a great gift. This episode was originally produced by Darian woods and edited by Bryant Urstadt. Our update was reported by Vito Emanuel, produced by Sam Yellow Horsecastler, engineered by Sina Lofredo and it was edited by our executive producer, Alex Goldmark. And you know what, we may as well give you an update on my co reporter for this episode, Preethiverathon. She now is a bigwig making podcasts for ESPN at 30 for 30 and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize as well. We were very proud of you Preeti. I'm Kenny Malone. This is npr. Thanks for listening.

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