Car dealers who specialize in those will less than perfect credit are turning more and more towards this device, which promises timely payments, and fewer repossessions.  We will analyze to see how well they truly work. 

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I will admit I was young and very stupid and did not bother to watch how I was affecting my credit when I was newly 18.  I was determined I knew everything.  So I have used a car lot that utilized this type of device so I can give my own personal experience with this.  I personally find it appalling that a company would try to force me to pay my car payment before I even pay my rent to keep a roof over my children’s head.  However, companies seem to think this is the perfect miracle they have been looking for. 

I have purchased two cars from a local car lot in my area that utilizes these devices; they were both decent cars, at a slightly inflated price attached to huge astronomical amounts of interest rates.  I will admit with the first car I was a good girl up until the point where I made my payment and the girl at the desk only gave me a code for 2 days when I was not due again for 7 days.  After being stuck at work and having to have my husband come rescue me, we went home and promptly set to work devising a way to bypass that annoying little box. 

Aside from the fact that you must enter a code that is good for a certain number of days, you must hope that the clerk has enough sense to actually count and give correct code days.  This was again a problem I had a few months later with the exact same car, however since bypassing that little box had been very simple and cheap, it did not upset me as badly since I did not have to be rescued.

As you make your payments you receive a code that you enter into the box via a remote that comes with your vehicle, it bleeps a few times at you to tell you the code was accepted, and that’s all you have to do until it’s time to enter a new code.  The bad part comes from starting your car, you must first turn the key into the run position and let it sit for approximately 5 to 10 seconds until the car makes a double bleep sound, only then can you actually start the car.  Turning it off is also no problem, and other than the double bleep to tell you, it is ok to start the vehicle you hear no other sounds until 24 hours before your code runs out when the car beeps at you for 30 seconds each time you turn it off! 

As if being poor with bad credit is not bad enough, your car will now loudly proclaim everywhere you go that your credit is horrible and you have to use a horrible car lot that utilizes such devices to even purchase a car.  Wonderful advertisement strategy.  That was by far the worst problem to me, there was no way to shut off the beeping without disabling the power to the device, which of course would have violated the contract that you must sign to purchase the car saying that you will not tamper with the device. 

I have looked at several cars from dealerships that use these devices and each time I’m amazed that they even work, after all they are installed horribly.  Whether that’s a design flaw, or lack of training from the Passtime company is up for debate, however they are very poorly installed, and it can cause problems with the vehicle because many times wires are left bare and exposed, however since those wires are left bare and exposed it does make it quite nice and simple to bypass that annoying little box. 

Passtime boasts on their website that their little devices are perfect for any electronic devices that are purchased or rented, including medical equipment.  I  don’t know about others but I personally would never use any medical office that had equipment fitted with such devices due to the problems that can occur, they can play and tamper with cars, however medical equipment is a different story.  However, I would like to say that for all of the companies boasting about the reduced rates of repossessions I have heard of a great many people refusing to pay the interest rates and high prices of those cars and have to deal with the hassle of the pastime device. 

Seems to me more people jump those devices than the Passtime company is aware of, perhaps they should do better market research before releasing so many defective devices onto the open market.  I would also like to note, that the second car I bought with a Passtime system installed I took home immediately and took a 3 inch piece of speaker wire that cost me a quarter and promptly bypassed the device before I experienced any problems with it this time around. 

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 I am currently working on an eBook that will be available for sale in the store that will detail explain how you can bypass this device.  The price will be quite small, and I am estimating to have it ready for release by 10-1-2008.