Jalopnik: Repo Man

Alex Cox Goes HO Scale: Repo Chick!

Murilee Martin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST

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I say Alex Cox's Repo Man stands as The Greatest Car Movie Of All Time. His latest film- which should be released this year, Hollywood politics permitting- might turn out to be the Greatest Toy Car Movie Of All Time. More »

Repo Man Accidentally Repos A Toddler

Matt Hardigree — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:45:00 EST

A California repo man snagged a woman's Honda Accord with a two-year-old in the backseat. The mom freaked and the jaded guy ignored her and the people chasing him. The kid's safe but the mom is "raging mad." [Mercury News] More »

Repo Man Creator Alex Cox Tells Jalopnik How He Selected The Film's Cars

Murilee Martin — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:30:00 EDT

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What's The Greatest Car Movie Of All Time? I say it's Alex Cox's Repo Man, and for 25 years I've wondered: How and why did Cox choose the cars used in the film? More »

Repo Man Recovering Delorean Kicked In Taint By Michael Jackson Impersonator

Ben Wojdyla — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:30:00 EDT

We saw this video hours ago and we're still trying to recover from the sheer WTF-ness of it. Suffice to say the headline delivers as promised. Also, there is no hope for humanity. More »

A Repo Man For The Un-Friendly Skies

The Auto Insider — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:30:00 EDT

Times are tough and, with numerous companies and executives losing their cash flow, they can no longer afford the winged luxuries they once could. Sounds like a job for Nick Popovich: Aeronautical Repo Man. More »

Alabama Man Killed Over Chrysler Sebring Repossession

Ray Wert — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:00:00 EST

Federal law says repossessors can't "breach the peace" while repossessing cars, but it doesn't provide more detail than that. We doubt it includes killing an Alabama man over his Chrysler Sebring. More »

2008 Auto Repo Rate Highest Ever, Repo Men Now Worried About Their Jobs

Andrew Stoy — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Vehicle repossessions are expected to rise 15% this year from 2007 due to the continuing economic meltdown, says an executive vice president of customer strategies at ADESA Inc., a vehicle auction company, in Automotive News today. So why are repo men complaining? Apparently banks and lenders are facing so many delinquent loans that they're far more willing than usual to renegotiate the terms of a contact or tolerate missed payments than they used to be. Since lenders like GMAC and Ford Credit lose an average of more than $10,000 on a repossession, they have a strong incentive to avoid the repo man — and apparently they're doing just that. More »

Your Plymouth Pursued By Repo Men In A DeSoto? Hide By The Isotta-Fraschini!

Murilee Martin — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:20:00 EDT

All the film geeks say that Sunset Boulevard is one of the best movies ever made, and they're right. You hear a lot of talk about Norma Desmond's Isotta-Fraschini, but what about the repo-ripe '46 Plymouth driven by Joe Gillis in the beginning of the film (not to mention the '48 DeSoto belonging to the repo men)? We can thank this YouTuber for providing us with this clip. More »

Create The Best Transmission Name, Get Fabulous Prizes!

Murilee Martin — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 11:40:00 EDT

We love contests, so what better way to brighten the gloom of that ol' Monday salt mine than by thinking up the ultimate cool transmission name? Those of you who have been following the Cool Transmission Name Of The Day series have no doubt looked at names such as Toyoglide and Dynaflow and said to yourselves, "Hey, I could do that!" Well, now you can, because we're going to work 24/7 to get the Gawker Overlords to fund the creation of the Wall Of Death Transmission Factory, where the Official Jalopnik Transmission™ will be manufactured! Make the jump to learn how to enter and what you'll win... More »

Project Car Hell, Repo Man Edition: J. Frank or Bud?

Murilee Martin — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:30:00 EST

For the first time in Project Car Hell history, yesterday saw a Porsche lose a challenge against a non-Porsche! For today, I was going to reach into the PCH Mailbag and pull out one of the excellent tips y'all have been sending in, but then it happened: I was walking down Howard Street in San Francisco earlier today and I was thinking about how my Civic is due for a new timing belt, and how I should probably do the job this weekend, and then I started this internal mental debate about timing chains versus belts and that reminded me of my friend Andrew and how he got stranded in the middle of rural Alabama when the timing chain in his '66 Malibu ate all the teeth on the crank sprocket... and then I stopped at the crosswalk and a vintage Malibu drove past: Plate O' Shrimp Moment! So, you see, it goes without saying that we must now have a Repo Man-themed Project Car Hell. More »

Identify This Mystery Car, Now With Fresh-Smelling Prize Potential!

Murilee Martin — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 08:30:00 EDT

It took a couple long, agonizing days for our loyal readers to identify our last Mystery Car, a '54 Fiat 8V, so this time we're going with something a little less cruel; someone is going to start yelling "Ooh! Ooh!" and jumping up and down pretty soon after seeing this very distinctive component... we think. Better move fast if it's you, because we got us a righteous prize package for y'all this time! More »

Got Ideas For New Little Trees? You Will Be Heard!

Murilee Martin — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:30:00 EDT

So after I posted the inspiring Fresh As A Junkyard Breeze Little Tree Air Freshener Movie last week, I got a pleasant email from a marketing manager at the Little Tree Air Freshener Empire Headquarters. It turns out they're watching us closely for our opinions of their fine line of tree-shaped automotive air fresheners, which means we're important tastemakers now! More »

Little Tree, Fresh As A Junkyard Breeze!

Murilee Martin — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:45:22 EDT

As some of you might remember, I like to photograph Little Tree air fresheners in junkyard cars. Not long ago, I was at a local self-service yard located right at the very edge of San Francisco Bay, and the wind was howling cold and lonesome off the water and through the picked-over corpses of the cars. That's when I spotted this 80s Cadillac with a "New Car Smell" Little Tree twisting in the wind. So I had to film it. You'll find one in every car, kid. You'll see. More »

Four-Year-Old Leaps From Repo'd Excursion

Murilee Martin — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 10:30:19 EDT

A Repo Man's life is always intense, but a line of some sort gets crossed when he reeps a car with the owner's kid still inside. Four-year-old Fashawn Parker, of Naperville, IL, was in the Excursion when the crew from Helping Hand Acceptance rolled up with a tow truck. The kid figured he'd better get out, so he jumped out of the truck when the tow driver slowed for a construction zone; fortunately, he wasn't badly hurt. [WBBM] More »

Identify This Mystery Car, Now With Super Prize Potential!

Murilee Martin — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 08:30:33 EDT

We've done a couple of Ennui Countermeasure contests, including the Mystery Mercury and Dastardly Datsun, but now things have changed. Now we've managed to convince the all-powerful Gawker Overlords to spring for an actual prize for the ~~car-obsessed freakola~~ automotive expert who identifies the car in the photograph above... More »