Fark linked up news of an increasingly common practice amongst used car dealers:

Most of the credit-damaged customers at North Texas Motorcars learn to live with the lights.

They're attached to a black box on the dashboard and start flashing on the first day a car payment is late. On the fourth day, after two more days of warning lights, the car won't start.
...
The box - called a starter interrupt unit - is used mostly at used-car dealerships that provide financing to customers with bad credit. But other segments of the auto industry may adopt it, particularly if consumers' credit ratings continue to decline.

While the anarchic Farkers predictably labeled the thing SCARY, I think it's a darned good idea. People with poor credit have to be able to re-start their lives somehow, and if having "blinkenlites" installed on their next car is what it takes so be it. This reduces the risk to the dealership, which allows them to get less expensive financing, which then (if they're smart) allows them to pass those savings on to their customers. Seems like a win-win to me, as long as you pay your bills at any rate.