PayTeck Smart Box is upping the odds that even the most hard-knock customer will come up with the car payment. Hooked into the ignition system, the gadget comes in a handful of versions with one common conclusion: No pay, no start. It's worked wonders at Norfolk's Patriot Auto Sales, where nearly every car that drives off the lot is outfitted with a PayTeck Smart Box, a system that hands over a five-digit code in exchange for each payment. Come due date, the car won't crank until the customer punches the code into a palm-size keypad wired into the dash.

Payments are due every two weeks at Patriot. Sales staff program the first due date into the Smart Box, and the system keeps track from there. As time runs out, tiny lights on the keypad shift from green to red, and a chirping noise provides an audible nudge. Codes, once keyed in, reset the box for another two weeks. There is a four-day grace period. After that, the unit kicks in and voila: no vroom. Source - USA Today via - digg