On a chill October night in Virginia, a Wall Street Journal reporter rode shotgun with a repo crew as they scanned license plates and hauled away cars. The agents said they were busier than ever, as repossessions climbed back to Great Recession levels—an estimated 1.73 million vehicles seized last year, the most since 2009.

So much for the repo crews. Their story is reflected in more recent data. The New York Fed’s credit survey shows households now expect their auto-loan applications to be rejected at a record rate, and the overall rejection rate for any kind of credit over the past year has risen to another record high of 24.8 percent, with discouraged borrowers up to 8.0 percent. Translation: people think they’ll be turned down—and many of them actually are.

The picture is the same

See Full Page