My question is about garnishment of wages. I bought a vehicle back in 1997 which was repossessed in 1998. Now I've received notice that they are going to garnish my wages for this vehicle. Can they do that when they are in possession of the vehicle and I've never heard from them until now?

The answer is maybe. For them to garnish your wages, they have to have judgement against you. This means taking you to court. Its possible they did this and you never recevied ot responded to notice of that fact.

When a vehicle is repossesed, that generally does NOT end your indebtedness. What happens is the vehicle will be sold at auction. The proceeds of the auction will be applied against the balance due on your loan. A balance that is now inflated with interest, late charges and other fees. Unless the proceeds of the auction covered the balance, you still owe and they can sue you for it.

Now the question is what is this notice you have received? Is it a threat from a collector or is it a notice from a court?

What's happening is complicated but lets see if I can try to explain it. You had a car repossesed in 1998. What that reads to be is you were far enough behind on your payments that they took the car back. What it doesn't mean is that when they took the car it was relief of the entire debt to the loan company. i.e. you still owed them money. Usually but not in all cases time limits for collection of debts goes for about 10 years. So depending on where they got the judgement from ( within the 10 year period ) is why they are collecting now. You need to find out as much as you can and who issued the garnishment. Then see a lawyer or just pay off what you owe depending on the amounts.

And I will add, that often, very often, after they repo the car, add the repo costs, add the court fees and the legal fees, add the cost of the sale of the car. It is very very common that you will owe more money after they take the car than you do before they take it, or at least close to the same amount.