Your FICO score doesn't prevent getting secured loans. A car, a mortgage, etc -- these are all loans secured by an asset.
If you put enough money down, you can "buy" almost any size loan if it fits in your DTI. Since their BK, their DTI probably dropped significantly, and if they came up with $10,000-$20,000 to put down on a car, they can get a loan, albeit one with a high interest rate.
Low FICO scores generally prevent non-secured credit from happening (credit cards, personal loans, etc).
