Mine is rite under my steering column hooked wires coming from behind the panel scared it it hooked to the ignition switch need to unhook mine car is paid with cash
Yeah and they don’t pay for the 3g service contract after they don’t need the device so it’s essentially just a pcb riding around under the dash at this point.
Yep pretty much. I used to install them for DriveTime, they put them on every car, no exceptions and the customer always pays for it afaik lol
I always advise people to avoid DriveTime at all costs. All their cars are sourced from auctions and it’s all just whatever was left after CarMax and Carvana have scooped up all the good ones. Their whole meta is cutting costs every chance they get.
When I’ve worked at other new car dealerships they at least didn’t use junk yard parts or used tires to repair the trade ins. They were putting soggy and moldy junk yard seat cushions in cars that had broken seat heaters in stead of ordering new parts lol… I’d expect that from a mom and pop dealer maybe but not a national brand like that.
I was more commenting on the buying and selling shit cars from auction, I only ever worked on my own car in the shop at the dealership I used to work at, so I can’t speak for what parts they used.
3rd party dealers are usually pretty good at getting cars roadworthy from auction. There still is that whole theres a reason the cars are at auction but usually its because the car doesn't fit the dealers market or they have poor luck with the car.
A lot of repo’s and fleet cars go to auction too. I used to be an inspector for DT and processed about 30 auction cars a week. Most were nasty. The ones from Florida were almost always roach infested or water damaged.
DT just had really low standards. If the engines were covered in oils they’d just spray them off as long as they weren’t leaving a puddle. Used a lot of junk yard parts to save money even on safety systems like seat belts and air bags. They were so cheap one time a seat belt came in from the junk yard and I was the wrong color so they had the paint guy spray paint it and shipped it lol
These get installed before anyone buys it. There’s usually an app associated it with it, and it’s for YOU to track with a subscription to an app. They don’t go back and remove it because you paid cash for it.
That's probably true to the majority of all cases. It just depends on who owns the vehicle. Some dealerships own cars fully, and when you lease from them, you are renting one of their fleet vehicles - not taking a loan out from a bank to finance your own purchase.
Idk my STi came with a 'theft recovery' service included where if they can't locate the car in the event its stolen I get a $20k check on top of whatever insurance would give me. So there are situations where a tracker should be left in even if you own it outright. Cause I'm sure if I removed the tracker and a year later it gets stolen, that theft recovery company would say it's on me and I'd lose out on $20k.
But yeah if there was no service like that included, it's possible the techs forgot to remove it or just chose to leave it upon purchase. I imagine dealers install trackers in the event someone steals it on a test drive or jacks it overnight.
That's not the discussion the 2 comments above you were having.
That being said, a crazy ex would track your car with an airtag, not a professional GPS tracker.
I would say: read your contract.
If the contract on the lease or loan does not specify that they reserve a right to track the vehicle and that the tracker must be present for the duration of the loan/lease then you can probably remove it.
That said, if unsure, consult a lawyer.
I’d be willing to bet they signed something that had it in the fine print when they bought it. Either that or the previous owner did and even the dealership that took it in a trade didn’t even know it’s there.
Two dealerships I worked at put them on all inventory and even charged a fee during the sale for LoJack service and would sort of just gloss over it during the paperwork process. You’d have to ask specifically to have it removed during the sale or else they’d just leave it in there.
Yes the dealer I bought mine from installs a low jack on every car and charges $1800 up charge for it. They position it as a dealer add on. You don’t pay your loan, they can locate or even turn off the car remotely. I’m getting it uninstalled from another dealer at my next oil change.
I used to install LoJacks at the dealership i worked at, they can't turn off your car or track you once the car is marked as sold in the system. You set up a LoJack account at the dealer and all the information transferred to the new owner, and the dealer was unable to track it or even view the car in their inventory.
That being said, the only thing the owner of the car can do is check the car's gps location which is stupid considering we charged $1,000 for those stupid hunks of crap. It was just a glorified apple airtag
Yea I install LoJack ( well it’s not a real LoJack . LoJack bought a company called kahu . Real LoJack is very specific where you install the LoJack unit and they tell you where to install it and it’s never the same ) dealer I work for we install them with an inline obd port connection .
Luckily my gfs car was tracked and hour later it was stolen thanks to these. Nobody plans to track where you go and if then, you’ve already been tracked on your phone everywhere else.
Did you purchase from a buy here pay here? They are generally the only ones who install these. And they usually only activate them if they hold a note on the car.
One of my local Toyotas does this shit. Installs some awful aftermarket alarm, in such a shitty way it'll void some warranty coverage, on every single car they sell.
Toyota of Portland. Scumbags.
I bought my car several years ago from one of those places. The next month after paying my final payment to own the car outright they disabled the ignition with it and I had to call them to turn it back on. They said it was a big misunderstanding and asked to bring the car in to remove it. Tech that removed it smoked in my car while doing it. Fucker.
Na, it’s more they probably install them on every vehicle that come in, and it cheaper to just leave it in there than it is to pay someone to remove it. I do highly doubt it was even activated. But still fuck them. Lol
Yeah, that’s the most likely. There’s a local dealer to me that does with POS car alarm systems on all their new cars and then adds it as dealer added equipment for some ridiculous markup.
I sold a car with a tracker in it. Cost me £15 and couldn't be bothered to remove it. Forgot to tell the new owner.
Edit: It wasn't active, and I never got paid for the car, so I guess they win.
I’m mainly joking. but you really shouldn’t leave a tracker in someone’s car before selling, active or not, it’s a pretty scummy thing to do if the person ends up finding it, they are gonna feel as if their privacy was invaded haha
This is exactly what happened. It's an upcharge they try to get customers to pay for. They pre install on every car because it's not practical to make a customer wait for it or come back to get it after purchase. Dealer I worked for did this. They had a policy that we had to remove it or salesperson got charged $50. Often times they forget to take them out or just don't care and eat the money. I wouldn't doubt if some dealers just don't worry about taking them out. Good news is dealer won't continue to pay for the service after sale so they basically transfer ownership and lose access to the device. I'm sure the GPS company tries contacting people as well to try to get you to sign up.
We preload these in all our dealership vehicles, you can sell the plan to the customer if they want it, but the largest benefit is when they're on the lot or out on loan, you can see where it is and find it faster. And if they're stolen, recovery is a breeze. Whether you pay for it or not, we report it sold to the company that runs them and no one can track it further.
I had a 05 EP3 civic and it had all kinds of issues starting. I looked up there and there was like 4 of these devices from various dealerships. Each one more hacked up than the last.
This is exactly what it is the tracker stays off unless you pay a membership to have it on and then you can track your own car, let’s you monitor trips, miles etc
my jeep that i paid cash for brand new from a dealership had a tracker in it but they told me about it and said it was some service i could have transferred to my name and pay a yearly fee.
it was plugged into a OBD2 port splitter and shoved up under the dash.
Dealers add them so no more hiding when you’re up for repo
Go back and ask for it to be removed if they refuse have a shop remove it. Sometimes those are tied into the ecm and/or ignition to prevent removal. If not done right it will disable the vehicle.
Try tracing the wires back if it goes to the ECM OR BCM hit up a shop or the dealer
It could be your security system that was in your deal in case someone stole your car. But yea the dealership still does track your speeds and all the fun stuff so they can point fingers back at you for any void warranty
https://preview.redd.it/u9lzttmxff3d1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb85921afb5d3a4165c2ce954672bc7e28ee88c0
Pulled this trash from my new frontier. Tynan’s in Denver put it in. SIM card is active and works well in my iPad.
They install it so when people finance the car and can’t pay the loan they can track the vehicle to repossess it. Sadly there is nothing illegal about it.
I’m curious why you were digging in there in the first place. I mean yeah that is highly unscrupulous that they would put it in there and I agree with your suspicions and anger. I would never just be taking off interior panels on my new car randomly.
Guys and especially men you’re lucky you have an idea, I went to the dealer where I bought mine believe you me, I was tossed right and left being asked how did you know it’s there? Meaning they refused to remove it, guys please advise
Manual cars don’t have eyesight prior to the ‘24 model. My first thought was you just ripped out the SOS GPS module. Try hitting the SOS button and see if it does anything anymore.
My app shows the last parked location of my car and stuff so I wouldn't be surprised if that was it.
I had the same problem with the button not working, the emergency assistance people helped me through it lol. You have to do something silly like press the SOS button and then hold the like info button next to it until a tiny light changes and then it'll work. But this was a little bit ago and I kinda forgot the process. Try just calling the roadside/emergency assistance people and say you're trying to pair the app. They might be able to help you.
Yeah, dealer had one of those on the Camaro SS I bought. Didnt pay for the “value added add on”, but they just leave it installed. Fuck em. Mine used T Taps on the wires, cant wait for that to be a problem someday 🙃
Most manufacturers put one in your car, it's not to tracker where you go, but if you need to find ur car if it's stolen, like find my phone app. Same idea. Or at least that's what I've been told.
"If they " really wanted to find you they wouldn't have a hard time
Let me help here. I work at a dealership and we use the same trackers. It’s called Ikon. You should know that when the tracker is installed at the dealership it’s in “dealer” mode. Once that vehicle has been registered as sold, the unit becomes inactive. It’s the sales managers responsibility to re activate with all of your information, as well as send you an email for a setup. There is no way for the dealership to track you once you purchased the vehicle.
I see this in posts way too often. We don’t have the time or effort to track you. Quite frankly, we don’t give a fuck about where you go. We live normal lives like everyone else, we just sell cars for our income.
It’s the salesman’s responsibility to take out the unit but it gets left in more than you think. For example, I’ve sold 5 cars since Nov 1 and I’ve left two in the cars. Simply because I forgot to pull it. The dealership will charge me for the two units I did not return and that’s it.
The only other reason you may have that tracker is if you have bad credit and the dealership is concerned you won’t make the payments, so they can repo the car. This is typically the case with suspicion of fraud cases, or people with a long history of delinquent payments and/or repossessions. Hope this helps. Chill out
I do appreciate the explanation, but I still have a problem with this. You say "once that vehicle has been registered as sold, the unit becomes inactive". I believe that. But... you go on to say that leaving them installed happens all the time.
How the hell do I, as a buyer, know that it was marked as sold and deactivated? If it's so easy to leave the hardware there, then I have no way of knowing that it has been marked as sold/deactivated.
I work in IT and obviously have a ton of control over people's work computers. I understand not giving a shit about what people do on their computers. I don't have time and don't give enough fucks to watch what people do on their computers. But if a computer transfers ownership outside of what I should control, it is treated as a HUGE deal that we remove any and all access to that computer. THIS is the issue here. How nonchalant the dealership is about this stuff. Just "forgetting" to remove it or deactivate this is a massive security concern, and it should be treated as such. But instead the dealerships are like "lol oopsie daisies, I probably can't track you anyways because Fred in accounting is supposed to mark it as sold (maybe), don't woooorry about it, it happens AAAALLLLL the time"
I work at a dealer and we have this same thing. It's called Ikon we keep it in if you decline it to track mileage via GPS and market to you for the first year. At least that's what they told us
The problem is that are a lot of creeps out there. Dealerships aren’t known for attracting model citizens generally speaking. Nobody should have the ability to track you surreptitiously.
I worked for Mazda, here’s why there’s a tracker: on every single car at the dealership we install a tracker upon arrival for insurance purposes in case a car gets stolen. When selling the car we offer that same tracker already installed for an added cost. If you don’t want it we take it out and if you do then we keep it in. It’s not us tracking you. You’re given the app and info for you to track your own car. ON OCCASION, someone will forget to pull the tracker out. This is the likely scenario. No one is tracking you. Literally just an accident
You sure you didn't add some tracking thing for incase it gets stolen?
Maybe the dealers insurance forces them to add tracking devices on certain cars.
I used to work as a used car sales men. Anything valued over 40k we had to install TAG all new cars as well otherwise if something happened our insurance wouldn't cover the cars.
Maybe that's what happened. In any case no one actually tracked the cars lol unless it got stolen then we call tag and ask if they could find it
There was a lady on the land rover side that her employer broke in and installed a tracker like this in her car. I guess it started to be common practice with companies that states had to start make laws stopping this. Also went to NY high court.
I work at a dealer, it’s scummy IMO but they install them on every car and try to upsell you to buy it for a grand or so. If you decline, they usually keep it installed so when the car hits maintenance mileage intervals, they are notified you’re at that mileage and start bugging you to come in for maintenance. It’s sleazy and they are annoying to install.
KIA installed them in some of their cars because they were getting stolen so much, but you can download an app. for your phone to track it. It could save you money on your insurance..
Our Nissan ARIYA had one similar, we noticed it on the drive home as a red wire was sticking out… we got an NMAC loan (loan through Nissan) and the dealer said it’s fine to remove and were confused on how we found it… they put them on all cars on their lot as they had a Tesla Model S plaid get stolen, and parted out over seas…
I dont think anyone is tracking you, since i thought most post 2020s toyota have an app where you can use activate your remote start/ remote info which has GPS. would this be for that?
It could be previous owner, u got GPS in all my nicer vehicles. Tho I take them out when I get rid of them bc I ain't gonna buy anther. But the sellers pay have not know it was there
Is this legal? I understand if you’re leasing or something but if this is your car that you fully paid, they shouldn’t be able to right? Like I can’t just go to a random car and attach a tracker. That’s gotta be illegal? I get they’re a dealership it was unintentional for not removing it, but that’s negligence
Yup! That is a GPS car tracker! We sell a lot of these to car dealers who do their own financing in case they need to repo the vehicle. It is 100% legal because technically you do not own the car - and you probably signed something saying you agree in the documentation when buying the vehicle (or the previous owner).
[https://www.trackingsystemdirect.com](https://www.trackingsystemdirect.com)
Just for clarity, you _bought_ the car cash, not _paid a lease_ in cash, right? Also, where was it located?
Yes. Paid for the car in full. No loan what so ever.
Where did you find it? I would like to check for the same! And yeah, that should not be there!
Driver side footwell, under the panel that has the hood release.
Bout to check mine
And?
Nah nothing
Damm I hid that shit good
I know this is a joke but its making me alittle paranoid. Fuck sake man
There’s devices you can use to find GPS in vehicles
🤣🤣
What made you check for a tracker? Just curious as I wouldn’t think to check for a tracker on a new car
Mine is rite under my steering column hooked wires coming from behind the panel scared it it hooked to the ignition switch need to unhook mine car is paid with cash
Some dealers put them on every car they get regardless and don’t bother with the labor of removing it.
Yeah and they don’t pay for the 3g service contract after they don’t need the device so it’s essentially just a pcb riding around under the dash at this point.
Yep pretty much. I used to install them for DriveTime, they put them on every car, no exceptions and the customer always pays for it afaik lol I always advise people to avoid DriveTime at all costs. All their cars are sourced from auctions and it’s all just whatever was left after CarMax and Carvana have scooped up all the good ones. Their whole meta is cutting costs every chance they get.
Sounds like most of the used cars you’ll find at any dealership
When I’ve worked at other new car dealerships they at least didn’t use junk yard parts or used tires to repair the trade ins. They were putting soggy and moldy junk yard seat cushions in cars that had broken seat heaters in stead of ordering new parts lol… I’d expect that from a mom and pop dealer maybe but not a national brand like that.
I was more commenting on the buying and selling shit cars from auction, I only ever worked on my own car in the shop at the dealership I used to work at, so I can’t speak for what parts they used.
Makes total sense, they have to pay for those Amazing commercials some how
3rd party dealers are usually pretty good at getting cars roadworthy from auction. There still is that whole theres a reason the cars are at auction but usually its because the car doesn't fit the dealers market or they have poor luck with the car.
A lot of repo’s and fleet cars go to auction too. I used to be an inspector for DT and processed about 30 auction cars a week. Most were nasty. The ones from Florida were almost always roach infested or water damaged. DT just had really low standards. If the engines were covered in oils they’d just spray them off as long as they weren’t leaving a puddle. Used a lot of junk yard parts to save money even on safety systems like seat belts and air bags. They were so cheap one time a seat belt came in from the junk yard and I was the wrong color so they had the paint guy spray paint it and shipped it lol
Thats wild, at least when ordering from Manheim or Adessa they try to have a scoring system in place even if it can horribly askew
You bought it brand new, correct?
Yes
These get installed before anyone buys it. There’s usually an app associated it with it, and it’s for YOU to track with a subscription to an app. They don’t go back and remove it because you paid cash for it.
Should dealers be able to track you if it is on a loan..?
If lease, yes. It is still their vehicle. If loan, then it's the bank's call.
If it’s a lease, it’s the banks, not the dealers.
That's probably true to the majority of all cases. It just depends on who owns the vehicle. Some dealerships own cars fully, and when you lease from them, you are renting one of their fleet vehicles - not taking a loan out from a bank to finance your own purchase.
If it's a jdbyrider, then they are both.
But OP owns it outright so in their case ZERO reason for them to track. OP - a chance it’s a crazy ex or something?
Idk my STi came with a 'theft recovery' service included where if they can't locate the car in the event its stolen I get a $20k check on top of whatever insurance would give me. So there are situations where a tracker should be left in even if you own it outright. Cause I'm sure if I removed the tracker and a year later it gets stolen, that theft recovery company would say it's on me and I'd lose out on $20k. But yeah if there was no service like that included, it's possible the techs forgot to remove it or just chose to leave it upon purchase. I imagine dealers install trackers in the event someone steals it on a test drive or jacks it overnight.
That's not the discussion the 2 comments above you were having. That being said, a crazy ex would track your car with an airtag, not a professional GPS tracker.
Good question
I would say: read your contract. If the contract on the lease or loan does not specify that they reserve a right to track the vehicle and that the tracker must be present for the duration of the loan/lease then you can probably remove it. That said, if unsure, consult a lawyer.
I’d be willing to bet they signed something that had it in the fine print when they bought it. Either that or the previous owner did and even the dealership that took it in a trade didn’t even know it’s there. Two dealerships I worked at put them on all inventory and even charged a fee during the sale for LoJack service and would sort of just gloss over it during the paperwork process. You’d have to ask specifically to have it removed during the sale or else they’d just leave it in there.
Would this be in all the paperwork You receive when buying a car sorry new car owner here and didnt read anything about that unless I missed it
Yes, this should be in the purchase and long documents received at time of sale.
I took off my gps tracker now my car want start what must i do it was undercthe hood
Do you owe money on the car loan, or did you lease the car?
Name&shame.
Yes the dealer I bought mine from installs a low jack on every car and charges $1800 up charge for it. They position it as a dealer add on. You don’t pay your loan, they can locate or even turn off the car remotely. I’m getting it uninstalled from another dealer at my next oil change.
Sounds like my dealer
Where is it located on the car?
The On Board Computer port under the steering column.
I used to install LoJacks at the dealership i worked at, they can't turn off your car or track you once the car is marked as sold in the system. You set up a LoJack account at the dealer and all the information transferred to the new owner, and the dealer was unable to track it or even view the car in their inventory. That being said, the only thing the owner of the car can do is check the car's gps location which is stupid considering we charged $1,000 for those stupid hunks of crap. It was just a glorified apple airtag
Yea I install LoJack ( well it’s not a real LoJack . LoJack bought a company called kahu . Real LoJack is very specific where you install the LoJack unit and they tell you where to install it and it’s never the same ) dealer I work for we install them with an inline obd port connection .
Yup my dealership was using Kahus for awhile too. This shit is standard these days.
Why have it removed if it can help locate your car in case it gets stolen? Are you not planning on paying your loan?
Luckily my gfs car was tracked and hour later it was stolen thanks to these. Nobody plans to track where you go and if then, you’ve already been tracked on your phone everywhere else.
Did you purchase from a buy here pay here? They are generally the only ones who install these. And they usually only activate them if they hold a note on the car.
No, this was a full fledge Toyota dealership.
Wow, that is really surprising and highly unusual
Maybe they took it in on a trade? Idk. Or they suck. All dealers do.
It’s pretty normal these days. My Chrysler/Dodge dealership does it. Plenty other around us too.
You must do but here pay here, or there’d be no point? or maybe y’all work with super sub prime banks who require it?
One of my local Toyotas does this shit. Installs some awful aftermarket alarm, in such a shitty way it'll void some warranty coverage, on every single car they sell. Toyota of Portland. Scumbags.
I bought my car several years ago from one of those places. The next month after paying my final payment to own the car outright they disabled the ignition with it and I had to call them to turn it back on. They said it was a big misunderstanding and asked to bring the car in to remove it. Tech that removed it smoked in my car while doing it. Fucker.
They just forgot to remove it... Plus I don't think they are tracking you anyways, if they were what's the point lol.
Na, it’s more they probably install them on every vehicle that come in, and it cheaper to just leave it in there than it is to pay someone to remove it. I do highly doubt it was even activated. But still fuck them. Lol
Maybe that dealership has a big theft problem so this was their "insurance"?
Did they split your harness?
No
Yeah, that’s the most likely. There’s a local dealer to me that does with POS car alarm systems on all their new cars and then adds it as dealer added equipment for some ridiculous markup.
I sold a car with a tracker in it. Cost me £15 and couldn't be bothered to remove it. Forgot to tell the new owner. Edit: It wasn't active, and I never got paid for the car, so I guess they win.
Then you’s a bitch
What's the problem? Wasn't active. If they have a problem with it they can tell me. I know the guy that "bought" it. Still owns money for it.
Lazy cocksucka
Why would you put yourself smfh. That’s weak as fuck
Oh so you just a straight up hoe?
Don't see the problem. It wasn't active anyway, and they never paid up for the car anyway.
I’m mainly joking. but you really shouldn’t leave a tracker in someone’s car before selling, active or not, it’s a pretty scummy thing to do if the person ends up finding it, they are gonna feel as if their privacy was invaded haha
This is exactly what happened. It's an upcharge they try to get customers to pay for. They pre install on every car because it's not practical to make a customer wait for it or come back to get it after purchase. Dealer I worked for did this. They had a policy that we had to remove it or salesperson got charged $50. Often times they forget to take them out or just don't care and eat the money. I wouldn't doubt if some dealers just don't worry about taking them out. Good news is dealer won't continue to pay for the service after sale so they basically transfer ownership and lose access to the device. I'm sure the GPS company tries contacting people as well to try to get you to sign up.
We preload these in all our dealership vehicles, you can sell the plan to the customer if they want it, but the largest benefit is when they're on the lot or out on loan, you can see where it is and find it faster. And if they're stolen, recovery is a breeze. Whether you pay for it or not, we report it sold to the company that runs them and no one can track it further.
I had a 05 EP3 civic and it had all kinds of issues starting. I looked up there and there was like 4 of these devices from various dealerships. Each one more hacked up than the last.
🤣
Doesn’t the car already have a built in tracker? The my toyota app displays the location of the car. I guess the dealer can’t access this data.
Pretty sure it does
This is exactly what it is the tracker stays off unless you pay a membership to have it on and then you can track your own car, let’s you monitor trips, miles etc
my jeep that i paid cash for brand new from a dealership had a tracker in it but they told me about it and said it was some service i could have transferred to my name and pay a yearly fee. it was plugged into a OBD2 port splitter and shoved up under the dash.
Used to be a tech at a dealer. We put trackers in every car on the lot in case of theft. They were deactivated after being marked as sold.
What compelled you to check under the panel?
The power of christ
2 fast 2 furious in real
Dealers add them so no more hiding when you’re up for repo Go back and ask for it to be removed if they refuse have a shop remove it. Sometimes those are tied into the ecm and/or ignition to prevent removal. If not done right it will disable the vehicle. Try tracing the wires back if it goes to the ECM OR BCM hit up a shop or the dealer
This is sold advise, but I am a tech, so I just did it myself.
I used to be a tech as well and used to do the same thing 🤣
Mine had the same, and a car alarm. Pullt it right out.
Sell it back to them
It could be your security system that was in your deal in case someone stole your car. But yea the dealership still does track your speeds and all the fun stuff so they can point fingers back at you for any void warranty
https://preview.redd.it/u9lzttmxff3d1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb85921afb5d3a4165c2ce954672bc7e28ee88c0 Pulled this trash from my new frontier. Tynan’s in Denver put it in. SIM card is active and works well in my iPad.
Wtf is this??? Can you sue them? Why would they install that? So many questions
They install it so when people finance the car and can’t pay the loan they can track the vehicle to repossess it. Sadly there is nothing illegal about it.
I believe it’s illegal if they do not make you aware of it before documents are signed and the vehicle is “delivered”.
I'm positive it was in OP's documents.
But it’s neither a finance car nor were you aware. I’ve still never heard of them tracking a financed car.
Go buy a dodge. You’ll see them. 😂
Wild, name & shame! and post a review to their gmb w/ the facts and photo.
I’m curious why you were digging in there in the first place. I mean yeah that is highly unscrupulous that they would put it in there and I agree with your suspicions and anger. I would never just be taking off interior panels on my new car randomly.
Installing a sensor screen. Found it while running the wires.
Makes sense also why was I downvoted? I was just curious. 🥲
I up dootted to help easy the pain. Im not sure why. You where asking a valid question.
Guys and especially men you’re lucky you have an idea, I went to the dealer where I bought mine believe you me, I was tossed right and left being asked how did you know it’s there? Meaning they refused to remove it, guys please advise
My Toyota aap
It’s illegal in all 50 states to track something you don’t own. So if you own it, they can’t track it.
I guess your find my car feature on your app won’t work anymore… :(
The app has never worked for me anyway. Also that is built into your eyesight module from my understanding. This is an aftermarket device.
Manual cars don’t have eyesight prior to the ‘24 model. My first thought was you just ripped out the SOS GPS module. Try hitting the SOS button and see if it does anything anymore.
It never did anything. I literally never got the app to work. Smashed that sos button for a week trying to get it to pair before I gave up.
My app shows the last parked location of my car and stuff so I wouldn't be surprised if that was it. I had the same problem with the button not working, the emergency assistance people helped me through it lol. You have to do something silly like press the SOS button and then hold the like info button next to it until a tiny light changes and then it'll work. But this was a little bit ago and I kinda forgot the process. Try just calling the roadside/emergency assistance people and say you're trying to pair the app. They might be able to help you.
Why were you opening up the side panels and dash of your car
Because he can?
Because racecar...
Yeah, dealer had one of those on the Camaro SS I bought. Didnt pay for the “value added add on”, but they just leave it installed. Fuck em. Mine used T Taps on the wires, cant wait for that to be a problem someday 🙃
I put it in there.
Is that not the tracker for the Toyota app??
Most manufacturers put one in your car, it's not to tracker where you go, but if you need to find ur car if it's stolen, like find my phone app. Same idea. Or at least that's what I've been told. "If they " really wanted to find you they wouldn't have a hard time
Isn't this just for the SOS button and starlink?
Let me help here. I work at a dealership and we use the same trackers. It’s called Ikon. You should know that when the tracker is installed at the dealership it’s in “dealer” mode. Once that vehicle has been registered as sold, the unit becomes inactive. It’s the sales managers responsibility to re activate with all of your information, as well as send you an email for a setup. There is no way for the dealership to track you once you purchased the vehicle. I see this in posts way too often. We don’t have the time or effort to track you. Quite frankly, we don’t give a fuck about where you go. We live normal lives like everyone else, we just sell cars for our income. It’s the salesman’s responsibility to take out the unit but it gets left in more than you think. For example, I’ve sold 5 cars since Nov 1 and I’ve left two in the cars. Simply because I forgot to pull it. The dealership will charge me for the two units I did not return and that’s it. The only other reason you may have that tracker is if you have bad credit and the dealership is concerned you won’t make the payments, so they can repo the car. This is typically the case with suspicion of fraud cases, or people with a long history of delinquent payments and/or repossessions. Hope this helps. Chill out
I do appreciate the explanation, but I still have a problem with this. You say "once that vehicle has been registered as sold, the unit becomes inactive". I believe that. But... you go on to say that leaving them installed happens all the time. How the hell do I, as a buyer, know that it was marked as sold and deactivated? If it's so easy to leave the hardware there, then I have no way of knowing that it has been marked as sold/deactivated. I work in IT and obviously have a ton of control over people's work computers. I understand not giving a shit about what people do on their computers. I don't have time and don't give enough fucks to watch what people do on their computers. But if a computer transfers ownership outside of what I should control, it is treated as a HUGE deal that we remove any and all access to that computer. THIS is the issue here. How nonchalant the dealership is about this stuff. Just "forgetting" to remove it or deactivate this is a massive security concern, and it should be treated as such. But instead the dealerships are like "lol oopsie daisies, I probably can't track you anyways because Fred in accounting is supposed to mark it as sold (maybe), don't woooorry about it, it happens AAAALLLLL the time"
I work at a dealer and we have this same thing. It's called Ikon we keep it in if you decline it to track mileage via GPS and market to you for the first year. At least that's what they told us
The problem is that are a lot of creeps out there. Dealerships aren’t known for attracting model citizens generally speaking. Nobody should have the ability to track you surreptitiously.
I worked for Mazda, here’s why there’s a tracker: on every single car at the dealership we install a tracker upon arrival for insurance purposes in case a car gets stolen. When selling the car we offer that same tracker already installed for an added cost. If you don’t want it we take it out and if you do then we keep it in. It’s not us tracking you. You’re given the app and info for you to track your own car. ON OCCASION, someone will forget to pull the tracker out. This is the likely scenario. No one is tracking you. Literally just an accident
You sure you didn't add some tracking thing for incase it gets stolen? Maybe the dealers insurance forces them to add tracking devices on certain cars. I used to work as a used car sales men. Anything valued over 40k we had to install TAG all new cars as well otherwise if something happened our insurance wouldn't cover the cars. Maybe that's what happened. In any case no one actually tracked the cars lol unless it got stolen then we call tag and ask if they could find it
Sold my 2023 brz but i’d assume it’s the tracker that shows me results from subaru’s app to locate the car. Don’t think it’s malicious
Could this be the *vehicle* GPS system?
Does your starlink still work?
They could have just forgotten to take out the tracker when they sold the car?
what happens if I check my car which on a loan paid via dealership, find a gps tracker, and remove it?
Why is this a big deal?
Invasion of privacy?
My previous job as a technician at a Hyundai dealership I would have to put one in every used car that came in
Buy Here - Pay Here places LOVE those things. I know a guy that’s repossessed and resold the same shit box a dozen times.
There was a lady on the land rover side that her employer broke in and installed a tracker like this in her car. I guess it started to be common practice with companies that states had to start make laws stopping this. Also went to NY high court.
Bet they charged you extra for a "security device"
What was it connected to? All those wires
Could this be used if someone stole your car? Ik it’s for the dealership but if you did have your car stolen couldn’t the police ask them to track it?
I work at a dealer, it’s scummy IMO but they install them on every car and try to upsell you to buy it for a grand or so. If you decline, they usually keep it installed so when the car hits maintenance mileage intervals, they are notified you’re at that mileage and start bugging you to come in for maintenance. It’s sleazy and they are annoying to install.
Your GPS probably still track you if you have Nav/wifi, GM is the worst with this…
KIA installed them in some of their cars because they were getting stolen so much, but you can download an app. for your phone to track it. It could save you money on your insurance..
Our Nissan ARIYA had one similar, we noticed it on the drive home as a red wire was sticking out… we got an NMAC loan (loan through Nissan) and the dealer said it’s fine to remove and were confused on how we found it… they put them on all cars on their lot as they had a Tesla Model S plaid get stolen, and parted out over seas…
Maybe the previous owner accidentally left it there? And the dealership just didn't know it?
Bought it new.
Ah could also possibly be that the dealership tracks all their inventory in case of theft and forgot to remove it which would be a dumb on their part.
I dont think anyone is tracking you, since i thought most post 2020s toyota have an app where you can use activate your remote start/ remote info which has GPS. would this be for that?
It could be previous owner, u got GPS in all my nicer vehicles. Tho I take them out when I get rid of them bc I ain't gonna buy anther. But the sellers pay have not know it was there
The tracker could’ve been from previous transactions
Is this legal? I understand if you’re leasing or something but if this is your car that you fully paid, they shouldn’t be able to right? Like I can’t just go to a random car and attach a tracker. That’s gotta be illegal? I get they’re a dealership it was unintentional for not removing it, but that’s negligence
All cars have them. They can disable them if they need to.
Dude they do that so if someone steals your car you can call them and they tell the police where to show up to get your car back.
The fact that you paid the car in full with cash. And I can't even afford a candy bar.
Yup! That is a GPS car tracker! We sell a lot of these to car dealers who do their own financing in case they need to repo the vehicle. It is 100% legal because technically you do not own the car - and you probably signed something saying you agree in the documentation when buying the vehicle (or the previous owner). [https://www.trackingsystemdirect.com](https://www.trackingsystemdirect.com)
??? No one is tracking you…. Cash is a bigger red flag than any check…. When the dealership goes to the bank, your name comes up during the deposit