Found of those those dang GPS trackers

[Andy2024]

Ha! I bought mine from Corwin Ford in Spokane so it must be the same thing. I seem to remember they wanted to charge me $399 for it and there was another $399 for some blink the 3rd brake light fast thing. Told them no and they didn't even try to keep it on and just dropped both.

Mail it to some random address in another state or country.

Duct tape it to a FedEx truck

Sponsored

 

[Rockingchair]

I bought my 22 Lariat new at rodeo Ford in Goodyear AZ. A year later I was having an electrical issue and took it to the Buckeye dealer. They found the tracker and removed it as part of their repair.. I was glad they noticed it and took appropriate action.

 

[Pointyears]

As mentioned earlier, I have a good friend who is a finance manager at at local dealer. They install those on vehicles that are financed. They get a kickback from the finance company (including their own) as a means to recover the vehicle in case of non payment. Some dealers hide them better than others LOL

Ah, I was thinking it had to do with those insipid theft packages. If it's the finance companies that explains why they didn't recover the unit upon the sale and the package being declined.

 

[Blue_Max]

The internal battery on the tracking finally died (all the lights inside the unit are now off). Took almost a week.

Our long national nightmare is over.

 

[nbmav]

At least for me.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Mac haik Ford, Chevrolet. All autonations, Keating stores.

That's the first thing I looked for with new vehicle purchases. Many times these stealerships refused to remove it even I refused and didn't pay for it!

I think they get a fee for installing it from whomever is furnishing it and if they removed it they couldn't get paid for that.

 

[dochawk]

Duct tape it to a squirrel.

Now that's just nuts!



Anyway, the value to the dealer could be to that reprobate it hired who sells the data to his cousin, who just got out of serving a nickel for carjacking . . .

 

[nbmav]

So just to be thorough I went out and checked my wife's '25 Mini and wouldn't you know it, there was one in that too. This one was a slightly more stealthy install but pretty obvious once I stuck my head under the dash. That one took a little longer to de-install as I had to unscrew an OEM bracket and replace the OE EBD plug into it but at least no wires were vamped.

I'm guessing that this one was might be used for LoJack (which we didn't get).

 

[themartymac]

I get the point from a financiers point of view (don't necessarily agree to unapproved surveillance), but ultimately wonder if they are really that necessary anymore? If the truck can do over-the-air updates, and wireless connectivity for starting/locking and system monitoring, the servers can almost certainly ping that traffic and triangulate a pretty good location anyway. Both my Apple products and windows computers can track device location with shocking accuracy using a blend of private and public infrastructure, so I'm sure manufacturers can do the same if they desire.

Obviously makes it easier to track with this device, but a lack of these trackers doesn't necessarily mean untraceable either...

 

[nbmav]

True, both of our vehicles can be located using the Ford and Mini apps so a little pointless.

 

[Blue_Max]

I get the point from a financiers point of view (don't necessarily agree to unapproved surveillance), but ultimately wonder if they are really that necessary anymore? If the truck can do over-the-air updates, and wireless connectivity for starting/locking and system monitoring, the servers can almost certainly ping that traffic and triangulate a pretty good location anyway. Both my Apple products and windows computers can track device location with shocking accuracy using a blend of private and public infrastructure, so I'm sure manufacturers can do the same if they desire.

Obviously makes it easier to track with this device, but a lack of these trackers doesn't necessarily mean untraceable either...

I doubt the manufacturer would share things like location information with the dealer or a bank or finance company. The manufacturer was already paid in full by the dealer. They don't care where you drive.

Sponsored