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I was hooking up my direct-to-battery wires today for my battery tender and noticed two wires on the terminals that were definitely not factory. Curious, I followed the wire and pulled this out from under the battery case where it was stuck on the low side. What the heck? A little Google action shows it's a GPS Tracker. The manufacturer says its used for fleet management or sometimes requested by finance companies to they know where the vehicle is located. Now I know why they let you go on test drives by yourself, they know exactly where you are and how fast you are going in their car with a high degree of confidence.
I called my sales guy and he verified its in all their new cars (even the Macan I bought from them three months earlier). He said I can toss it if I want, they pay $ 399 for 3 years monitoring, all done at the dealership level. At first I was going to toss it, then remembered my insurance company gives an additional discount if there is a GPS tracker on the vehicles, so I'll leave it on for now, but after three years probably not.
It's attached directly to your battery in the car if you want to see if yours has one.
Did you buy at Tyson’s? If so, I’ve got to go check that out. That’s so creepy.
My car was pre-loaded with LoJack as a "dealer inventory protection device". My sales associate pre-warned me and also told me he has to attempt to sell the service to me "if I would like to decline ". Naturally I said no thank you and requested any trace of a non-OEM electronics removed from car.
If it’s used for COVID test drives, I suspect that the dealer forgot to remove it when they sold it to you and they gave you a cute CYA answer. It’s also possible that they simply charged you for the device/service somewhere in your paperwork, because car dealers don’t eat costs at the $400 level.
It also could have been a requirement of your lender. That being said, your car already has a system to aid the repo man — it’s called Porsche Connect. GM invented OnStar for this very purpose. You don’t have to subscribe to either for the automaker to locate your car. There’s a reason that this hardware is included in every car nowadays.
A GPS tracker where you don’t have access to the data isn’t anything more than a spying tool. At least, your dealer fessed up to it. If it wasn’t theirs, it could have been a prying spouse, private investigator, or law enforcement.
I think this is the answer. They probably use these things for lot inventory management and just didn't remove it. They probably have a sh*t ton of these things and don't care.
Unless your dealer is actually doing their own financing like a low rent subprime used car dealer, then he has no vested interest in tracking vehicles otherwise.
Maybe if the dealer arranged the financing (assuming the car is financed), perhaps the bank requested a GPS tracker as some sort of kick back deal? Who knows. I can't think of any other reasoning.
Did you buy at Tyson’s? If so, I’ve got to go check that out. That’s so creepy.
Bethesda Porsche - and its on both vehicles I bought from them this year. (992 and Macan S).
No charge for the GPS Trackers in either vehicle, I just reviewed the sales contracts on both. I have to think its inventory management, or perhaps one of the twenty things they try to sell you in the finance office (like LoJack) and I declined all that - they didn't bother to remove the devices.
Like it was pointed out, the # 1 tracking device is your cell phone, these car trackers are piddling in comparison. When I bought the Macan S, they allowed me to put $ 10,000.00 as payment on my credit card (hey, I'll take the cash back points). It went through fine, even though that large an amount usually triggers an alert through my Capital One App on the phone. I mentioned that and the finance guy says "Oh no, they know you're in the dealership, the App tracks you and shows you are at Bethesda Porsche so they know the card is being processed where your phone is located". Never had thought of that, actually.
I think this is the answer. They probably use these things for lot inventory management and just didn't remove it. They probably have a sh*t ton of these things and don't care.
Unless your dealer is actually doing their own financing like a low rent subprime used car dealer, then he has no vested interest in tracking vehicles otherwise.
Maybe if the dealer arranged the financing (assuming the car is financed), perhaps the bank requested a GPS tracker as some sort of kick back deal? Who knows. I can't think of any other reasoning.
Agreed. Makes sense that the dealer would use it to manage the units they have on the lot. Having worked in the auto finance business, this is not something you typically see except in subprime leases. Even then, it comes with significant additional disclosures that’d be hard to miss when reviewing a lease document. Given the title is in your name with a loan, I’d be surprised if they were allowed to do this with that sort of financing.
When I bought a Tacoma a few years ago, one of Toyota's standard documents for purchasers to sign was an acknowledgement there could be devices on-board that recorded various things about the car while in use including but not limited to video. There was language the substance of which was Toyota wanted data in the event a lawsuit took place. I refused to sign it and it delayed the sale a day. I never figured out if there was anything in the car but I told the gf the fun stuff would have to happen in her car.
I have decided to pull these units out of both my new Porsches and stick them on my commercial diesel trucks I have in my business. That should send some fun data out for a 992 Porsche and a Macan S,
* They have never exceed 3,000 rpm!
* It’s never been over 67 mph!
* I’ll get a lot of maintenance reminders based on mileage from the dealer.
I think this is the answer. They probably use these things for lot inventory management and just didn't remove it. They probably have a sh*t ton of these things and don't care.
Unless your dealer is actually doing their own financing like a low rent subprime used car dealer, then he has no vested interest in tracking vehicles otherwise.
Maybe if the dealer arranged the financing (assuming the car is financed), perhaps the bank requested a GPS tracker as some sort of kick back deal? Who knows. I can't think of any other reasoning.
This.
It's dealer fleet tracking they forgot to remove when they sold the car.
I was hooking up my direct-to-battery wires today for my battery tender and noticed two wires on the terminals that were definitely not factory. Curious, I followed the wire and pulled this out from under the battery case where it was stuck on the low side. What the heck? A little Google action shows it's a GPS Tracker. The manufacturer says its used for fleet management or sometimes requested by finance companies to they know where the vehicle is located. Now I know why they let you go on test drives by yourself, they know exactly where you are and how fast you are going in their car with a high degree of confidence.
I called my sales guy and he verified its in all their new cars (even the Macan I bought from them three months earlier). He said I can toss it if I want, they pay $ 399 for 3 years monitoring, all done at the dealership level. At first I was going to toss it, then remembered my insurance company gives an additional discount if there is a GPS tracker on the vehicles, so I'll leave it on for now, but after three years probably not.
It's attached directly to your battery in the car if you want to see if yours has one.
If it is the dealership I'm thinking of, they install LoJack in all of their cars. Personally, I had them pull it out but that was my choice. They do that at all of their dealerships - Porsche, Audi and others. You should look back at your purchasing package and check that you weren't charged for installation. You should have a package from LoJack in your packet.
I have decided to pull these units out of both my new Porsches and stick them on my commercial diesel trucks I have in my business. That should send some fun data out for a 992 Porsche and a Macan S,
* They have never exceed 3,000 rpm!
* It’s never been over 67 mph!
* I’ll get a lot of maintenance reminders based on mileage from the dealer.
I just checked my battery compartment (vehicle also purchased in MD) and thankfully didn't see this tracking device. So not all of our local dealers are making use of it.
01-03-2021, 10:13 PM
". Naturally I said no thank you and requested any trace of a non-OEM electronics removed from car.
