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ShadowsPapa
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Bentframe1
New Member
I work at a body shop & just recently we've run into more & more vehicles with GPS tracking modules. Some are for security systems, but others are installed for the lender(bank) or the insurance companies. Turns out if you don't make your car payment or insurance payment, they can disable your vehicle. We had a mustang in the shop & all of the sudden it wouldn't start(the starter wouldn't work) & apparently the customer hadn't paid her insurance bill. This was a new one for us. It was actually pretty tough to find the module as it was way up in the dash behind the cluster. It wasn't plugged into the OBD port, but hard wired into the wiring for the port.
JW Jeep
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I did ?Received this in the mail today. Kinda cool, considering these pens are pretty expensive. Anyone else get this kit after buying a new JT?
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JW Jeep
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Ya when I lived in New York years ago some used car dealers wold give you a code every month when a payment was made and if you miss it would shut down vehicle. We would have a car with this in our body shop working on and sure enough all of a sudden car wouldn’t run.
ShadowsPapa
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Most of them are installed by dealers as an upsell for theft recovery and tracking.
They have only power and ground - there's nothing connected to allow a disable.
The devices like we are finding and like I've posted photos of are strictly for the tracking/recovery services. In fact if you look up the URL on the device - it explains their services.
There's a serious problem with disabling a starter on a vehicle as it could be in the middle of an intersection, on railroad tracks or almost anywhere there's a very real danger.
There's no company in the world that will disable a vehicle for lack of insurance payment or loan - they'll repossess - this smells really fishy.
An insurance company can cancel for lack of payment but can't disable a vehicle for lack of payment. That simply ain't gonna happen. They have no hold over an item other than their own coverage.
Didn't happen - not for lack of INSURANCE payment.
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JW Jeep
Well-Known Member
The ones I have seen shutting down vehicles were many years ago and they were put on by small used car dealers. Vehicles were also budget vehicles. Yes your are right these could of been deadly at the wrong time !! Can’t even imagine with the law suits today !!
ShadowsPapa
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What WE have been seeing is not anything like that, and no legit dealer does that, nor a legit lender or bank.
The ones we've been showing, and finding, were the types dealers use to upsell theft recovery. In fact, you can see it on some of the windshield signs where they show the price, then add-ons and among them is theft recovery.
If you look at the device itself and look up the company web site - it's for theft recovery and you can buy the EXACT same device from them and install it yourself and subscribe to their services. So it's something the dealers are using to make money.
Insurance companies don't disable vehicles - they have no right to, to begin with, and no reason! Simply drop coverage - done. What if you switch insurance companies and don't pay the other company? There's just no way insurance companies are doing this.
Even LEGIT banks and legit loan companies hire companies to repossess and harass - not shut off a vehicle. They don't know what the circumstances are where that vehicle is. What if it was on a shop and there was a fire and the employees needed to get all vehicles out quickly? And some company disabled one? They could lose that vehicle totally.
Get into iffy lenders, used car dealers, shady characters, who knows. But it won't be the insurance company.
The so-called "subprime" lenders........ those we aren't dealing with here, used car lots like "Honest John's perfect used cars" type of place. But there are laws in place in some states where it must be disclosed.
So if you are the sort to buy from those types of sellers and go for the loan sharks (buy here, pay here) then - you could be surprised but state laws may not allow it.
But you aren't going to find that sort of thing here - not in new vehicles, not unless you buy from shady characters to begin with - then........ you are going to bed with the sharks.
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ShadowsPapa
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Yeah, "Honest John's used cars", buy here, pay here type places, questionable lots to begin with aiming at those who can't really even afford the car to begin with. I liken those places to sharks.
No insurance company and no new car dealers or legit bank with a normal loan............
Bentframe1
New Member
Most lenders will check to see if you still have insurance coverage on the vehicle they lent you money to buy every so often. So it is possible that by not making a payment to your insurance or dropping coverage, the lender can then disable the vehicle. We found with the vehicles that have come through our shop that if we hotwire the starter, the vehicle will then start as the device only disabled starting the vehicle. As I said the devices were hardwired into the wiring behind the dash and even when a scan tool was attached and monitoring the pids I could see that when the key was turned to the start position the ECM was receiving a signal to start but was not allowing power to be sent to the starter relay. But once the vehicle was started(by bypassing the starter relay)the device never shut it off afterwards.
ShadowsPapa
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It won't be the insurance company shutting things down. You have just pretty much said that now..........
- it could be lack of payment but then it will be more than one payment missed and then only those shady used vehicle lots and subprime lenders that none of us would ever go through. Your customers must have been the type I'd never do business with to be so far behind on payments.
A finance company won't necessarily know at all times when you do or don't have coverage. I can change coverage and they won't know it for a while. It's not like it's instantaneous.
They also must contact you - they won't simply shut it off. No legit company operates that way.
So if you have found a vehicle that didn't start - the owner wasn't telling you the whole story and likely missed paymentS - as in plural.
Maybe your customers get their loans through Uncle Vito, or maybe a guy named "Vinnie"?
Most of the time if it's just one payment, a phone call fixes it or at least gets it going for a period of time ("I promise to make payment tomorrow" - company enables it for a day)
There are also laws in more and more states that cover this sort of thing...........
You must have been dealing with a shady owner who was dealing with very shady loan company.
Yeah, hope you got paid for the work done on that car as the owner themselves sounds shady.
ShadowsPapa
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Back again to the goodies from FCA, etc. - no member here who works with real dealers and new vehicles will see this sort of thing like "tracking and shut down if you don't pay".
That's one of those shady things we don't have to worry about here.
The device I brought up and showed was for upselling theft recovery.
Face it - pay cash and there's no other reason for it to be installed!
Get a loan through your own bank - there's no other reason for it to be installed.
That's one of those shady things we don't have to worry about here.
The device I brought up and showed was for upselling theft recovery.
Face it - pay cash and there's no other reason for it to be installed!
Get a loan through your own bank - there's no other reason for it to be installed.
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