Dealership Installed This On My Car WITHOUT My Permission! | Toyota GR Corolla

I work at a Toyota dealership. While we do not install these, and definitely wouldn't advocate the installation of one, the GR already has that built in from the factory. These GPS ad-ons are tapping into what is already there, and that's what is screwing with the connection. Essentially, they're saying the same thing in 2 different languages and trying to talk over each other to gain dominance in the conversation. This, in turn, is screwing the computer. This is then causing OBD function errors and a consistent draw on the battery.

That dealership is lucky that nobody's brought one of their GPS trackers back to them and physically inserted it into the service manager.

Check the gps for a SIM card.. you might have a free simcard that you can use on an extra phone.. it'll take them forever to figure out you put it in a phone and disconnect the sim. Also feel free to go nuts on data usage. The sim cards come in bulk and are all connected to 1 account, so if they don't disconnect your sim, the data overages will affect their entire account.

This is very common, unfortunately. About a week after my wife bought her SUV from a used car dealership, I found a tracking dongle plugged into the OBDII port. I immediately removed the tracker and took it into the car dealership (after I cracked it with a hammer). Of course, they denied having any knowledge of any trackers installed on the vehicle and suggested that it may have been installed by the prior owner. I agreed that this could have been a possibility, but cornered him when I stated that the dongle should have been found and removed by their mechanic/technician when they plugged the vehicle into their scanner during the used car “inspection.” He gave me a blank stare and didn’t have an answer. If dealerships install a tracker on your vehicle for potential “repo” purposes, they should disclose this fact to you.

You should've glued that to the underside of a city bus. Let them track that!

Had the Same thing happen on a Ford. When it went in for a Pollution Inspection. They told me, they couldn’t pass it till I removed the GPS Tracker. I’m like what, it passed when I first registered the Ford. Sure enough it had a Tracker. Was put on when some Recall work was done. After I removed it, got a call from the local dealer about two weeks later. They wanted their tracker back. Told them I didn’t know what they were talking about.

I'll one-up you... I ordered a new F-250 from Ford through Young Ford Morgan, Utah. When I got it, they tried to charge ME $400 for the LoJack that THEY installed "to track ALL our inventory we have". I said NO, so they said okay, we'll cancel the sale. This was in 2022 with the country-wide chip and auto shortage so all vehicles were in high demand, and I'd ordered through their Military "X Plan" with a discount. Of COURSE they wanted to cancel the sale, that way they could resell it with a $20,000 dealer markup. I ranted and raved enough to have them knock half the $400 off and give me two free years of that LoJack. I didn't find out until a year later that what they did is a violation under the Fair Trade Act. If I'd have known, Young Ford Morgan, Utah would have been in court in ten seconds. The ONLY reason I agreed to pay extra is because it would negate THEM from getting that extra $20,000. I also cancelled my Dealer Financing by getting a Credit Union loan to pay it off so the finance guy at Young Ford Morgan, Utah would NOT get his bonus from selling a dealer-backed loan as it had to be in place for six months. NEVER EVER USE YOUNG FORD, MORGAN, UTAH. Criminals!

one was found on my car, a 2024 i paid cash for. Part of my work is at a classified federal installation, i cant carry anything onsite that is electronic even car keys are left in lock box at guard shack before i enter....i reported the tracking device and last i heard a federal magistrate was speaking to the car dealer as to why they had a surveillance device installed and carried onto a military installation on a vehicle they did not own nor have any claim to. I am in possession of the title as legal owner, they also didnt deny having installed it despite my buying the car outright with cash.

Good you have this on video. I would sue that dealership. If you didn’t sign up or authorize that install, then it’s a clear invasion of privacy.

FYI most dealers are doing this and selling your gps/driving data to insurance companies. There is a big court case on this right now, so I have heard.

Oh for everyone saying "you financed the car". I bought my car cash brand NEW and didn't sign up for any tracking services. And I still found one under my dash hooked up to my OBD II port. Light was still one so it clearly wasn't deactivated.

I just inspected my 2023 Corolla GR and found a tracker as well! I went ahead and removed it. Thanks for the letting me know it was there!

Some of the most valuable information on the entire net. We all can see big brother becoming a real thing. Bet it's not just Toyota.

OBD-II piggyback sounds like the automotive version of a credit card skimmer at a convenience store.

Son-of-a-B.... My Honda is 1 year old, bought it new, paid cash. I found one, and it's more than just piggybacked onto my OBD II port, it was connected to a wiring harness that disappears behind the driver side left kick panel. I figured out how to get that panel off and traced the parasitic wiring harness to where it was spliced into the factory wiring, removed the dang thing. The "communication"/GPS module (as labeled), it had two LED indicator lights on, even after I disconnected it from my wiring, I opened it up and there was an internal battery... not anymore, pulled out the battery, lights are off so it can no longer do its thing. I'm pissed.... thanks for this heads-up video!

Some folks pointed out that their insurance rates went up but couldn't figure out why. Until, they found out the car companies were providing info from even deactivated onstars and other devices to the insurances companies like sudden braking or sudden directional changes. Big Brother is watching.

Louis Rossmann would have a field day with this.

I bought a used 2016 Subaru in May from a dealer. They tried to sell me a anti theft tracker device for $900, when I looked up the brand name it showed the device only cost $60. I refused and they said it would be removed. Having just now watched this video I checked, and sure enough, the device was still in the car just like in this video. Thank you for making this video.

Im going to show this to my mechanic! He's going nuts trying figure out the battery drain on some of these newer cars. Plus, your car is a gorgeous color! 😍

Thank you for this video. Dealer barely breathed the word "Lojack" during our sale for our '21 RAV4 Prime; I didn't pay it much attention at the time, and I didn't remember that until I saw this video. And going back, I did find a 3 year subscription attached to the sale, and yes, I did find one of these trackers attached to the OBDII port and promptly removed it. As a side note, I ended up refinancing through my credit union. The dealer completely ignored all of my inquiries regarding refunds for GAP and maintenance coverage that I was going to roll into the refinancing. Took a 1 star review on Google for them to finally respond, then they held my refund hostage until I took the bad review down. Berlin City Honda in Portland, Maine.