[eatcpa]

It may have something to do with keeping you safe:

OMG, your comment sounds like it is taken right from the socialist democratic party playbook! "Don't worry, we'll take care of you. You don't have to do any of your own thinking anymore." Yikes.

 

[dboz]

The best part, they probably sell all your info to the insurance company so the insurance knows what speeds you travel etc. as well as all your habits.

 

[Tinkerman]

It's for the repo man.

 

[eatcpa]

Funny enough, I opted to install a gps tracker on a Hellcat since they are theft magnets. The company goofed up (evts) during activation, so head of n.a. called me up. We got to talking, this is fairly common thing to do now to protect inventory and banks will request a starter kill for high risk clients. (wish i could buy that as well in case someone took it)

It's one thing to make your own choice to install a gps tracker, but quite another to have a dealership do so surreptitiously. Maybe they want to make sure you are COVID distancing from other tracker-enabled vehicles.

 

[Danno]

We had a gal working for us a few years ago that bought a vehicle from one of those "buy here, pay here" places that tend to move locations frequently. She decided she didn't want to make her monthly payment. When the tow truck driver backed up to her minivan she ran out of the store (irate of course) and asked how he knew where to find the vehicle. He reached in and pulled on of those from under the dash. He said they put them on all their financed vehicles because they had so many non-payers. Not only did it contain GPS tracking but they had the ability do disable the vehicle remotely. Which, by the way, they had done. He had to call the office and have them activate the ignition to load it on the truck.

 

[zroger73]

We got to talking, this is fairly common thing to do now to protect inventory and banks will request a starter kill for high risk clients.

One more reason to pay cash.

The best part, they probably sell all your info to the insurance company so the insurance knows what speeds you travel etc. as well as all your habits.

They already do, but supposedly the data is anonymized so the insurance company sees statistics like "23% of Honda Odyssey drivers exceed the posted speed limit by 5 MPH on average. 47% of Chevrolet Corvette drivers exceed the post speed limit by 10 MPH on average" to help them set premiums. This is disclosed deep within the automakers' privacy policies for vehicles with connected services. This data is collected even if you don't have an active subscription (the automaker pays for it and resells it).

 

[Hamhocs]

OMG, your comment sounds like it is taken right from the socialist democratic party playbook! "Don't worry, we'll take care of you. You don't have to do any of your own thinking anymore." Yikes.

SMH, it feels like I can't go anywhere without having politics being brought into a conversation

 

[JimW-Atl]

Maybe I'm not as nice as you guys. But I would take it back to the dealer and get the GM face to face and call Honda America and explain why I'm returning the truck. That should start something on their end like an explanation and show you the fine print. If I had to keep the truck I guess I would. But I would be worried that the tracker would be re-installed by the dealer every time I took the truck in.

 

[finnster]

Went to a local Honda dealership in the Dallas metroplex yesterday and picked up a new 2020 Ridgeline RTL. I have an OBD Bluetooth dongle and plugged it in so I could monitor the various parameters. The dongle was sticking pretty far down so I decided to see if I could push the port up under the dash to hide it. I noticed there was already a pass-thru plug feeding power to something. 30 minutes of fishing around under the dash and this beauty popped out. It was live with some LEDs lit up and has a SIM card with a Netherlands ICCID and the words "Curiosity IoT" printed on it. A little Google Foo shows that to be a Sprint service.

Wonder if the dealership put this in because I financed through them? And I wonder if I signed my privacy away with all the paperwork I zipped through? This is a first for me and I am pretty pissed off about it. Anyone else run across this before???

View attachment 411296

Some finance companies put these in to track the vehicle in case of need for repo. If your dealer put this in (not a trade vehicle), you likely didn't finanace with Honda.
B-tier credit almost always have these, and have for years.

 

[BretO]

I bought my 2020 Ridgeline back in Dec of 2019 from Honda in Lewisville.... I need to check to see if I see one on my truck. As for David McDavid... I got a Saturn back in 1992 from the DMD Irving dealership.... had lots of problems with it over the 5 years that they never could seem to fix. I heard that Saturn got so many complaints about that dealership they bought the location back but by then it was to late to save face and they ended up having to close that one down.

 

[Art1]

I had a kahu on my Ridgeline even after I told the dealer I didn't want it. I knew to ask for it to be removed because they disclosed it in the paperwork. They also had a sales display for it in the showroom. After I got my truck I called and asked them what happened and they said they must have missed the note to take it off during prep or something. I went back and they removed it for me. The Kahu didn't plug into the odb port though.

It seems like any thief worth anything would already know about these things and take them off very quickly if they stole a vehicle. I think it's a benefit to the dealer as an inventory control mechanism and extra profit making opportunity more than anything.

thieves are worthless and dumb

 

[royharper]

You need to stick that thing on another vehicle, work vehicle or something.

If you leave it off, they know it's dead. Put it on another vehicle and it just might keep them guessing for a while.

That was gonna be my suggestion as well.

 

[Barnoskie]

Would disposing of dead bodies be a qualifying interest ? ? ? Just asking for a friend ...

Isn’t that what the in-bed trunk is for? Fill it with ice, keep it cold, pull the plug and rinse it out once the job is done.

 

[BBTBF]

Went to a local Honda dealership in the Dallas metroplex yesterday and picked up a new 2020 Ridgeline RTL. I have an OBD Bluetooth dongle and plugged it in so I could monitor the various parameters. The dongle was sticking pretty far down so I decided to see if I could push the port up under the dash to hide it. I noticed there was already a pass-thru plug feeding power to something. 30 minutes of fishing around under the dash and this beauty popped out. It was live with some LEDs lit up and has a SIM card with a Netherlands ICCID and the words "Curiosity IoT" printed on it. A little Google Foo shows that to be a Sprint service.

Wonder if the dealership put this in because I financed through them? And I wonder if I signed my privacy away with all the paperwork I zipped through? This is a first for me and I am pretty pissed off about it. Anyone else run across this before???

View attachment 411296

Ask the dealer why it's on your vehicle.

 

[Davesbrew]

Companies generally have certain obligations to give notices about how they collect or handle personal information.
I would report this to [email protected] andhttps://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/consumer-protection
Either of those may want to investigate, as this may be bigger than your single experience.
Reporting to Honda at 1-888-528-7876 may be good too, as I bet their privacy team would be interested in what its dealers are doing without consumer knowledge.

 

[2019CRUCK]

Went to a local Honda dealership in the Dallas metroplex yesterday and picked up a new 2020 Ridgeline RTL. I have an OBD Bluetooth dongle and plugged it in so I could monitor the various parameters. The dongle was sticking pretty far down so I decided to see if I could push the port up under the dash to hide it. I noticed there was already a pass-thru plug feeding power to something. 30 minutes of fishing around under the dash and this beauty popped out. It was live with some LEDs lit up and has a SIM card with a Netherlands ICCID and the words "Curiosity IoT" printed on it. A little Google Foo shows that to be a Sprint service.

Wonder if the dealership put this in because I financed through them? And I wonder if I signed my privacy away with all the paperwork I zipped through? This is a first for me and I am pretty pissed off about it. Anyone else run across this before???

View attachment 411296

Went to a local Honda dealership in the Dallas metroplex yesterday and picked up a new 2020 Ridgeline RTL. I have an OBD Bluetooth dongle and plugged it in so I could monitor the various parameters. The dongle was sticking pretty far down so I decided to see if I could push the port up under the dash to hide it. I noticed there was already a pass-thru plug feeding power to something. 30 minutes of fishing around under the dash and this beauty popped out. It was live with some LEDs lit up and has a SIM card with a Netherlands ICCID and the words "Curiosity IoT" printed on it. A little Google Foo shows that to be a Sprint service.

Wonder if the dealership put this in because I financed through them? And I wonder if I signed my privacy away with all the paperwork I zipped through? This is a first for me and I am pretty pissed off about it. Anyone else run across this before???

View attachment 411296

I would think most newer cars have some kind of GPS for roadside assistance or theft?

 

[Celltech]

For everyone who has not read all the posts, the GPS was NOT put in by my dealer. They got the truck from another dealer who allegedly installed it as part of a "SkyLINK" theft program they try and make you buy for ~$250/yr. With the way my dealers finance guy tried to sell me the extended warranty over and over and over I have no doubt he would also push the theft service if they offered it.

The GPS unit does have a multi pin ribbon cable coming out of it but the only 2 wires being used were power and ground, so no vehicle integration whatsoever. It was also loosely tie wrapped way up in the dash and I imagine it would have started rattling and driving me crazy...poor install job.

 

[zroger73]

I would think most newer cars have some kind of GPS for roadside assistance or theft?

Any vehicle that supports Apple CarPlay or Android Auto has a GPS receiver (even if it doesn't have built-in navigation), but unless the vehicle also has cellular connectivity (i.e., "4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot", OnStar, etc.), the vehicle can't send information.

 

[WimStang]

OMG, your comment sounds like it is taken right from the socialist democratic party playbook! "Don't worry, we'll take care of you. You don't have to do any of your own thinking anymore." Yikes.

Since the op did not know what it was, I did a little research from the label on it. Turns out that some items with this label may have to do with the sensing system. That’s all I was attempting to point out. I assure you that your overreaction in assuming my political bend is totally wrong. Further more, I could care less what someone who is an obvious troller thinks. Have a good day.

 

[jlr1956]

Its not terribly uncommon for dealers to install 'theft tracking' devices in all cars in their inventory and then push for the buyer to subscribe to the fee-based service 'for the new-owner's benefit' (and a profit-making kickback to the dealer); also not terribly uncommon for the relatively cheap (to the dealer) hardware to be left-in place, non-functioning, even if the buyer doesn't 'bite' on the service plan. The dealer may save enough on their own inventory insurance to cover their cost of the whole shebang.

Yours might be such, or a theft tracking device intended only for use while the vehicle was in their inventory that got overlooked when it should have been removed during delivery prep.

EDIT - I would not go at the dealer assuming any nefarious intent, though yeah that is a possibility I suppose.

Personally, I'd forthrightly (in a non-accusatory manner) ask the dealer about it, making it clear you've removed it to see if they offer any adverse response to that. If you take that approach, please do update us.

That the same thing that I got on mine. It was free for awhile but I never signed up for the service. But you are correct in that it is a security feature to find your vehicle if it is ever stolen.