Ford wants to allow your car to lock you out — and even drive itself to an impound lot or scrapyard — if you miss payments

GreensvilleJay

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it's all about 'control'.
Current Onstar and the others have the ability to shut down the vehicle,have for years. They also transmit a LOT of information which is resold to interested 3rd parties. If you have one of those Insurance OBD-II boxes or aps, every minute of every day your info is being sent to your insurance company and others.
BTW the airbags have a LOT of data inside them ! Similar to the CVR of planes,insurance companies grab them to prove you DIDN"T hit the brakes and WERE speeding....
 

The Evil Twin

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The EPA requires a fault code to be reset with an expensive tool rather than reseting itself once the fault is fixed?
Lol, no. Neither do any of the manufacturers. Forscan lite is free. The extended license is free for 30 days. Even buying a license is inexpensive. The OBD adapter for a laptop is $100. Another option is Torque Pro at $4 for the app.
Of note, is that you cannot simply replace any emissions sensor on ANY vehicle and reset the the DTC. Gas vehicles you can get the light to go out but the DTC remains until parameters are met. Diesels are a little different. You likely didn't perform the correct process.
 

The Evil Twin

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it's all about 'control'.
Current Onstar and the others have the ability to shut down the vehicle,have for years. They also transmit a LOT of information which is resold to interested 3rd parties. If you have one of those Insurance OBD-II boxes or aps, every minute of every day your info is being sent to your insurance company and others.
BTW the airbags have a LOT of data inside them ! Similar to the CVR of planes,insurance companies grab them to prove you DIDN"T hit the brakes and WERE speeding....
I've been wanting to download the Allstate safe driver app and take it to the track. Just to see what it says 😄 I don't have Allstate but the app is free to anyone.
 

hagrid

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I would love to see this technology applied to loud scooters with loud stereos blasting "Freebird".


But instead of shutting them down the module dumps the rider and pilots the scooter to a shallow crick/swamp.
 
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Bmyers

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It takes more than one missed payment to get to collections.
You are correct, but it only takes one wrong keystroke(computer entry) and you could be dealing with an issue. I know that from experience. They tried to come and take my pickup. I convinced the repo guy that he didn't want to try to take my truck and he called the cops. The police came, and after all the paperwork was reviewed, the repo man had the wrong person (same first and last name, different middle name), the wrong color truck, and the wrong model year. Plus, I had the wife go get the title of the truck out of the safe, which we had paid off two years previous to this incident.

I got the option to press attempted theft charges against the guy, but the wife talked me into not doing it.
 
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motionclone

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Lol, no. Neither do any of the manufacturers. Forscan lite is free. The extended license is free for 30 days. Even buying a license is inexpensive. The OBD adapter for a laptop is $100. Another option is Torque Pro at $4 for the app.
Of note, is that you cannot simply replace any emissions sensor on ANY vehicle and reset the the DTC. Gas vehicles you can get the light to go out but the DTC remains until parameters are met. Diesels are a little different. You likely didn't perform the correct process.
Ok so why do i have to jump through hoops to un-disable a truck that is no longer broke? Why doesnt it un-disable itself once fixed?
Answer: Because thats the way FORD designed it.

Btw, i researched and tried several methods to un-disable it myself. My scantool would reset or get rid if the fault code about the NOX sensor since that was fixed, yet i was still in countdown to full disable mode.
The forscan tool that was availible to me did not help.

I got rid of that truck soon after, not because it was broke but because i no longer trusted it for long trips or remote locations.
 

GreensvilleJay

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FYI

with ANY 'ap' READ the ENTIRE 'end user / terms of use' !!! Most, if not all of them, allow 'them' total access to your smart device, including logs,pix,emails,passwords,GPS data, etc. AND sell or distribute that data to 3rd parties.
It's all there in the 'fine print'.....
 

The Evil Twin

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Ok so why do i have to jump through hoops to un-disable a truck that is no longer broke? Why doesnt it un-disable itself once fixed?
Answer: Because thats the way FORD designed it.

Btw, i researched and tried several methods to un-disable it myself. My scantool would reset or get rid if the fault code about the NOX sensor since that was fixed, yet i was still in countdown to full disable mode.
The forscan tool that was availible to me did not help.

I got rid of that truck soon after, not because it was broke but because i no longer trusted it for long trips or remote locations.
Its unfortunate that you werent able to do it. Ive used Forscan successfully for numerous emissions related problems on several trucks. Ford and every other manufacturer are forced to do this. I see you are simply fixated on it being FORD and that they chose to do this. So further discussion is futile.
 

GeoHorn

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When I bought my brand-new 2012 Ram truck the dealer had installed in all inventory on his lot a tracking/communication device that would alert the dealer if the vehicle moved more than 100 meters from his lot. This was done initially (I was told by the salesman) to obtain better insurance rates for the dealer against theft…but that the device also was offered as a ‘value added” feature to potential buyers/new-owners.
The device monitored GPS and Cell towers and a button on the dash (obviously an adhesive “stick-on”) could be pressed and a Triple-A type of road service would be automatically summoned. This feature was promoted as value-added…free for 1 year…but subscription after the one year.
After I bought the truck I realized it basically tracked my movements continuously and when I spoke to the actual Owner of the dealership (Grapevine Dodge) who introduced himself as “Mo” (his name was a very long middle-eastern name difficult to pronounce by Westerners)…. Mo and I were engaged in a dispute where the dealership had over-charged me for unwanted features which I had declined on the sales-contract.
As part and portion of his original settlement-offer…. he offered to provide me with a free Chrysler Lifetime vehicle warranty (normally sold for $1800)… as well as he offered to continue to pay the Tracking-Device Subscription for 5 years. One of his promotional statements to that offer was that he always wanted “to know where his wife and daughters were” and that tracking device would alert him to their travels…and he assumed that would appeal to me as well.
I looked over at his prayer-rug and complimented him on it’s beauty and asked him if he worried that it might ever be moved without his permission. He said, “No.…. I always have that with me because when I moved to America my mother was worried I might not continue my daily prayers and might fall away from the teachings I’d grown up with.”
I resisted the temptation to remark that dishonestly over-charging a customer probably proved his mother was prescient.
I said that I had three reasons for insisting on this meeting…. One, that I’d been overcharged by $1800 for PDR and other insurance which I’d refused In-Writing on the contract…., Two, I don’t expect my wife or my daughter to be driving my truck, and …. Three, if they did drive my truck….I trust them enough to not worry about where they might be …or where they might be going…. and Lastly, I do not beleve in extended warranties…especially one issued by Chrysler who had declared bankruptcy, changed national-ownerships and corporate names three times in the last decade. I doubted that such insurance would have any validity in such cases.
He gave up and had the Accounting Dept write me a refund check for the $1845 I had asked-for.

When I got home I began to think about the fact that ”Mo” could track me anywhere I drove the truck I’d purchased from him. I figured that was a convenient thing for a selling dealer who wanted to know the habits of his customers….OR who wanted to repossess an auto and needed to know exactly within 100 meters of where that vehicle might be.

I had paid in-full for the truck, so I asked the service dept to remove the device. They would not do that. I asked for instructions on how to do it myself…and they did not have that information, they said.

I contacted the subscription-service number and they told me that device was THEIR property and could not be removed. I told them I wanted it out/off my property or I’d sue for trespass and invasion of privacy... and they immediately emailed me the information. I removed it and threw it in the trash.

(It replaced the position of the OBDII scan-plug…which had the OEM scan-plug inserted into itself…and it had a “black-box” and a gps/cell-ph antenna velcroed to the top of the speedo-cluster beneath the padded dash.)

Soo…. tracking vehicles for repossession or other reasons potentially adverse to the interests of the owner is nothing new. It appears to me that Ford simply invented a new, additional capability and wanted to patent it.
 
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motionclone

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I see you are simply fixated on it being FORD and that they chose to do this. So further discussion is futile.
Um yeah, this thread is about FORD engineering a way to steal or repossess a persons vehicle for late payment and my experience is with FORDs engineered ability to disable and stop me from using my vehicle because of an old emissions code. Not sure why you are so on about things not being fords fault. You work at a stealership or just a fanboy?
 

GreensvilleJay

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it's still about 'control'. Ford has the patent, good for 17 or 20 years(?) !!! Though Irobot might have a vaild challenge.
 

Biker1mike

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It is really just about Ford submitting a patent request.
I came from a company that was king of the hill for generating patents knowing full well that most of them would never amount to anything. It is just a legal game to claim ownership of the idea just in case somebody a decade down the road suddenly thinks it is a good idea and tries to profit.
I am willing to bet Ford and the other car makers generate a ton of patent request every year and we never hear about them.
 
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Daren Todd

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I've been wanting to download the Allstate safe driver app and take it to the track. Just to see what it says 😄 I don't have Allstate but the app is free to anyone.
My brother had the brain fart of letting progressive install one of those modules in his truck and wife's car.

His insurance dropped $20 a month. His wife's went up $60 🤣😂🤣🤣😂🤣😂😂

He pulled the modules and switched insurance companies the next year 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
 
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motionclone

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not sure what we got to do with this 🤣

a sawzall and a programmer will fix the emission issues on that truck for good 😉
I wanted to but its was a commercial reg truck and didnt want a $1,000,000 fine for such criminal activity.
 

The Evil Twin

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Um yeah, this thread is about FORD engineering a way to steal or repossess a persons vehicle for late payment and my experience is with FORDs engineered ability to disable and stop me from using my vehicle because of an old emissions code. Not sure why you are so on about things not being fords fault. You work at a stealership or just a fanboy?
The thread is, but you and I sidetracked onto the problem you had with limp mode. I simply stated the facts:
It does not take a trip to a dealer to clear the code after it has been fixed.
Anyone with the knowledge and tools can do it (themselves or an independent shop]
It does not take an expensive tool or program to do so.
Limp mode is not unique to Ford.
The EPA, through regulation, forced all diesel manufacturers to program their products this way.
I'm don't work at a dealer or a "fanboy'. I simply have the knowledge and cheap tools to do these things correctly.
Not sure why you think they are trying to "steal" a vehicle. It's not yours until it is paid for. Even then, nothing is really yours after that. Try not paying taxes and see how many of your things get taken by the government.
You can go on and have the last word. I'm done with you in this.
 

My Barn

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it's all about 'control'.
Current Onstar and the others have the ability to shut down the vehicle,have for years. They also transmit a LOT of information which is resold to interested 3rd parties. If you have one of those Insurance OBD-II boxes or aps, every minute of every day your info is being sent to your insurance company and others.
BTW the airbags have a LOT of data inside them ! Similar to the CVR of planes,insurance companies grab them to prove you DIDN"T hit the brakes and WERE speeding....
I was told by my Brother (work's at GM) that they make big money on "Onstar" Look at Tesla they rent features to you for a monthly fee. Miss a payment, it's turned off.
How long would a person that didn't get a pay check work for free? After months of none payments what else can Ford or a bank do?
 

Crash277

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I was told by my Brother (work's at GM) that they make big money on "Onstar" Look at Tesla they rent features to you for a monthly fee. Miss a payment, it's turned off.
How long would a person that didn't get a pay check work for free? After months of none payments what else can Ford or a bank do?

i sold my silverado, i still get monthly emails about the truck. so i know how many km the new owner puts on it every month, what the tire pressure is, the oil life etc.... called onstar to have myself removed from it. they cant do it unless the other person calls to register the vin under their name. Because it was done through a dealer i called the dealer to tell them they need to contact the new owner (i dont have the new owners info). In a couple weeks i will find out if its still registered to me (the onstar not the truck). if i get the march email.
 

Crash277

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The Square-body GM's are sought-after right now. Odd to see them sell at Mecum Antique Tractor/Truck auctions.

Had a school bus yellow '86 GMC I drove forever. Former Maryland State DOT truck.

I non stop hum and haw about selling it. mostly because its 2WD.
 
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