Karr Auto Security

[D60]

So again, when I bought my Civic, every vehicle in the lot had a Karr installed. If I had known how poorly it was integrated into the vehicle, I may have walked away. At that moment in time, though, the price the dealer gave me for the vehicle was a goodly bit less than any other dealer. It would have been hard to walk away.

It really is astonishing how poorly most aftermarket wiring is done. People think it's hyperbole but it's not. It's essentially done at a kindergartener level.

What's most troubling to me is that anyone is ok with that work ethic. I couldn't sleep at night if I did that.

 

[Zebra312]

So again, when I bought my Civic, every vehicle in the lot had a Karr installed. If I had known how poorly it was integrated into the vehicle, I may have walked away. At that moment in time, though, the price the dealer gave me for the vehicle was a goodly bit less than any other dealer. It would have been hard to walk away.

No, its really easy to walk away. The fact that every car on the lot had this "mandatory" nonsense would have made it even easier.

It really is astonishing how poorly most aftermarket wiring is done. People think it's hyperbole but it's not. It's essentially done at a kindergartener level.

What's most troubling to me is that anyone is ok with that work ethic. I couldn't sleep at night if I did that.

You should see the nonsense that takes place in the emergency vehicle world. Years ago, we outfitted our own vehicles, and the guys doing it had zero clue about wiring, electronics, radios, etc. Butt connectors, Scotch-Loks, and WireNuts ruled the day. I was assigne to help outfit a new batch of cars, and was never sent back to help because soldering and property crimping uninsulated connectors and heat shrinking them "took too long."

Later, as cars got more complex, we started ordering them already outfitted. The quality that "professional upfitters" churn out is no better than what our inhouse goobers were doing.

 

[nthach]

This is the tracker the nissan dealer attempted to charge me 1k for. I thought it was not installed, but found it when I hard wired a camera to the fuse box. They used a Y OBD cable. Your OBD port will look totally stock with this set-up. They market it as a security device. What it really does is let Nissan finance know the location of the car when you stop paying. My assumption anyway. I've heard of dealers asking the buyer to 'please reinstall the tracker'.
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Spireon is the new owner of LoJack. That’s a dealer installed one, and usually LoJack is baked into the addendum sticker or bought at the POS(F&I). The captive credit arms of the automakers usually have no incentive to install tracking devices. Now, a BHPH lot(or stores like DriveTime) or a lender who specializes in subprime car notes(like CAC or Santander) will install a specialized tracker with a buzzer and starter kill. Spireon also makes that - it’s a variant of that LoJack with a speaker and a starter kill.

I yanked one out from the cab that was dealer installed and caused an intermittent battery drain.

 

[dishdude]

I've read multiple accounts of the damage these poorly installed, poorly built and poorly designed dealer installed garbage systems have caused. I will not buy a car with one of these devices after seeing the destruction they can do to a brand new car. The scumbag stealership model needs to die.

 

[TheMAN]

Its a neurosis. Dealer juiced my financing to try to get me to buy extended warranty (factory). I knew I was paying way .too much and would cancel it. I called them back to cancel or refund me the difference between their price and one from that NH dealership that offers them at a great price. The guy says “I can get to within 200 dollars, is that alright?”. Fool, are you crazy??? I said “dont worry about it, just cancel it.” He then matched the price. They count on us not using the same mindset as them. With those F+I offices (the last part of the sale) you are truly just a mark. They take advantage of our inherent decency and then fleece. Its tragic that F-I comes last in buying process, it poisons the whole experience with a dealer.

Exactly. My local dealer I've known for years had their financing office try to take advantage of us 10 years ago when we bought our car. There was a choice between 0% financing and some stupid $1000 rebate or something like that (I forgot exactly). They had us sign onto the stupid rebate. Came home, redid the math, and the 0% financing undoubtedly came ahead. Call them back right away, and they said to come back and they'd redo the paperwork. They did and put us on the 0% financing, but the financing lady wasn't happy about it. I'm sure it her commission took a hit, but that's not my problem

 

[nthach]

I've read multiple accounts of the damage these poorly installed, poorly built and poorly designed dealer installed garbage systems have caused. I will not buy a car with one of these devices after seeing the destruction they can do to a brand new car. The scumbag stealership model needs to die.

NADA and the automakers(except for Tesla, Lucid and Rivian) won’t let that happen. While AutoNation is a publicly-traded company, Sonic and Hendrick sell cars to fund their NASCAR/race track ventures.