Mercedes Admits That All New Cars Sold Have GPS Trackers Built In – UK Gets it Late

Mercedes insists the sensors are only ever activated in ‘extreme circumstances’ like Delinquency

United Kingdom – 19 August 2019 – While this capability should come as no surprise to most of us in the repossession and collections industry, In the United Kingdom, Mercedes Benz is in hot water after they admitted to have GPS tracking capability built into every new vehicle sold and financed by them, which they insist are only activated in ‘extreme circumstances’, like Delinquency. Unlike in the UK though, this functionality is not known to be frequently used here in the USA.

While the use of integrated secondary GPS trackers or the overriding of existing internal navigation devices inside existing vehicles is a somewhat secret that some of us in the industry have heard used from time to time, the existence of it’s possibility seems to have flown over the heads of our friends across the big pond in Great Britain, whose repossession process is judicial, unlike our own “self-help process” and credit is far more difficult to obtain.  

Daily Mail UK – Mercedes is caught in a row over privacy after admitting its cars are fitted with secret sensors which can pinpoint their location.

All new and used cars sold by Mercedes-Benz dealers are fitted with tracking devices. The firm sold more than 170,000 new cars in Britain alone last year.

It insisted the sensors are only activated in ‘extreme circumstances’, such as when car finance customers have defaulted on their payments so they can be tracked down.

But it admitted information about car owners and location details are shared with third-party bailiffs and recovery firms to hunt down and repossess the cars.

Around 80 per cent of new Mercedes are sold on finance plans, and the company dominates the car leasing market.

Under EU data protection laws, tracking a vehicle without its driver’s knowledge is illegal.

However, those who buy the cars on finance sign lengthy terms and conditions. These include a clause about the activation of ‘location sensors’ in bold print above where the customer signs.

Yesterday former Cabinet minister David Davis called on the Government to investigate the sensors.

He told The Sun: ‘This is not the first time big business has behaved like Big Brother – but it’s rare to be quite as deceitful as this. I have to question whether it is even legal to pass on information to other people such as bailiffs.

‘The relevant minister ought to look very closely at the legality of this procedure.’

Other car manufacturers, including BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Volkswagen, have confirmed they do not carry out similar tracking.

Mercedes-Benz said sensors are not used to permanently track customers or access real-time data, although it would not confirm how long it had used the devices.

A spokesman added: ‘Locating the car is part of the repossession process and is not permanently tracking customers.

‘It is only activated in exceptional circumstances where the customer has breached their finance agreement and repeatedly failed to reply to requests to contact us.’