I know that for my most recent vehicle purchase (paid cash, no loan) the dealer left their own anti-theft device installed. From what I could gather online, they use them for anti-theft on the lot and then can try to upsell you on a service that uses the same hardware during the sale.
It's wired directly into the ignition system. Despite having a computer engineering degree and enough experience to be reasonably confident in my ability to analyze unknown electronic systems, I spent a lot of time very carefully going through all of the connections to convince myself I wasn't going to brick my vehicle by removing the device. In the end it was pretty easy to yank the device. The hardest part was patching the ignition wire, which had been cut to install the device.
Conclusion from the previous paragraph? It's not that hard if you know what you're doing, but I'd bet that something like 99% of people wouldn't have a clue how to remove it even if they noticed it was there at all.
If you're smart and capable enough to reverse engineer the device, there's a 95% chance you're smart and capable enough to have a job that pays enough to not need ultra high-interest car loans.
I don't think that's true. There are a lot of smart people in not very good jobs who can't break through, or people who have self learned skills in some fields but not enough to get a job that's paying to do that. I could do this easily, but I'm stuck in a $52k/year IT job in Seattle trying to move up.
It doesn’t take many people to know this to serve an entire community. The problem is likely that the terms of the loan are such that the car still gets repo’d, just at a lower frequency and higher cost.
This is exactly what was on my wife’s Honda. Tried to up sell us on some theft deterrent system. Upon declining, we’re told it’s in there.
I recall buying a Honda back in the late 90s. Dealer tried to up sell me on having the VIN etched into all the windows. I declined. Drive the car home and realize it has the VIN etched in all the glass.
It's wired directly into the ignition system. Despite having a computer engineering degree and enough experience to be reasonably confident in my ability to analyze unknown electronic systems, I spent a lot of time very carefully going through all of the connections to convince myself I wasn't going to brick my vehicle by removing the device. In the end it was pretty easy to yank the device. The hardest part was patching the ignition wire, which had been cut to install the device.
Conclusion from the previous paragraph? It's not that hard if you know what you're doing, but I'd bet that something like 99% of people wouldn't have a clue how to remove it even if they noticed it was there at all.