If you have OnStar, tell them when you sell your car

[XLRATING]

We went to activate OnStar in the newest family member today. When the agent answered, she asked "Is this Mr. (First AND last name of former owner)?" It took us a while to get her to understand that we were the new owners, not Mr. So & So. Then we wanted to add it to our already existing account, she asked if we still had the 2012 GM make, model & trim that the prior owner probably traded for, because we don't have anything close to that. I don't fault OnStar for giving us all this info since presumably they had not been told that the car had been sold.

However, based on this conversation, we now had the name of the prior owner and his new vehicle. Based on him leaving his "Home" setting in the navigation, we knew what street he lived on, but not the house number. A search of his name on the internet pulled up his occupation, street number for his residence, flyover pictures of his house, and house value on the first couple of pages. It's pretty amazing what's out there on the Internet on all of us.

Part of my job involves knowing how to look up these kinds of things, & it is kind of scary how much someone can put together - & we didn't even have any bad intentions for the info we got. My point is if you prefer not to have someone put all that together, then when you sell your car consider clearing out addresses you have in the nav & tell OnStar you have sold the car. Because the new owner might call you & grill you about why you traded in the car - we aren't going to do that, but it happened to me once & was not my favorite moment.

 

[Phrede]

My XLR-V had the previous owners address in the Nav system. Google Earth happened to show it sitting in the driveway. The dealer gave me the service history with his name and address, well actually it was titled by his church. A little online searching revealed quite a lot. A little scary in a way.

 

[hawkeye372]

My nav had a address stored in it. Don't know if its the owners or not. But even when you get to your destination it's better to erase the driving directions. because a thief could look up your route and trace it back to your home.


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[WB6BBZ]

We went to activate OnStar in the newest family member today. When the agent answered, she asked "Is this Mr. (First AND last name of former owner)?" It took us a while to get her to understand that we were the new owners, not Mr. So & So. Then we wanted to add it to our already existing account, she asked if we still had the 2012 GM make, model & trim that the prior owner probably traded for, because we don't have anything close to that. I don't fault OnStar for giving us all this info since presumably they had not been told that the car had been sold.

However, based on this conversation, we now had the name of the prior owner and his new vehicle. Based on him leaving his "Home" setting in the navigation, we knew what street he lived on, but not the house number. A search of his name on the internet pulled up his occupation, street number for his residence, flyover pictures of his house, and house value on the first couple of pages. It's pretty amazing what's out there on the Internet on all of us.

Part of my job involves knowing how to look up these kinds of things, & it is kind of scary how much someone can put together - & we didn't even have any bad intentions for the info we got. My point is if you prefer not to have someone put all that together, then when you sell your car consider clearing out addresses you have in the nav & tell OnStar you have sold the car. Because the new owner might call you & grill you about why you traded in the car - we aren't going to do that, but it happened to me once & was not my favorite moment.

This same exact same thing happened to me and I didn't know you had to subscribe to Onstar and XM Radio. I didn't learn about it until I was having the battery replaced and the Air-condition repaired and the Cadillac dealer in Bowling Green, KY. and they kept calling me by the name I baught the car from. I had the car for about 7 months by this time and when I contacted XM and signed up, they gave me 3 months of free service.
While talking to the XM and Onstar agents I inquired about how I could reimburse the person I bought the car from and they said they'd look into it and let me know. Well, I never did hear from either one of them and so I drove to his house and it was empty with a Forecloser sign on it.

 

[Popbigguy]

However, based on this conversation, we now had the name of the prior owner and his new vehicle. Based on him leaving his "Home" setting in the navigation, we knew what street he lived on, but not the house number. A search of his name on the internet pulled up his occupation, street number for his residence, flyover pictures of his house, and house value on the first couple of pages. It's pretty amazing what's out there on the Internet on all of us.

Got to thinking about this for awhile (dangerous thing for me to do). What if you don't clear out the garage door opener codes? Not only could someone have your address, but might also be able to get into your garage! And from there into the house maybe? Lots of things to clear out on a car when you sell it!

 

[Phrede]

Got to thinking about this for awhile (dangerous thing for me to do). What if you don't clear out the garage door opener codes? Not only could someone have your address, but might also be able to get into your garage! And from there into the house maybe? Lots of things to clear out on a car when you sell it!

That is a good point. I think it is more important to clear the opener codes since your address can be had a few different ways.

I never get directions from the Nav system in the car since it is so poor at doing that. So not much worry for me on that point.