The one thing you must do when you sell your car if it has a navigation system!

Interesting...something we should all remember to do!

Maybe there should be some type of warning reminder?

Dear 001,

Anyway, I thought I'd just pass on this interesting story to you, since it's an issue that had not occurred to me before, but is something that will undoubtedly rear its head sometime soon, and poses a security risk to owners of highline vehicles . . . I don't remember ever reading about this before, but I feel it's only a matter of time before we read the headline about someone who got robbed because they had unwittingly left their home "wide open" . . .

"Wipe the hard drive" before you sell!!!

I'm currently driving a Lexus LX470 that I bought a couple of weeks ago at one of the local dealer auctions. It's an off-lease vehicle and has a factory navigation system. As I was driving on one of Orange County's toll roads Wednesday, I noticed an icon appear on the navigation screen. It was an image of a house. I quickly realized that this was the former "home" of the vehicle - a multi-million dollar home in one of OC's most exclusive neighborhoods. I also realized that if I hit the "home" button on the nav system, it would take me right there. And I would be willing to BET that if I hit the built-in HomeLink garage door opener, up would go the garage door, and I'd be in like Flint!! I didn't go try, but you get my point. I'm not about to go roam around these folks' house, but what if someone else with less scruples had obtained the vehicle? More to the point, do we want strangers knowing where we live and having the chance to enter at will? So the lesson is: in these days of heavily computerized vehicles we all need to be mindful of personal data. Just as you'd never sell a computer without first wiping the hard drive, you need to do the same with your vehicles' data sets. Wipe all the navigation data (especially your home address) and de-program the door openers before you turn in your lease or trade in your car. A little bit of effort, sure, but what's it worth to have peace of mind? Otherwise, who knows who could be coming to visit?

Dr. Dave- AutoGuys

DiamondJim - 4/22/2005 9:45:50 AM

+1 Boost

Isn't it true that when you hit the delete button on a hardrive, you don't actually DELETE the information, you just tell the HD that the space that was being used before and off limits, is now able to be written on, so actually, your information will still be there for someone to get a hold of.

If you want something to be deleted, you need to write and delete and write and delete etc.... to the HD so that the information you had previously, will be truly erased. I believe they have programs for that, but I dont know where to get them. Scrubbers, I think they call them. Google "hard drive scrubber"

Neverfollow - 4/22/2005 2:37:57 PM

+1 Boost

It is common practice, for me at least, upon new car delivery to advise a client to program his or her home destination as an intersecton or other land mark within a few blocks of the home and not the actual home address. If you think about it, how many times do you valet a luxury car? They have your keys, garage door opener and now the address to your home. If you put too close a destination in, all one has to do is drive up and down the street pushing the homelink button to see which garage door opens. Most people don't lock their inside garage door so it is a definite security issue.

The purpose of programming a home destination is to get you home from somewhere else you are not familiar with using the fastest and/or shortest route. Once you get to familiar territory, one shouldn't need further assistance to get home. (Exception: Some Cadillac owners) There have been many times when I have driven around down town after a baseball game and ended up in the wrong part of town trying to get around traffic. Having an address close to home programmed as the home destination is a very convenient feature and can save you more than just time.