I bought my Limited coupe used in June. The previous owner and the dealer forgot to remove the old plates and paperwork from the car before selling it to me. I have the original bill of sale and the previous owner's application for vanity plates. This means I know:

1. her full legal name
2. her home address
3. her home phone number
4. her birthdate
5. her driver's license number
6. the original purchase price and mileage
7. the amount she financed
8. the name and address of her bank
9. the make and year of the car she traded in (2001 Mitsubishi - they didn't list the model)
10. her auto insurance company and policy number

But wait, there's more! This car has the navigation system. She conveniently left her home programmed into it along with several other addresses that could be her office, friends, or relatives. A motivated stalker could easily find out. She only had the car a year but put almost 19,000 miles on it. Looking at the addresses she plugged in to the nav system, I understand how that happened. She drove the car across the country. In a way, that's good for me because it means most of those miles are highway miles. Some of them were to sunny places so perhaps the car has yet to see snow and salt.

I cleaned all of the saved destinations out of the nav system mainly so I won't have to scroll through all of that junk to get to things I want. However, if I weren't such a swell guy, I could stalk the heck out of this lady. So, before trading in a car, please remove all identifying documentation. If you have a factory nav system, BE SURE TO DELETE ALL SAVED DESTINATIONS!

 

Is she hot??

 

She didn't leave a photo. However, she just turned 30.

 

That's good food for thought, I have 2 cars w/nav a Sebring and my Crossfire and I don't think I would have even thought to erase all this info from the nav and my home address is in both cars. Thanks.

 

Haha, you should show up at her house and return all the stuff to her, along with a birthday card.

 

I would almost rather find the personal info than the used condoms I found in the old '75 Beetle I used to have. That was just a little too gross... The car was ok, but what I found under the seats was a little much.

 

I have a friend who works for a boat dealer. He has a HUGE database of everyone's favorite fishing holes from stuff he downloaded off of boat GPS nav systems when they trade them in...

 

Fortunately, the Crossfire is a little small for that!

 

I'm sure her thank-you note would include a restraining order.

 

No sweat. I'm sure this woman would freak if she knew that I know so much about her. I want others to learn from her mistake.

 

most importantly... clear your homelink system.

 

Oh, yeah...forgot about that one myself. Good point!

 

Well, you might want to point that out to the dealer as well. That is a SERIOUS violation of the Privacy of Information Act. If her information fell into the wrong hands and her identity was stolen, the dealer would be 100% liable and would be in for losing a lawsuit for MILLIONS! Not to mention the fines. In the end, that is about as bad as it can get for a dealer.

 

One time when I was a kid I was at a dealership kick'n tires, this young lady went for a test drive. While she was out on her test drive the salesman proceeded to go through her car and come in and mention the multiple love letters she had in the glovebox. To this day I always lock my vehicle when I go for a test drive ...

 

Very good advice. This applies to returning car rentals, too. I had a rental for a week after my '99 Concorde was involved in an accident. The previous renter left her rental agreement in the car.

BTW - the rental was as basic as they come. 2007 Mazda 3 with manual locks, doors, no cruise control, etc. Got sick of driving it and bought a "used" 2005 Crossfire Coupe. It had 35 miles on it!