Do not depend on WiFi to hide your location.
Google’s (not sure about other’s) location services keeps track of WiFi access points and the coordinates of devices that connect to them, and with the way Google sucks up all data, probably even just passing in range of. So WiFi can tattle on your location as well.
A job I had a few years back closed one office in PA and sent their WiFi APs to us in AZ as they were way better than what we had. For about a week this played havoc with everyone in the office’s location when using Google maps. A few of us that played Ingress (precursor game to Pokémon go) could start the game and get an action against the point in PA before our GPS would override the WiFi location.
Number 1) find the fuse that controls the modem and pull it. Without this your car can only report when the service techs hook it up to their diagnostics, and what is reported there versus what reports on the regular from the modem is a huge difference. You lose a lot of convenience this way, but that’s to be expected. CarPlay and auto give you a lot of that convenience back, but now you’re giving a lot of that same data to Apple and Google, even if all you think you’re doing is projecting maps from your phone to your infotainment. Do you trust them? You can use Bluetooth audio in most cars without using CarPlay or auto, that should be safe. Stick to maps on your phone if you don’t want Google or Apple getting your driving data.
If you want an actual dumb car that’s reliable, I don’t think anything beats a TJ series Jeep wrangler. Not good gas mileage, but the I6 engine in them is fantastic and it’s still relatively easy to get parts for them despite being 20 years old. You can add an after market head unit for CarPlay out android auto.
If you really do go new, you can disable the cellular radio. It’ll cost you a lot of convenience features, and you won’t get updates. But no cell radio, no ability for it to give your data to the mothership.
I have and use a resimed that does the phone home option. Once my doctor got what he needed I put it in airplane mode.
Distributor used the stats while I was reporting to call me and tell me I need new filters or other parts. I lol’d and bought them online for way cheaper. They stopped trying even before the doctor got all the data he needed.
Also, AFAICT it’s only data out, so I’m not worried about some exploit being delivered to the machine.
Final thought: I work in med tech. We have better security than credit agencies because we get fined more if we screw up. Personal data leaks are so common no one even cares anymore, but leaking someone’s medical info will shut a company down. You are likely safe, but ultimately never as safe as a “dumb” machine would be except they just don’t exist anymore.
Actual final thought: you will be amazed at how much better you feel every morning after actually sleeping instead of the dirty pseudo sleep you’re currently getting.
Nobody pays attention to that part. They just see the very prominent $50k! and think that’s what they’re gonna get. Even if they do catch the “up to” they are going to hope. 50k is still life changing money to someone that makes 5x what a McDs worker makes.