Maybe wifi isn’t the correct term, but yes some modern cars have a modem and antenna. Watch Louis Rossman and Lehtos Law for more material on this. They have the links to the technical papers. Some new vehicles even have a GPS tracker on board. This is standard on rentals or payment plan vehicles but one man that paid cash had on in his brand new Toyota truck. His mechanic told him about it and removed it. He called the dealership and asked about why it was in there and they wanted it back. He refused of course. Each year more and more spying will be the norm.
all 2018+ cars have telematics because if I recall correctly, Congress mandated SOS services back in 2017.
The Data harvesting is supposed to assist in offsetting the cost of having to pay for the modem’s monthly costs.
In terms of GPS’s. Rentals I can understand, but there is absolutely no way that anyone will know if a car has a payment when it comes off the lot, unless the paperwork and loans were completed prior to assembly.
Sounds more like the dealers are installing GPS’s, not the manufacturers. If this is the case, the Dealers need to be fined heavily and jailed.