Thread: Dunno what this is in my '99 SE

I bought my '99 SE about ten years ago used and it had this in it mounted under the dash close to the steering column. Hadn't got around to asking here about it until now. It has the letters VTP on it, so I'm guessing it's some sort of theft protection setup, but haven't been able to find anything online yet about this particular one. Does anyone else have one like it and knows more about it?

There was one very similar mounted in the same spot in my '97 nissan pickup. It was wired into the ignition system, so like you said, I think it is anti-theft and/or remote start.

It's an anti-theft from the dealer lot. If the original buyer did not pay for it they would just put a permanent chip in it.

Such a 90's thing.

I was leaning more toward anti-theft, since my car's got a manual transmission.



I would think if original buyer didn't want the vehicle theft protection system that they'd just get one without the device installed period, but then again, as you say, it's a 90's thing, and they did some weird stuff in the 90's lol

Most, if not all the Nissan Dealers I worked at during that decade put them on ALL of the stock. It was a simple starter circuit bypass.
I always saw it as a scam on the customer...they added several hundred dollars to the price of the car for a $10 gadget.
There was a removable chip you could pull out. If the customer refused to pay for the add on, the chip could be plugged in and the handle "snapped" off, so the customer could not remove it.

The irony of these things is we removed them when cars were traded in and re-retailed.

Crap like this made me quit working at a Nissan dealer

This kind of thing is not unique to Nissan. Back in 2000 I bought a brand new Chevy truck and fought with the dealer over a lot installed security system. I ordered the truck, never asked for the add but they slapped it on the day it arrived at their lot and bumped the price of the truck $600!
I held my ground and they removed the controller.

Oh good. Just happened to look at this thread. Noticed that my new-to-me 1993 Nx has something similar as well and was wondering what it was.
I'd meant to snag a pic of it and another oddity but just haven't had the time yet. But will do that soon.