Antitheft or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Lojack

Antitheft or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Lojack

So, after posting both here & to the BMWCSregistry mailing list, i've gathered a collection of the responses to my post re: Lojack alternatives. except where noted, usual disclaimers apply. these are listed in the order in which i received them from the BMWCSregistry mailing list.

1) roger b. recommends the millenium plus GPS locator. $595, with a $17/month recurring fee. seems to be the most feature-rich of all the units out there. if we show enough interest, roger may become a distributor for these units. from roger's reply:

"The unit is easily installed, can be monitored from your PC with live satelite view of your vehicle. Unlike Lojack, you do not have to contact the police to locate your car. You can actually tell them wher it is. It also can be set to put an electronic "fence" on your vehicle so it can not run outside specific a preset boundary. It can remotely disable your vehicle and lock and unlock it also. It can tell you the higest speed the car has been driven (great for parents of teenageers). Works worldwide."

more info can be had here:

[u][url]http://mplusgps.com/sub_main.php?selection=compare[/u][/url]

2) daniel b., based on his own positive experience with the device, recommends the model 7100 from landairsea:

[u][url]http://landairsea.com/products/7100.html[/u][/url]

also not cheap -- $595, but no monthly fees. you can set the unit to update you as to its location at regular intervals (although these "pings" do cost $0.25/each). unit also has a remote vehicle disabling feature.

3) james r. provided good empirical evidence -- based on his friend's experience -- as to why lojack still rules this market, despite its obsolete technology. for more info on lojack:

[u][url]http://lojack.com/[/u][/url]


to those who posted replies to the E9 board, forgive me for excluding them here -- they were lost when the board changed to its new format.


if you have any further info/feedback/questions about any of these systems, please post here.


-Adam


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replying to my own post...

despite their superior technology, GPS-based vehicle recovery systems all share the same achilles heel: they require line-of-sight access to orbiting satellites. so if car thieves move one of our precious coupes to a garage with a roof, i'm out of luck. worse, if my car is stored in a garage (e.g., my own garage), the system is useless. LoJack claims to not have this susceptibility.

does anyone have any experience with this? know of any "hybrid" systems that employ the best features of both types of technologies?

yes, we all have insurance. which is fine for a fungible car (camrys, tauruses, etc.). but geico and haggerty aren't going to replace my coupe -- i don't care how much they shell out in the event of theft.

hence my obsession w/getting a vehicle recovery system.

thanks in advance for your input on this topic.


-adam




from the LoJack FAQ:

How is LoJack different from GPS systems?
GPS systems require line-of-sight access to the orbiting GPS satellite system in order to track a missing vehicle. GPS systems can't penetrate forest cover, parking garages, or other obstructions. By contrast, LoJack uses a special FCC-allocated radio frequency that can penetrate many obstructions. GPS systems also require an external antenna that can be seen and easily broken off by potential thieves. LoJack is the only system used by police to track stolen vehicles.

Lojack line of sight

Am suprised about the line of sight statement.I come from the Hi-jack and car theft captal of the world ( Johannesburg, South Africa)
and we had various systems operational.
All of them worked on a GSM Cellphone unit built into the car somewhere with various relays attached to whatever was required.
Criminals would bury cars under galvinised Zinc sheets, hide them in Garages etc, all tracked down.
Where it would'nt work was in the underground parking garages which obviously had steel re-inforcing , but that was normally where the Garages had a number of floors.
To counter this, if they could'nt activate/track the car, it would go on a random cycle of attempts for up to 3 months.
I recall they managed to activate one where the car was doing about 400 mph in the cargo hold of an Aeroplane heading out of the country.
Am sure that if you test your system under various conditions it would prove true in your country as well
The only negative of these systems was that as they got better the Criminals tended to take you with the car to prevent activation and then kill as soon as they could get somewhere where the body would'nt be discovered too soon

Adam,
I remember replying to this on the "old" board. Dax does point out, correct sadly, that as systems get better the thieves find other ways of nicking cars.
Breaking into houses and stealing the keys has become popular here in the UK. A lot of modern high powered BM's have dissappeared this way recently
However "carjacking" is not common thank goodness.

To be honest an e9 is not worth nicking. It's too old, relatively rare, thus not worth breaking for spares (market is too limited) or ringing (giving it a new identity). So I suspect what we will suffer from is vandalisim or getting it nicked by joyriders who will "dump" it as soon as they are done.

There are various "imobiliser" systems on the market, physical and electronic. You can even make your own with concealed switches etc etc If a car can't be nicked in 45 seconds the thief will move on, leaving you maybe with a smashed column lock and a broken window

You will never stop the "proffesional" thieves who steal to order, usually using a recovery vehicle, who know the way round 99% of the tracking systems available

Yes classic cars do get nicked, but only the popular ones, in the UK that's MGBs simply because there are enough of them around to be worth either breaking or "ringing".

Finally if it will give you peace of mind then fit a suitable system. I personally will not bother. I suspect there is more chance of being in an accident, thus damaging the car than it being nicked, and the other cars when in the shed / not being used..I have immobilse them to stop anybody taking a fancy....
I remove the rotor arms and hide them!


Malc

I've got my Motronic DME sitting in the office with me. Try to start it now, Joyrider!

This system uses both GPS and cellular

www.mymobileguardian.com

It uses cellular signals to triangulate location when GPS is blocked. Not as accurate as GPS, but close enough to get you to your car.

$700 dealer installed. You can track your vehicle, limit the max speed, disable, etc. from any internet browser.

Glenn in Encinitas.

thanks for the replies.

glen -- i combed the mymobileguardian site. i can't find anywhere where it says that it uses cellular signals to triangulate location when GPS is blocked.

in fact, it says something vaguely the opposite. From the FAQ:


"GPS Urban Legends
Will you get a location if the vehicle is parked in an enclosed building such as a garage or service bay?

Yes you will, our unit will read the GPS satellite every few seconds and record it into the unit's memory. So when you locate your unit via the web it will provide its last known location - just outside of the garage in a worst-case scenario."

Adam
GPS Urban Legends

Yes you will, our unit will read the GPS satellite every few seconds and record it into the unit's memory. So when you locate your unit via the web it will provide its last known location - just outside of the garage in a worst-case scenario."

Click to expand...

Adam I guess what they are saying is that unit will update its location,
store it in memory, and broadcast by phone as and when it gets a GPS signal, thus it could be seriously "out of date" in certain circumstances.

Malc

Interesting- they don't describe their system very well

I know for a fact that Mobileguardian has two antennas, one GPS and one cellular. I agree their website is not the model of clarity, but here's another passage that sheds "some" light on how it works:

"How does MobileGuardian™ work? Is it always on?

"MobileGuardian utilizes best of breed technologies, coupled with the patented Cellemetry nationwide wireless network and GPS satellites to operate in conjunction with your vehicle’s electrical system"


They call is "Cellemetry". It's really the local Cingular wireless network, at least in the San Diego area.

I've personally used the locate request when the car was in an underground garage, and it accurately located the vehicle. While no system is perfect, in my opinion this system is better than LoJack since you never know if LoJack is actually operative. You need to call the police to "test track" your car, and it's not something they're inclined to do. I'm a customer of both systems and their prices are in the same ballpark- I think the mobileguardian system is plain superior. We'll see if they can stay in business as long as LoJack has though.

Good luck on finding the perfect system!

You can buy a battery disconnect for about $10. If someone wants the car enough to load it up and haul it off, I'll take the insurance payoff and move on.