NewYorkLaw

Your opinions? I'm in Staten Island, a borough of New York City, near the New Jersey border.

Is lojack effective and worth the $1,000?
Are alarms effective and are they worth $500?
Do I need both?

Pete

jonjonwells

Personally, I wouldn't spend that much extra for LoJack, unless I was driving a Bentley. A good alarm is fairly cheap and effective option.

borinquen7

iTrader: (1)

Let me tell you what I know.. I've installed a ton of alarms, AND IF A THIEF WANTS YOUR CAR THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO HE WILL GET IT, even with the best alarm in the world. Now with a traditional alarm you are solo,,, Your cars gone, you call the Police and a week later you get it back after they stripped it and dumped in a lake.. With Lojack your car gets stolen you call the Police they activate the location device and they can basically tell you where your car is at the time, ,,,,If the thief did not find the lojack and remove it.. You have a better chance with Lojack, but then again you have to pay the extra bucks... If I could afford it I wiould go with Lo-Jack..
True Story
My cousin, I am ashamed to say was a car thief , he went out a few years back to steal a Honda Prelude ( Why I have no Idea) Within 15minutes of him stealing it the cops rolled up to our apartment and took him and the car.. The lojack gave him up...
Well thats my 2 cents
Cruz

verrt

^^True. Get whatever and as many different measures as you can afford, and put behind a locked fence at night if you can. A determined thief can steal anything. Even Lojack can be removed, jammed or the signal can be shielded. I heard of using a semi to steal cars and haul them off and the lojack transmission wasn't getting out. Nothings perfect.

NewYorkLaw

I'm hearing stories that Lojack has not signed "new" contracts with New York's police dept and in any event, in NYC there are only a "handful" of police cars equipped to track lojack.

Is it true that the lojack "backup battery" only lasts 30 hours? I heard that if the car is taken in a shielded truck, or stored in a shielded building for a day and a half, the thiefs are safe from lojack.

Your thoughts?

kleinke

Yes like any transmission the Lojack's signal can be jammed or shielded. Once a car is stolen, the Lojack can be disabled; there is no need to wait for its Battery to expire.

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

Lojack really isn't that great. My friend has a GPS unit in his '83. It's really awesome and a lot better than lojack in my opinion. http://www.topofthelinegps.com/

He sells these and can get a good deal on RX-7 installs.

kmonto85

An Alarm is good for the items left loose in the car... A fuel cut off switch is to prevent stealing the car. They can still tow it off but most car thefts are from hoping in and starting it and driving it off...

Spend the $$$ on the alarm, and then get a fuel switch that you can hide to cut the fuel pump. I wish I did this for my grand national before it was stolen in Littleton, CO. Theives suck ***...

By the way, most alarms have the fuel cut off feature, however this is disabled when they stick a screw driver in the ignition which usually by-passes the alarm and it's a safety feature in most alarm systems. Just is for most... Hence the seperate kill switch.

Just my $0.000000002 worth...

Joker1337

It's funny, I'll let you know, a $25 club seriously does stop some thievery. I was living in an area where cars got stolen left and right and someone thought my Oldsmobile looked nice and took it. Bought a club for my Integra as soon as that happened, no more problems. Cars without clubs were the ones stolen, those with clubs were left alone.

It won't stop a determined car thief, but they do cut down on joy/taxi riders. When they found my Olds 6 months later, it had been driven about 3 miles and then parked in an alley forever. Someone just didn't have bus fare I guess.

A hardwired fuel cut-off is really your best bet though, in my opinion. Alarms get ignored, but a guy poking around an alarmed car trying to find that ruddy switch is a more obvious target.

DriveFast7

iTrader: (1)

A nice name brand alarm with a pager that pages the remote is real nice. Good ones have 1/8 to 1/4 mile radius to let you know you car's getting jacked. Works great when people bump your car at the Target parking lot too.

I had a removable steering wheel from GRANT on the 81. No one ever effed with it after installed. Putting the car on a trailer or tow let alone DRIVE AWAY is much more difficult with no steering wheel!!!!!!!!!!!! Solid steel assembly and the lock is hardened chromed quality steel.

Xaggeration

Lo-jack, leave it to a vehicle worth over 15 grand. Personally I'd go with what DriveFast7 suggested. A brand name alarm with the pager. That and I'd also suggest a small sticker in the window, "this car is protected by ****". Sometimes that can be a very good deterant, but then again, I live in ND, not many car jackings here.

dbragg

iTrader: (7)

ill eventually get an alarm system in my SA. when the car reaches that level ill probably go with a good alarm with a pager. maybe a removable steering wheel...but where do you put it when you go into a store?

fuel cut switches are good, starter kill switches are good, and if you dont care about radio presets, a battery kill switch is good.

85 FB

If you were hard core in not having anyone steal your car, rig up a tear-gas setup inside the car. Have the switch, or a remote switch if you want to go that route, to be hooked up to a couple of actuators that can be used to prime and release tear-gas canisters. The right kind also give off a loud bang, along with bringing tears to the theif's eyes. It's a weird setup, I know, but if you're hardset in making sure your car doesn't get fucked with, you could always try that. Altho, rigging up the setup just right so that it's hidden is tricky. And, can get expensive depending on how you go.

Laugh at me if you want but it has been done. That's all I'm saying.

Jaime Enriquez

Decent alarm, Club or removable wheel, fuel pump kill chip (NOT A SWITCH, something removeable), a carbed car will only go a few blocks before the bowls are empty....

My Rx2 was ALMOST stolen once.....the ignition kill on the Viper got 'em, yet the fuel kill would have sealed the deal. (The one day I didn't remove the wheel).

GPS is the way to go if the $$ is there.

85 FB

What is a kill chip? I was thinking of a fuel switch myself, but when you mention that.....I'm intrigued. But, I have EFI, not a carb, would that make a difference?

H4Inf

Hmm do you guys get immobiliser alarms there?

Most alarms sold here in Australia have at least 2 built in relays which you basically run your fuelpump and starter through.

So you hit the button, it unlocks your doors, disables the siren and enables these 2 relays so that when you turn IGN to on, fuel flows and when you turn to start, the starter gets your voltage.

If the alarm is not disabled beforehand:
a) opening the door sets the siren off and lights flashing
b) turning IGN to on will set off the siren if they have avoided opening the door
c) fuel pump will not run
d) starter signal will not get to starter.. nothing will happen

These sort of systems cost about AU$110 - which is pretty close to like $105USD at this point. The cost excludes the siren and shipping. All wiring is black and each wire is labelled with a number, so once you wire it in and strip those numbers off, it is harder to reverse engineer. Remote controls also included but a seperate central locking kit would be needed. Another thing is if you unarm it, if you do not start the car within 30 seconds, it will re-arm the immobiliser (but not the siren on door opening).. so if it does rearm, and you dont turn ignition on for about 30 seconds, if you forget to unarm it again before turning to ignition on, the siren will sound, and car will not run. There is a LED which flashes in different ways to let you know what mode it is in.

I run this system in both of my cars.. before this, the club lock was what I used.

I considered a GPS tracking system, but they are quite expensive and finding space to mount it and a backup battery would not be easy..

Paul.

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

That millenuim plus GPS unit is tiny, and it has a built in battery.

P_Lav

I have a really touchy alarm in my seven. Even if someone with a loud car drives by it goes off. So if anyone trys to key it or anything I'll be outside in 10 seconds with a baseball bat, and steel toe boots.

BlackWorksInc

Mazda RX7's 1979-1985 Have sheetmetal body panels and are mostly electrically condutive. Take a good sized 12 Volt battery and hook it in your car to the sheet metal, make sure that when you turn a switch on it will stun or incapacitate a would-be theif. (Use friends to test this part, more expendable than yourself XD j/k) If cops ask you if you booby trapped your car you simply respond, "sorry officer I have a bad ground in my car I will get it fixed.

Problem solved
(I hear it is illegal to booby trap a car, cuz a friend put a bear trap in his car because of a theif stealing cars in his neighborhood and the theif stepped right into it... poor friend got arrested. X.x But! The theif had to have a cast and was limping for a long time! Wasn't even that big of a bear trap! XD)