I am moving to Yakima soon, a city on the top 10 list for auto theft in the nation, and I am paranoid about my car getting stolen, especially now that it has valuable parts in it. I have been researching alarms, and right now I am stuck between Viper and Clifford. I want something worth my money, considering it is my car on the line. If anyone has any experience with an alarm that they would like to share, please do.

Next, I was looking at getting LoJack, also. For those who don't know, it is an item that transmits an inaudible sound which becomes activated if the car is stolen, and police cars can detect it and recover the car. It supposedly have a 90% retrieval rate, but I am not sure if that 90% is unharmed cars, or also includes stripped and burned cars. The problem with LoJack is that the police cars have to have the receiver in it to get the signal, which I'm not sure if Yakima Police cars have.

Finally, does anyone know of any other security features (other than a garage, which I will get) that is a good idea? I am looking for some sort of GPS tracking device, that has the ability to be tracked if the car is stolen, because that sounds better than LoJack.

 

you could hire a midget with a machine gun to stand gaurd lol jk. i would go with low jack because i would call the local police there and ask them if they have the receivers in their cars (not 911). plus i am not sure if it still work but you can just flat bed the cars out with the other alarms. and i have heard that you can just short out the alarms like viper , python. and another thing to think of are the other alarms 90% you will get your car back?

 

For some reason, the Yakima Police Department just lectured me about calling 911 for questions regarding LoJack..

Yes, on the LoJack website, it states that they have a 90% retrieval rate.

 

In my opinion, a regular alarm is virtually useless. How many times do you hear a car alarm and ignore it completely? Exactly. The neat ones have a key fob that will show you on an LCD screen if someone is trying to get into the car, so that you can respond with the appropriately sized baseball bat but that will not help you if you are physically away from the car and/or asleep. Not to mention that most alarm installs are total and complete wiring hack jobs which in my experience cause more problems then they are worth.

The best security feature is to not leave valuables in the car, and do some standard tricks to make the car unstealable (fuel cut switch, remove EGI fuse, battery cutoff, if you have standalone set the rev limiter at 2K or use it's password feature, etc.).

No experience with the LoJack though. Looks cool.

 

First thing I got when I got my car was a stearing wheel disconnect so that I can make my car less desirable to steel. The things in it are still in danger but thats why im doing tint and probably a 2 way pager.

 

It looks cool, but I think it would be nice to also include realtime GPS tracking. I am considering getting one of those, but they are only helpful if my car is stolen. I also want protection against theft of parts, and vandalism.