Be careful with some of those alarms.. you have to be certain that the service will notify the police, or that its supported in the area. Lojack has an early warning system, plus the lojack now has the features that a Viper would, regular alarm features.. so you will be notified right away if the car is being operated by an unauthorized person. Do you research before you make a decision..

 

Hey man,

You live in Rockville (moco), so you know that your county ranks pretty high as far as auto theft goes. PG cty is the worst in the region with over 50,000 auto thefts last year, and moco/dc aren't that far behind. There are on average 40-55 Lojack recoveries every month in the metro area (I get a Lojack recovery spreadsheet every month).

Yes, I am one of Satan's demons, although Carmax is very different from your average dealer. I'm used to giving the Lojack spiel, so please bear with me. This isn't a sales pitch, because you've already got your system. javascript:smilie('')

Lojack guarantees recovery of your vehicle within 24 hrs, or they refund the price of your system (and your insurance company will give you whatever they wish). Average recovery time in the metro area is 88 minutes, and the recovery rate is over 90%. Not bad for a one time price with no monthly fees.

Make sure you get a good price on your install. Some places are charging $850-1000 for the systems and then double dipping you for installation. You also want to check to see if you're getting the lifetime warranty with the car. Essentially, anytime lojack upgrades their systems, they make sure your system remains compatible - it just involves a service of your system every year or something like that. Lojacks website says it's supposed to retail for $799 for the recovery system w/lifetime warranty - Carmax sells the same thing for $650).

I have an alarm on my car, and yes, it does give me a sense of security. But how many times have you heard someone's alarm going off and just not given a damn? If someone wants your car, they will take your car. That's why Lojack is great - it uses an RF signal that will work even if your car is not on (GPS's are great, but they need LOS to the satellite and don't work if the car's off).

If your car is stolen, and I hope you never have to go through that, you stand a very good chance of getting it back. Most Lojack equipped cars are returned with an average of $500 damage (ignition switch). Non equipped cars are recovered 65% of the time (give or take) with an average of $6000 in damages. My ex gf had her car stolen three times in a 4 month period!

And finally, here's a link to a news story that just broke recently in our area:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...&notFound=true

You want your car back in 88 minutes or 2-3 weeks?

One guess as to my answer.

 

Just a few of them. There are more, and a lot of auto alarm shops are getting them in this Spring.

Mike

http://satelliteauto.com/

http://terratracker.com/html/terra.html

 

Best thing to get for any vehicle would be On-Star... You get info from any phone and can actually do commands to the vehicle.. You get exact location, speed, direction of travel on what roads, you can even lock the doors from ur phone, and I think you can immobilize the engine as well... I've recovered a stolen vehicle by getting tracking from one once before, pretty cool... I was looking into it myself...

 

Is On-Star still GM-exclusive or what?

 

Just a note...The professional car theives no how to disable/remove On-Star. How do I know this? Because a family friend overseas a car rental fleet. They had vehicles stolen (rented and never returned). The VIN numbers all changed and the On-Star wasn't active. Good thing there was an additional GPS security device on the cars which ended up in vehicle recovery.

 

to debunk a few "myths" here.

1. LoJack is yesterdays news. It's only effective in areas that have coverage. If you r car is stolen, than YOU have to report it, and then the system is activated, and if the car is in a LoJack covered area, and a unit equiped with a tracking system is in the area, you will get your car back. In my area, if the person drives the car into the next county, your outta luck. LoJAck is Radio Frequency based and relies on YOU to report it when YOU realize your car is stolen.

2. OnStar uses "Telematics". That is the use of GPS triangulation for positioning and Cellular to respond back. Once again, the features of On-star are limited, and it is fairly expensive, including it's monthly service fee. OnStar is a GM owned product, but is NOT currently available in the aftermarket, as it is a manufacturer installed option. Several manufacturer's other than GM are begining to offer this option. Once again, the system pretty much relies on YOU to report the car stolen. Onstar is kinda obvious as well...and becuase it's obvious, it's easy to defeat....

3. Aftermarket "Telematics". There are actually several different "brands". I pretty much deal with "AutoTrak". It uses GPS triangulation and Cellular Microbursts to report. It can be combined with your current car alarm or factory alarm so that your car can NOTIFY YOU that it is being stolen or broken into. You can then track your vehicle on the WEB or BY CALLING the 24hr MANNED CALL CENTER. The Accuracy is within 100 feet and is in real time. Upon realizing that your car is stolen, you can activate continuous tracking and call the cops, telling them EXACTLY where your car is, which direction it is heading, and how fast it's going. YOU CAN DO THIS! (and so can the call center). There are so many features, it's not even funny. The unit is the size of TV remote control (4.75"x2"x1.35"), so it is easily concealed (like Lojack). There is no "antenna" so there is no indication that anything is installed, and the price is not that unreasonable....I sell the AutoTrak for $450/ea plus Install.

So the decision is up to you. In the next year or 2, Telematics will be more common...

DEMO website of AutoTrak
http://www.trackmenow.com/

My e-mail addy if you have any other questions
cphelps5@tampabay.rr.com

Charles