Hellp

Someone attempted to steal my 65 Vert Yesterday Fortunately my security sytem in my home went off, No damage However I am considering a Low jack system Has anyone had experience with this or installed one in their C2 vettes

Pleasae advise
BufaloBill
65 Factory A/C Vert

 

have LoJack on all my "newer" vehicles, 2003 SL500, 2001 Z06, 2004 truck - have never put one on a classic, though

 

Call your local Police Department, and ask them what they think of Lo-Jack. My understanding is that some Departments ignore the Lo-Jack signal, and others aggressively pursue the car. Lo-Jack's claim to fame is that the cops will immediately chase after the car and prevent it from being damaged. That's great, if the cops really do that. But Lo-Jack won't work any better than anything else if your cops don't do that. Lo-Jack was started by cops and they try to have good relationships with the local cops. If they do, that's good for you. If they don't, then Lo-Jack is not good for you.

Crooks know this. When they steal a car, they leave it someplace for a while to see if the cops track it. Or, they take it apart immediately to find the transmitter.

One more thing. The Lo-Jack needs to be hidden someplace on the car. And the Lo-Jack tech needs to do that. How happy are you going to be having a technician take your car apart to hide the transmitter?

I've thought about this, and have decided not to install a burglar or tracking system. I've got the first level of anti theft stuff on my car. But to go beyond that involves too much money and trouble. That's what insurance is for. When the car's outside the garage, it has simple anti theft devices activated. When it's inside the garage, there's another car parked in front of it. Or the Corvette in the garage has 1 or more of its wheels removed. The removed wheel(s) is stored inside the house. The first level of defense defeats the amateurs and keeps the usually honest people honest. Professionals will not be defeated by these devices and I feel that they also won't be defeated by more sophisticated ones. No use in trying. No use in my spending my money and undergoing the inconvenience of the more sophisticated second level.

 

After thinking about it I think you are absolutely correct. Insurance is there for a purpose if anyone wants anything bad enought they will figure a way of getting it.

BufaloBill
65 Vert

 

I have some intimate engineering experience with LoJack...

First the company has changed alot over the years, the technology has not changed much. That is okay in the sense that it does work and does what it claims...if as mentioned above, the local police use it. What they say about hiding the transmitter is also true...and there was a time when they would not even equip an older car, but that may have changed with the new management. For myself I choose to go with the hidden GPS tranciever setup. This has a few advantages, first you can see where the car is and where it is going.....it is easy enough to hide since the fiberglass body doesn't stop the signal, and you can do it yourself.

With the GPS you can track the car yourself and if the local police care at all they can too without any specialized equipment as is required for LoJack. (The lojack system is basically a direction finder, a properly equiped police unit can tell the direction of a stolen vehicle with repect to themselves and thus track the car)

The GPS systems are cell based so they are limited in that respect however the LoJack is also pretty range limited. This type of system does often get you an insurance discount and gives you a little peace of mind, you can actually check on your car while say out of town, if you are the nervous type..something you can't do with LoJack, although they do now offer an early warning system.

www.crimestopper.com GPS TN-4004 and the CS-8052 imobilizer (combined with my aftermarket ignition) are the items I am considering as I get my car back on the road again. Combined this system will pretty much mean your car has to be either be towed or the thief will need a spare ignition and/or some time to get the car running and even then you can track and locate the car via GPS and the internet, and there is a decent chance the thief will not even know there was a tracking system thinking that the imobilizer was all the protection...these are passive systems and some ins companies will give you extra discount for that above the alarm and tracking discounts. Together they cost less than LoJack, you can test them which you can't really do well with LoJack, and no stranger is poking around in your car. The imobilizer if used properly can also act as an anit carjack device in that the car will die or not start once the thief gets some distance away so you might not even need the police (though you should probably call them if you get jacked!) Over the long haul the LoJack might cost less since you do have to pay a service fee for the GPS tracking but it is currently far less than $1 a day and may even go down. Certainly compared to Gas or Insurance it is cheap.

just my 2 cents.

 

macdarren: I can't get a price for the hardware off the web site. The $20 registration and $80 annual fee show up, but no hardware costs.

Mind telling us what it cost?

 

I retired from a suburban Detroit P.D. in 97 and at that time very few area police departments continued to equip their cars with the Lo-Jack system. The cost, crude locating system and false signals were too irritating to the road officer, so many Chiefs decided to drop the system. If you still like the idea of Lo-Jack, I would investigate how many of your local departments have it, how many scout cars are equipped and if an equipped car is used on every shift. What good is the system if the cops aren't dedicated to using it? I think the GPS system sounds better and similar to On-Star. Just my .02 cents.

Regards,
Rick

 

Bill,
I'm curious as to the situation that occurred to lead up to this. Do you know who it was and were they after the corvette specifically?
The GPS system is very interesting compared to the Lo-Jack system. Any further information on the system is appreciated. Dave

 

I don't have the numbers in front of me but and my call with them was a few weeks back I remember a number like $650 for the locator system and something like $49 for the immobilizer. I have been thinking a price around $750 seems to be 'about right' as I have looked around at various systems. When I get back to the office on Tuesday I will try to find my notes from my call with Crimestopper, and post.

 

I have a Viper GPS alarm system in my NSX. It does all of the above and then some. The system calls up to three devices, cell phone, land line phone, pager, email, if the alarm is tripped. The response is quick. If a thunder storm trips the alarm, my cell phone rings within 10-15 seconds. The cell ring back tone is different, so I know it is my car calling. The system can unlock or lock the doors or trunk via cell phone. It also tracks the car via internet on a screen like map quest. If the alarm is on and not tripped, but the car is towed or moved more than 15 feet, I get a notification call. I can also turn the car off if stolen and not allow it to start. I had a battery backup installed to take over if the main battery is disconnected. When the car was in for service, I got a few calls telling where it was located. Out the door, the cost was about $800. The monitoring is about $10 per month. The key to this whole thing, is quick notification. Jerry