i know, i know. i heard of all these stories about how lo jack does not work, or how theives have gotten ways around it.

i bought and installed lojack for the following reason

possible higher re-sale value?

savings on car insurance (only 1% saving, not what i expected)

and most importantly of all:

i bought it for the off chance my lojack is able to lead the cops to any MFker that jacked my car.

i am willing to pay a couple hundred extra to have the percentage of the MFker getting caught increased and introduce him to a new roommate named brutus. Oh yeah, don't forget, he also be learning the real meaning of the united states "penal system" :wow:

did any other tl owners out there get lojack? if so, what drove you to get it?

 

I have Lojack... the only thing I don't like is... when the guy came out to my place of work to install while I was at work.... the guy's van had, in big writing.... "LOJACK" on it... I just thought it was pretty stupid... cause people can just watch him from a distance, and see where the device is being hidden!!! Lojack is suppose to be a discreet device, why show everyone... "...look everybody, I'm installing 'Lojack' into this car...."

 

All three of my cars have lo-jacks. 5% a piece discount on insurance the main reason.

Tracer

 

I can't believe you guys only get a 1% (or 5% in tracer's case) discount for LoJack. Here in MA, LoJack qualifies you for the highest discount allowable on the comprehensive portion of your insurance (which covers for fire, theft, vandalism, etc). The discount is 35%. Now remember, that's 35% off one part of the insurance--not the whole bill. But even factoring that in, it's more like a 10-15% discount.

LoJack is awesome--just understand it has a few drawbacks only because of how the technology works. First and foremost, the police department in your area must have the LoJack receivers in order to track your vehicle. Although some of these are portable devices, most are installed permanently in the cruisers (you can tell which ones have this by the array of four identical antennas mounted in a square on the roof). These receivers are expensive and you'd be surprised how many departments *don't* have this equipment--especially in rural areas. Even some bigger departments, like the MA state police for example, have only a limited number of the units and there are several times during the day where there may not be a single cruiser in your area that has the ability to track LoJack.

The other problem with LoJack is because of how it works, it is harder to track in a large city than in a suburb or rural area. Tall buildings inadvertantly reflect the signal and bounce it around (like a voice echo) and can fool the LoJack receiver into thinking the signal is coming from a completely different direction than it really is. It's still trackable--just makes it harder to do.

Some people now say OnStar is a better alternative because it gives a precise GPS coordinate (or path of coordinates if the vehicle is in motion) of the vehicle in question, but OnStar also has its own limitations. The two biggest--the vehicle must be in (a) an area that has AMPS cellular service, and (b) an area visible to the sky to see the GPS satellites. Driving the vehicle into a parking garage (or any other enclosed structure) will keep OnStar from being able to give an accurate GPS location, and if the car is driven to some remote location where cell service is poor or non-existent, OnStar can't even reach the car.

Neither one is perfect, but both go a long way to protecting your investment. Just remember the first rule of auto theft--if they really want it, they're going to get it no matter what you do. That's why we have insurance.