O/T Is GPS cheap insurance?

I know it’s not tradional in any sense of the imagination but have any of you looked into a GPS system for your car? Mine is usually parked at my business in a locked metal building with alarm system and TV monitoring but when I go away in the Merc I’m always concerned when parking at one of the motels.

I searched the web today and found a model 7100 on sale thru 8/31/06 for $495.00 ($100.00 rebate.) This system is direct wired to your battery in your car and is in real time (within 3-5 seconds.) You could hide it under the seat or dash.

One drawback is it won’t work in a metal enclosure so if it’s stolen and placed in a metal enclosed trailer it prolly wouldn’t track it until the thief took it out of the trailer.

You can arm the system when going away with the car via the net and it will begin sending signals at 5 minute intervals until you turn it back off. The cost is like $0.72/hour to have it operating. If you wake up in the morning and find it gone (heaven forbid) you can arm it for continous operation for like $9.00/month.

Any feedback on this, guys? Seems like $500 is cheap insurance from a HELP posting on the HAMB about a stolen car.

Here’s a link:

http://www.vehicle-tracking.com/products/products.html

 

hmmm.... that seems like a REAL good idea...

does it WORK!?!??!?!!

lets figure this one out, i would look into this FOR SURE, hell, if the unit is small i would think about one for abike too!

 

Around here, we have VERY few car thefts, but lots of break-ins. I'm 100 times more likely to have someone smash my windows out and take my stereo or jack my car up and steal my rims than I am to have my car stolen in one piece. So for my area, a good locked garage or a safe parking spot is the way to go.

But if you have problems with whole cars being stolen, I'd consider it. LoJack is supposed to be the way to go, guys use them on construction equipment (often the target of thefts).

Although honestly, if I was worried that one of my cars were going to get stolen, I'd move.

 

hahaha, never move here then squaw, LOL

how much is lo-jack?

 

Squablow, I'm not concerned with where it's normally stored I'm only concerned when I take it on the road to overnight car shows. In 3 weeks it will be parked 3 nights at a Holiday INN while I attend the James Dean Run.

 

...and his car's one of the ones that makes honest men think of theft as a viable means of gaining ownership.

 

My PDA has GPS with all the maps. Handy as hell.

 

I called Lojack, they have no coverage in my county in Ohio. This tells me it may be cellular activated as opposed to GPS activated. Tells me if it won't work in my county it may not work in other counties and if the car ends up stolen in one of those I prolly won't find it.

 

I dunno how well one would work. I'm guessing that if the thief didn't know it was there they wouldn't be as likely to try and disarm it.

I don't know what you do once you know where the car is? I know around here its pretty hard to get the police to do anything about a stolen car. They want to to prove it isn't a repo first. But the upside around here is that the car thieves are all from the "neighborhood" if you can't smash the column to drive it off you're in pretty good shape.

 

i have a handheld GPS, a fairly new nice one. but it doesnt have that theft option unfortunately. in any case, GPS's are really nice ot have especially when "exploring" on a motorcycle.

the best..BEST feature on my gps is being able to click "find" "gas" or find" auto repair and it will direct me right where to go.

 

Have you considered a remote fuel pump kill switch (or valve for a mechanical pump) or a hidden cable to disengage the ****** from park, or something along those lines? I would think if you make it hard to steal, no one will **** with it. Just a thought.

 

Some of us have a hard time using a cell phone.

 

I'm not a fan of the auto-theft department of our local police department ever since people started dumping hot cars behind my old house and I started getting the runaround on getting them removed, but I don't think anyone's gonna think Jim's pristine '49 Merc with the blown flatty was a repo - it's not like you can buy one at the local buy-here-pay-here lot.

As for theft control, I definitely agree with a kill switch and even taking your dist rotor with you when you leave it overnight, but honestly his car is the kind of thing that disappears on a rollback and shows up for sale in Asia somewhere. I don't know how you stop that...

 

Heres another option - http://vehiclelocate.net/ - coincidently I was listening to a radio story on these this morning as a means for parents to monitor their kids. On the news item they were saying you can communicate with the device when monitoring it to do things like beep the horn or flash the lights, so maybe you can wire up other functions. I dont know the cost, coverage or anything about these units, but I went to their website and tracking cars when stolen is one of their marketing angles.
ricki

 

two words or three BIG *** CHAIN

 

If I had that merc, I'd prolly sleep in it if I were out of town...

 

Give some thought to a baby monitor. The part that would normally go in the babys room you would put in your car and the other part in your hotel room. You can then listen for any unusal noises by your car during the nite and hopefully catch the thief BEFORE he takes off with your car.

Honestly though, and maybe Big Olds isn't worth stealing BUT in all my travels, all over the country, with no top, locked or anything, I have never had one issue or concern over whether Big Olds would be there in the morning when I woke up. Actually my completely done, '47 Chevy convert was way nicer and worth a whole lot more the Big Olds and I never had any problems with that car either and I drove it all over the country as well.

 

Some cheap easy starter interrupt options here.

http://the12volt.com/relays/page2.asp#psk

 

Special interest cars do not follow the same rules as usual for theft risks. They are hard to move and hide, so it is usually a determined and prepared theif that would take one, or at the opposite end of the spectrum, an idiot that just acted on impulse. I would think your greatest liability would be at an event, while traveling, etc. where you aren't so familiar with the surroundings. I think it's a great idea. Also, why not set it up on a quick change mount so that you can use it in which ever car you decide to roll in? That would split the cost across 2 or more cars. Now it's sounding affordable....

 

I have a kill switch for the fuel pump as well as a kill switch for the alternator. Won't run long without either but it doesn't take either to pull it on a rollback and head on down the road. I don't see any PD not at least looking if they know excatly where a stolen auto is; maybe I'm wrong.

Seems you could use it for more than one auto. Cheaper models available as low as $300 but you have to have the car to download the info as to speed, where it's been etc. If you don't have the car you can't get the info with one of those.

Redneck Smooth; want to sleep in my Merc one night? Thanks for the compliments Tim.

Denise; since the Merc is my baby your idea of a monitor would fit right in. I wonder what the range is for one of them?

 

I'd just take a ride. Maybe we can find some dumb kid in a Honda with lots of performance-enhancing stickers...

 

I have a kill switch in line with the battery on both cars and also a toggle switch on the electric fuel pump. Fuel pump switch is hidden in the trunk. Never thought about using a GPS as a theft deterrent but may be a good idea, especially since I had been thinking about getting one to move between cars anyway. LoJack is available in my area, but is about the same as a single GPS, but would need multiple LoJack for multiple cars. Found out recently that LoJack is also available for laptops at a very reasonable rate.