Sorry if there's a topic on this somewhere. I made a half-hearted attempt at searching for one, and came up empty handed.

Anyways, I'm wondering if the lojack option from the dealer is at all a good deal... It's sort of a moot point for me now since I already got it. I guess I'm just trying to see if I can make myself feel better about it, because I've been thinking they probably ripped me the hell off. At the time it seemed like a good idea.

It does give me .15% lower of an interest rate on the loan I took, and it should lower my insurance costs, but... it was $690, and almost everything from the dealer is a ripoff. Is it even remotely close to being a good deal and useful?

 

It works man. Depends on how much you value your car dude. It's a personal choice - for my 2 cents, I have an Autopage customized setup.

 

Personally, I'd never go near it. Why? The last thing I'd want if my car was stolen is the car returned to me, never knowing what the person that stole it did to it while they had it. I'd much rather have the insurance company write me a check.

 

I've thought about that... But wouldn't your premium be jacked up to ridiculous amounts if your insurance company has to replace a $40K+ car?

 

The real thing to consider is that the insuracne company isnt likely to pay you what the car is worth let alone what you owe on it if you financed it and didnt have a significant down payment

 

i didn't take the lojack option. My insurance would have only lowered itself by $21/year. Not worth it to me. if the car gets stolen, i'll get a check, pay off the loan and get another car.

 

I don't think lojack has anything to do with how much you value your car. You can highly value your car and don't even come close to wanting a lojack. Some of the reasons already stated.

Do your insurance rates go up after you've been ripped off? I dunno, only someone who has been ripped off can say. But I doubt mine would. There are other options and alternatives to protecting your car but having good insurance coverage is your best best.

Like someone said early, the thief will remove and sell your car parts. How does lojack help you then? Recover the shell? Does the police have to be near/looking for your car? There are better options if you want to recover your car quickly before it is likely parted.

 

AAA just released a study saying that.. people are gettin smarter... if you dont' act w/i an hour from the time your car is stolen then it could be gone. Professional know how to get rid of the signal now. I guess this is why AAA only gave me like $40 or so reduction in my insurance cost.
I guess other insurance company haven't realized it yet so they still offer a good amount of discount.

 

Hmmm... so it seems like the consensus is I wasted my money... well that sucks. Bleh. There's $700 I'll never see again.

Although I do live in the Dallas area, where car thefts aren't that uncommon.

 

Don't Feel that bad now, i got ripped off myself when i purchased my IS350 2 months ago, and dealer talked me into it, it was $1100 option. I was soo happy to drive IS350 off the lot right away not thinking that these stealership people are ripping me off....

 

Yeah................if your car gets stolen. Remember, Lexus has a pretty good system on your car and it came for free. It's locks up the starter so the car won't start. Good enough for me....

 

I asked about this at my Lexus dealer and they said it would be silly to get it installed. They said these cars are pretty safe as far as stealing, unless you tow it away or something. Then again, I bet someone's done it.

 

You know, I just looked up some pricing info for lojack, and it looks like they sold it to me at exactly the retail price... which sort of makes me wonder why they would want me to buy it. I wouldn't think it could be that profitable for them.

 

The problem with LoJack is that not only must you realize your car is stolen within a reasonable amount of time, but you must then contact the police who must locate a police car with a LoJack receiver. Not all police cars are equipped with the receivers, so this could take a lot of time and reduces the chance of recovery.

I purchased the Mobile Guardian <http://mymobileguardian.com>. This system is based on GPS and allows *me* to locate my car using any Internet enabled device. I login to a webpage, do a locate, provide the police with the info, or give the cops my login info so they can access it from their computer (if I can't get computer access). I can disable the car, find the location, and track it on a map. If you have kids, you could track the car and get alerted if a certain speed was exceeded. It also pages you or sends email if the alarm is triggered on the car. It seemed like it had a lot more features than LoJack, and the premium wasn't that much higher. YMMV, but since I bought my car, I considered it a good investment.

 

it's probably too late for most.. but before purchasing your car see if you're insurance will give a good amount of discount... i've heard some people saying about $350 off a year before. That's well worth it because you'll pretty buy it back in two years. Now if you're insurance isn't going to give you that much money back then..it's your choices.. i contacted my insurance company before considering lojack because they do a fine job at the dealer.

For future reference.. most of the options that the dealer gives you can be purchased later...