Easiest way to beat a car that has to be towed... just slide it in and step on it *Bam* cars wheels are jacked up and ready to go. The car can turn on a dime, Slide onto a flat bed, anything you want...

 

sorry to hear that.. hope you get a new car tho.. when u go see your car its like seeing your gf in the hospital after she's been raped.. not a pleasant feeling and ure gonna think about it all the time.. pray for a new car and start fresh again

 

sorry to hear the bad news...

this is what I'm getting: http://www.microtrakgps.com/index.php

As long as GPS can connect or you're within reach of a cellphone tower in north america, you can get a fix on its location on the web. It has its own backup battery and it's configurable through a website to alert you by SMS if your alarm goes off or if the car moves outside a certain radius. It's like lojack, but better...

I was actually about to start working on an almost identical project myself (before I saw that microtrakgps thing) using this module: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...oducts_id=7917
and was planning on having it do almost all of the same functionality. It would have been great not having to pay a monthly fee, but at least the microtrakgps people alert the police for you and the website overlays the location on a map, along with speed and direction of travel.

 

I'm not trying to be a bean counter, but...

Isn't the point of insurance as a method to mitigate risk? It's a dangerious world out there and besides theft and other type of loss, we do spend money to protect our investments so we don't lose as much should something happen.

Also, security is a good thing... however, you really need to do a cost to benefit calculation to see if it is worth it. I like the Microtrack GPS idea... but I couldn't find a product price list (nor a monthly service fee list). If it is going to cost me $5k to protect my $30k investment but at the time of theft all I'm going to have is a notification that something is going on... that isn't all that helpful. Some how i doubt that you and I will have a crack staff of comandos parachuting down on our evos for OUR receovery process via any provider of security we choose that is going to be cost effective.

I value my life at more then even $40k, so i would not approach a stranger who is tampering with my vehicle. I would rather call the police, however they are useless too because they would only send someone over 4 hours after the incident (They have better things to do then to stop someone from stealing your car, they would rather write up the report on the loss 4-5 hours later). The only way you will get the cops to come out would be to claim that you have shot the person who was stealing your car and give the location of where you are at (Tell them that they can take their time to come out since he is on the ground). Then they will be there in 30 seconds

Remember we are driving around $30k cars which don't depreciate that much. It does suck that you had a loss... but this is a thing not a living creature. in its efforts to turn a profit made a couple more then then just yours and a few other peoples rides... a replacement is available at the dealership around the corner.

Personally, I think the theives did you a favor by stripping as much as they can on your car, the last thing you would want is to get the same car back and have some mechanic try to put things back to spec by piece mealing stuff together. By damaging any body parts or components they are leaving behind... they are assuring the owner a guranteed 100% total. That gives you cash in hand to go buy something new again. I kind of wish we had a law where we had to identify what kind of insurance we had on the car from the outside... that way theives could be more kind with their selection process. As well as help get more insured drivers on the road.

Finally as for security, I don't care what kind of security you have on the car, if someone wants it... they will find a way to get it or do such a bad hack job at stealing your car that it will be very costly to repair the car that was left behind. You may still have your car... but you also have a heafty repair bill anyways. Your insurance is going to go up no matter if you have a claim for $500 or for $50,000. So I would rather have a claim for $50,000 and know i get value for my insurance rather then get jacked up rates for making a $500 claim.

Save your money, invest in basic security that might deter the casual theif. Also be smart about how and where you park your car. If you are a student who lives 4 deep in a 1bd/1ba apartment in the ghetto and you have to eat cup-o-noodles everyday so u can afford the car, gas, and insurance for your ride that you park on the street... you might want to reconsider your priorities in life. Nothing wrong with enjoying a nice ride at a young age... there is also nothing wrong with enjoying a comfortable life and riding a hot chick every night (remember condoms and birth control aren't cheap either) with some money in the bank cuz u r driving a nice beater honda, rather then supporting your Evo.

 

sorry to hear man

 

were pics ever posted or did i miss something?

 

Sorry about your loss, bro. Apartment complexes suck when it comes to security. If you could get your hands on the stripped chassis, I would like to buy it from you or the insurance company. PM sent.

 

Sure, insurance is great to have... however, very few insurance companies cover modifications and if they do cover them it can get ridiculously expensive (given the level of modification to cars not just in this forum but everywhere). Not everybody's car is stock and can be replaced by a quick trip to the dealership....
...and that's not even mentioning the invested time and finesse in getting your baby running right. If somebody topples your house of cards then sure that's life, you pick up the pieces and move on. But I damn sure am going to try to stop them from toppling it every way I can.

They don't list one on their site, and I've wondered why they don't (I think it's still a very new company) but I read somewhere that it'll be about $500 initial and $5-15/month thereafter depending on options.

Sure, but if I'm sleeping and get a text message that somebody is trying to steal one of my cars from my garage then my Mossy 500 12ga 00 will parachute down on his a$$ quick enough.

Just kidding, I definitely wouldn't shoot first unless I had a bulletproof alibi (no pun intended) and it was warranted, and only after just trying to scare them away first wouldn't work but provoked them even more. Most car thieves run when surprised... and most of the remaining that don't will definitely get deterred by the sight of a weapon. The rest you can take care of by shooting first...

Point taken, but that's where you and I differ... I like to deal with things myself.

I take it you live in downtown LA or NY? I've lived there before... and that's why I will never live there again. The police in my neighborhood and the neighborhoods I frequent would respond very quickly, especially if they knew that it was my address.

LOL sure maybe you or I would take that into consideration if we turned into thieves, but there are plenty of people out there that don't give a rat's a$$ if they cause other people misery.

I'm not going to argue that; you're right. But if you could make yourself resistant to everybody but the thieves that are Ocean's 11, wouldn't you increase your chances with as many reasonable preventative measures as you can?

All good points. Done, done, and do it daily. Does that mean that nothing else is useful?

Last time I checked, the ghetto wasn't the only place that car thieves attack. Scottsdale, AZ has had a recent rash of bigtime burglaries by extremely smart thieves. As technology advances, so do security measures. I see this as being the next biggest tool in my arsenal to prevent theft of my favorite rides.

Sure, the same thing applies to software piracy... it's unstoppable. No matter what security the coders develop, crackers will always figure out a way to circumvent it. But if you left a server on the net running a 2-year old build of Unix, it would get hacked overnight, while an up-to-date build stands a much better chance.

LOL I take it that your view of the average EVO owner is a pimply 16-yo whose rich parents bought them their favorite car they always play on their ps2? Who knows... you might be right. But this applies just as much to the middle-aged comfortably-living hot-chick-riding car enthusiast Ultima GTR owner that built it with his own hands as it does to any modified or custom car owner who's seen their time, investments, and to an extent a part of their happiness go up in smoke.

 

I totally agree on not spending too much on protecting your Evo, rather have insurance company carry the risk for you. Regardless how much you spend on protecting your car, it can be ended up in a chop shop within minutes. Oh by the way, Lojack don't work in basement garage, and I've been to some ghetto mechanic shops located in underground garage. My friend have a Lojack, he tried it, would not locate his car once the car is inside the mechanic shop, pretty scary.

I was in a shopping lot, a flatbed tow truck came in, within 5 min, the EVO IX MR was heading out even the alarm is still sounding.

I ran and stop the tow truck, without knowing is a legal tow or theft. The tow truck driver ask me one simple question, are you the car owner?? If not, I have no need to explain anything to you. All you can do is write down my plate and report to the police, which I did.

Think about it, the plate can be simply fake, and it is very simple to move a $35k EVO on to flatbed tow truck within minutes.

There's really no failed safe system to prevent those "pro-theft". If they really want your car, you can just hope that once you get back your car, they took out enough parts from your car for the insurance company to have it as total lost.

 

All points that I conceded to... but how much is too much?
If you invest $2,500 in rims, $10,000 in a turbo kit and built motor, $1,000 in brakes, $2,000 engine management, $1,500 suspension, and thousands more in miscellaneous parts that AREN'T COVERED BY INSURANCE to make a racecar that you sometimes use as a daily driver, is $15/month for added security and peace of mind validated?

In my opinion it's worth it, but the topic is highly subjective and what might not be worth it for you makes perfect sense to me. I embrace technology and use it for every advantage I can in every aspect of life, but if relying on insurance to $crew you with bluebook values or praying to your God to deter car thieves is your cup of tea then by all means please keep doing so.

 

agree, very subjective. Thats why they have "Actuarial Science". Have a friend doing that in justifying how much to spend in alarm system. Google it, there's a formula to factor in all the factors like depreciation, future value, maintenance(in this case security fees)

 

Thanks, definitely an interesting subject and good reading!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actuarial_science

 

dang thieves only thing i got protecting my car is my autolock and my 12 guage

 

Catching the Thief is the reason why you put a GPS on a car...other then that no one ever said GPS tracker made the car "more safe".....because many agree that if a smart thief wants your car he will get it.


and on a side note...lets say ( hypothetically of course ) your GPS that is on your catches a thief...and that thief is part of a ring that has been stealing cars for some time...say about $300,000 dollars worth of cars....you think that GPS might have been worth it? depends on how you think huh?

 

yeah howd it go