Hi all,

My friends Honda Prelude was recently stolen. It had an aftermarket alarm system and engine immobilizer key chip. Apparently these are useless when the thief can easily disconnect your battery and tow away the vehicle . It was found a week later...completely gutted ie. engine, hood, intake, exhaust, bumpers etc. After hearing about this terrible incident, I want to look into GPS tracking systems used in the Toronto area. I have a few questions that I hope members can help answer:

1. What are popular systems used in the toronto area?
2. Do they have its own battery? are the chips easy to hide and hard for the thief to find?
3. How much do these systems approx. cost? monthly fees?
4. Do you think they are highly effective?
5. Do thieves have workarounds to these types of systems?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Cheers,
Alan

 

Boomerang is Canadian... now owned by LoJack

 

dont bother with boomerang, if it's pro they have a scanner to scan for the chip before they steal it, why i know coz my type-r was stolen and gets no help at all well they did find the chip not the car.
cost around 900 for the kit with install i think i'm not sure since it's few years ago and was boomerang2. monthly fee was cheap around 20 bucks or so

 

Good info....
I wonder if things are any different now that they're owned by LoJack???

 

Wow, that was a hard way to find out about their product.

 

i've got boomerang 2 on my car. i think i paid 400$ for installation/device and it's about 200$/year for monitoring. i had 2 cars stolen out of my garage back in november of 2004. the boomerang device gives me piece of mind. boomerang has a great recovery record. i don't know anything about any scanners to detect it, but i guess anything is possible in today's day and age. but i have more faith in the boomerang system than any immobilizer or gimicky after-market alarm out there. i dropped my car off once for service and forgot the secondary unit on my house keys. within 15 minutes they were calling my cell informing me that my vehicle was being moved without authorization. i think that's pretty good (and also shocking that infiniti service got to my car so quickly! ).

 

^^^LOL....

Did you get any discount on your insurance?
..that would help offset the annual fee.

 

Holy sh*t man time to move!

 

no discount. i think only the province of quebec offers discounts on tracking devices.

 

cop who came over thought it was inside job with someone that was working on my home. i had just moved into a new house and had lots of renovations going on at the time. it sucks... but i guess these things sometimes happen. i'd much rather win the lottery though!

 

never ever believe in immobilizer anyhow, when they stole my car they did not tow it, but they fcukin drove it(if immobilizer works how the hell could they drive my car), drove on 407 from bayview exit at pine valley, and i ended up paying for the toll fee, 407 told me i reported stolen car a day after(didnt go out for 2 days, so when i found out was a day after) so i had to pay for the fee. well cops busted the guy on the first day of chinese new year, what a great morning call. went to police station and saw my engine my dash board and HID kit was in his POS civic. as for the rest of the car still have no idea it's been 3 years now.

 

Thanks for all the info everyone! I will consider the boomerang...I'd have to be really convinced that it works well to buy it though. Perhaps, "the club" is the most useful deterrent...at least they have to spend time cutting through watever it is you have it on. Maybe I'll add to the steering wheel club and get the one for the shifter and pedal as well =P

Cheers,
Alan

 

those things are useless...
They use a bolt cutter through the steering wheel & it's off in 2 seconds.

 

^ not to mention the high PITA factor using it.

 

for sure....
My dad used to use one, he kept it under his seat.

He got rid of it after hitting the binders hard one day.
With his foot hard on the brakes the damn thing slid out from under the seat &
hooked itself onto the gas pedal.....

Things got a little exciting for a few minutes...... I'm sure he changed his shorts after that one.