First thank you for pointing out my spelling and poor grammar. I’ll have a serious conversation with Siri, and I’ll consider proof reading what I post on a car forum before I hit send on my iPhone.

Now that im done pretending to care about something I clearly don’t I can address this for the last time.

I am ocd with cars to the point that if there’s a surface scratch on a panel, something creaking, something broken even if it’s without consequence I need to fix/replace the part.

If you think that your stickers and your little gizmos will prevent anyone from breaking into your car you are nuts. Getting the door open on a car is simple, getting it to turn on is not. Your tricks will prevent them from getting her cranked over not getting into the car.

My wishes are that once someone has forced there way into my car and starts messing around with it, make it go bye bye. I do not want them in my car ripping apart my obd to get some cover off or ripping down the harness to find the actual one I so cleverly moved a few feet over.

I have really good insurance and it’s not an irreplaceable exotic or special in any way to me.
Again this is me telling you how I feel about a RX where there’s 50 of the same truck at my local dealers right now. If we were talking about a car that was irreplaceable or had special sentimental value then I might be inclined to install a kill switch and other gizmos. For this car nope I’ll just start researching my next car.




“Like I said earlier, this is nothing more than a lazy person's thinking. It is possible to deter thieves by analyzing the specific risks and putting in place safeguards to prevent them. Your friend the auto electrician wasn't "cranking out a key" on your driveway at 4 am, with very limited time (minutes) to get the job done. So that is completely different than the actual real risk. Preventing the OBD attack from how I explained to do it earlier will prevent this actual risk. So your logic doesn't make any sense.”

 

Please go back and read my post a little more carefully. I never once stated the suggested safeguards would absolutely prevent a thief from breaking into a vehicle if they want to. I stated that they would mainly help the vehicle from being stolen. That is what you ultimately want to try and prevent.

You can try to deter thieves from breaking into your vehicle, but ultimately you want to stop them from driving your vehicle away if they do break in.

If your vehicle is stolen stolen it will likely cost you a lot. Let alone a ton of wasted time dealing with the claim such as working with your insurance company, then dealers trying to get a replacement vehicle (time that would have been much better spent safeguarding your vehicle in the first place), you will likely lose thousands in the difference for what you paid for the vehicle versus what the insurance company will reimburse you toward a replacement vehicle. Or you may not be able to find as nice a same year vehicle as yours if you took great care of it. Or you may have to shell out many thousands more for a newer vehicle at a time you really didn’t want to.

Overall, it is much wiser to invest a bit of time and a few hundred bucks now, rather than having to deal with a stolen vehicle situation later.

Good of luck with your approach.

 

I’m sorry to keep cluttering the thread.

“You can try to deter thieves from breaking into your vehicle, but ultimately you want to stop them from driving your vehicle away if they do break in.”

Your ignoring my entire point to give me yours which is sound financial advice but that’s not my priority.
I’m not trying to change your opinion, like you are I’m stating mine and why.

Once they get into the vehicle damage will have been done, and more damage will be done.

I have more than one car so I’m fine without it for a while if needed, but I also have rental car coverage. Like I said if I were replacing it with a RX I have more than ten Lexus dealers within an hours drive of me. Someone will have exactly what I want, but I’d probably try something different even though I love my RX.

Money is money and any car is depreciating rapidly. Of course I’m going to loose money if they pay it out. But I’ll probably loose more money once the repairs are on the car fax and I’m not happy with the repairs and I trade it in.

Before you give me your tremendously incredible better financial plan I might drop dead tomorrow I’m 36 I’m not thinking of 46. I live in the now if I want it I get it. I have a few pensions through the Union I know it’s not the tremendous approach but hey I’m happy.

 

Fair enough. I respect your opinion.

 

I am unsure how many of you know of this, but I am posting this here to inform others because I believe this is important as RX Owners. In Ontario, there have been a non-stop string of auto-theft, with the most common models being Lexus, Toyota & Honda. For Lexus, it is 99% of the time the RX model. Mine was recently electronically hacked into, unlocked, engine started, and they just drove off after. I had the 2020 RX 350 if those who are wondering, and I figured being so new, something like this could have been prevented/fixed because it was prevailing problem back in 2017/2018, but I guess not. The Ontario Police over, about 3 weeks ago seized about $4.5m in stolen cars, so this makes me believe the same group of people are starting again due to losing out on so much on their operation. I suggest RX Owners do some research on this about how to prevent this from happening to them, as it happened to me, and it could very well happen to you.

Talking to the Officer that came over to start-up a report, he only gave out the suggestion of getting a "club" to lock your steering-wheel, as it is hassle that most thieves do not want to deal with. Other than that, keep your RX parked inside your garage. Cameras do not deter these guys. It takes them less than 1-minute to unlock your car, and then drive off. The Enform App is also basically useless. It did not inform me that the car unlocked & engine started, and can no longer track it. You guys have been warned, and hopefully you do not end up car-less like me.

 

Thanks -- I've read about the problem in the greater Toronto area. Was this the hack that reads the signal from your fob (inside the house) and then generates the matching signal to unlock and start the car? If so, posts #11 and #12 on this thread tell how to turn off the proximity signal that the car responds to -- an excellent habit to form when you leave your car.

 

Best thing is to de-activate your FOB every night and park it in the garage, that's what I do. If the FOB is deactivated they can't boost the signal and get into the car, start it & drive away.
Or buy a Faraday cage for the FOB.

 

I am pretty sure they boosted the signal and then drove it away a certain distance, then turned off the car to either re-program a new key or have it towed. The Safety Enform App last updated that they had a pit stop about literally 2-minute walk away and parked it there... most likely to re-program a new key or disable the Safety Enform tracking Application. After that, the Safety Enform App could no longer track it.

 

Would anyone want to share links to any security things you've purchased that you are happy with? I'm picking up my new RX450hL tomorrow and this thread is certainly concerning. At home I'll always be parked in the garage but garages can be opened and I'll occasionally be away from home parked outside. I'm thinking of getting a few small Faraday pouches for each set of keys and a metal tin of some sort to put the keys in at night when home. When I'm away I'll probably disable the FOBs but don't know that I'd remember to do that every night so the pouches and tins might be a good way to go.

Thanks.

 

If you are away from home and your fob is with you, and the spare is set to sleep mode you'll be fine. In the garage you'll likely be fine as well as breaking into garage doors is generally more trouble than these low lifes are looking for. Also unless they follow you home, they won't know that what is inside is what they are looking for.

 

Verndog08 is correct. Turn off your spare fob, before you store it wherever you keep it. Get in the habit of turning off your fob at home once you've parked the car for the night. When you park it away from home, if you walk away from it further than the sensitivity limit of the car, then the signal-boosting trick won't work, so the only vulnerability in that case would be if you're hanging around within a limited distance of your car. But my understanding is they're doing their dirty work in residential neighborhoods on cars parked at home, and not so much in the public areas where people park to go shopping or hiking or something like that.

 

Can you put your key fob into a mylar bag like the one used so that the toll bridge transponder does not charge your vehicle to prevent theft??

 

Deactivating or otherwise protecting the FOBs only solves one of the two main ways thieves are stealing the RX. Don’t get a false sense of security by just protecting the FOBs.

They also break into the vehicle, by breaking the door handle, access the OBD2 connector and activate a new key. You have to protect the connector as well.

Read my earlier posts where I detail all the ways to protect your RX from theft. Be informed and take precautions.

 

For a number of years the rx350 has been one of the most stolen vehicles vehicles in Canada (probably THE most stolen vehicle if one excludes the older theft favourites like the F350s. It’s one of the reasons that the insurance premiums are relatively stiff for these.

 

There has been a string of recent thefts on the west end and north east with Lexus and high end Toyotas being the prime targets. I love my RX but have been very concerned since 5 were stolen from my block this past week.

Link 1: https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/police-re...ring-1.5352561
Link 2: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...efts-1.5919112
Link 3: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/03/...-lexus-toyota/

Wondering if anybody has purchased an OBD saver lock/port blocker? I have ordered a Farraday pouch but would sleep much better knowing there is some level of protection from the thieves easily getting away with my car. Thank you for sharing any links or stores where I can purchase one. Stay safe.