After a year of lusting, months of shopping and some serious rationalizing, I have taken the plunge and will be picking up my SC 430 next week. Besides the usual run-flat decisions (mine has them and they are due for replacement), I was wondering what everyone thinks of anti-theft devices (ala Lo-Jack). Is this a car that can easily get stolen? Insurance discounts??

Thanks - any suggestions for 17,18 or 19 in wheels appreciated...

GW

 

Speaking from experience.......this car is supposedto be difficult to steal.

Mine was boosted back in April in about 30 seconds.

The best anti theft deterrent is the "club".

 

Larry ...

What does this mean?
"Mine was boosted ..."

 

Ed, what the hell are you doing on the computer at 7:30 in the morning ?? I thought I was the only fanatic.

"boosted" is NY City slang for stolen. Remember.....mine was stolen back in April.

How're the leaves doing ?

 

I have always heard that the Club is a joke. Worst case they can cut the steering wheel and away they go.

How long did it take to get your car back? Was there damage?

There is a new Lo-Jack system that gets activated as soon as your car gets stolen to notify you so that you can call the police and they can track it down using Lo-Jack. I have the older Lo-Jack system on my Wrangler, but (thankfully) have never had to use it. There are also insurance discounts (here in the heavily-regulated state of Mass) which can be applied.

GW

BTW - I have a nice 91 LS 400 going up for sale next week...

 

Jeez, Larry, I was going to ask you the same question about being on so early. I can't seem to sleep much later than 6am anymore, so I usually hit the PC about 6:30-7am to do very little work, and some news/opinion reading.

The leaves are changing rapidly now. It's supposed to be sunny on Monday - I'll try to take a few pics for ya.

Yes, now I do recall that your car was stolen. So you think the Club is the best deterrent? It seems that I saw on some news program a coupla thugs taking care of that deterrent in minutes. Do I recall THAT correctly?

 

Boosted is slang? Man you guys are getting old. The club gets frozen and cut off in 30 seconds. If someone has computer theft stuff they can start the car in no time. Lojack ignores the fact that if the car is stolen I dont ever want to see it again.

 

I never thought of that problem!

Did Larry have any damage? Are there any parts on the car that can be canabalized (sp)?

The argument for LoJack is that they can recover the car before any damage is done. Supposedly, the new system alerts you as the car is being stolen whereas in the past, you had to come back and not find your car where you left it.

GW

 

Or am I missing something.

If someone steals my car, I make a claim and get a new one.

I do think that generally Lexus has a lot of pretty good anti-theft measures built in, making it difficult to enter and steal, discouraging all but the real professional, who will take your car if he wants it, regardless.

 

Actually, you are missing something (maybe).

If you lease your car and it gets stolen (and not returned), you have to come up the difference between what the insurance pays and what the lease company says the car was worth when it got stolen.

If you buy the car, then you just need to come up with the extra $$$ between what the insurance company pays and what a new one will cost (if you elect to buy another).

If you finance, the bank gets their money first and you get the balance (if any).

All of these choices stink and the reality is that lots of cars do come back to the owner, like it or not. That is why I suggested that LoJack might get it back sooner and in better shape, but it appears that I am alone with that opinion. Oh well...

GW

 

I think you are correct. I doubt that my policy will pay replacement value of a stolen car, and that differential will grow each year.

I own my car outright, so my insurance would pay me the current market value of the car. (In theory, so I could replace it with one of the same year and thus the same value.)

Right now there is not a large difference, thanks to Lexus bumping up the new car price, but there will be.

According to an article in the WSJ last week, values of some domestic cars, especially domestic SUV's, have dropped as much as 50% in two years (due to changing demand but mostly due to low or no interest loans, which kill the used car market). At least we don't have that problem. I would not be happy to find out that my car was worth half its value two years after purchase.

 

The best anit-theft system out there is a 1985 subaru GL with rust, chipped paint, ripped seats and no rims just stock wheels with the hub caps and your beloved SC430 sitting quietly in the safetyof your home in the garage . I assure you no one will think of ever even coming close to your car. Just make sure you dont leave the garage door open and your car doors unlocked. For under a grand you can own this quaitly anti-theft system now.