LoJack

[boss2k]

Did your M come with Lojack installed or you paid seperately if you took it. I was given the option but denied.

[cruzzinlow]

I don't want my car back if they steal it... Let it stay missing.. You know there beat the piss out of it

[bwu]

I believe bmw already offers a free service similar to lojack where they can track your car if it gets stolen. My dealer told me to opt out becuz its a useless service

[boss2k]

sounds good i didnt get it. Please provide details of the BMW free service

thanks

[X2Board]

Originally Posted by boss2k

sounds good i didnt get it. Please provide details of the BMW free service

thanks

Stolen vehicle recovery is included with BMW Assist.

[Bmwguy11]

Originally Posted by X2Board

Stolen vehicle recovery is included with BMW Assist.

This. You got it with your car.

[x.shell]

Originally Posted by X2Board

Stolen vehicle recovery is included with BMW Assist.

Originally Posted by Bmwguy11

This. You got it with your car.

Yup. BMW assist can locate your car. It's basically like OnStar.

[moomeacow]

had lojack on my bike never again. even though a bike has limited space that shit didn't even work.

[PodDoc]

Download the My BMW app onto your phone, register, it will give you access to remote ventilation function, horn, flash lights, lock/unlock, ability to send address for nav directions directly to the car, and car location tracker.

[M3Fahrer]

The finance department was trying to sell that LoJack big time when I was signing the papers before heading off to Germany to pick up the car. The best thing was trying to hear his explanation make sense on why lojack is needed in addition to the already included BMW assist.

Yeah, the BMW Remote app works pretty well with all those functions mentioned above^

[Robotechnology]

BMW Assist is not the be all, end for theft. Does not work whenever the vehicle is not in direct line of sight of the Satellite (Parking Garage/chop shop Etc). LoJack is active as soon as the vin is entered in a police database as stolen (assist takes much longer for police to be able to cooperate with assist). Lastly, professional thieves know that it is standard in almost every new BMW, which means it is deactivated immediately. BMW assist does work well with amateur thieves though but most of those cant take a BMW. Think about it, how many cars/trucks with factory equipped tracking devices are found in shipping containers headed overseas every month!?! A little extra protection for $700-$1K is good to have as an option. Remember... 50% chance your car will be found if it's stolen. 100% chance you have no say on if your insurance will total it or not. I'd rather have an increased chance of getting my car back QUICK than having it found 3 days later. This has happened to me. I always am in possession of at least one car with LoJack. Unfortunately a Boxster that was stolen was not the one with LoJack in it at the time and I did get it back and it wasn't totalled but, was missing $7k in parts

[Bimmer6]

Came with the car at no cost. If I had to pay I would have said no ....if my car is stolen I don't want it back personally.

[morgan302]

Had it on my 08 M5 did not know then that the BMWs system was there also and better than LoJack and to my knowledge it can not be defeated like LoJack

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by Robotechnology

BMW Assist is not the be all, end for theft. Does not work whenever the vehicle is not in direct line of sight of the Satellite (Parking Garage/chop shop Etc).

BMW Asssit and LoJack work in a very similar ways:
- LoJack uses RF transmitter in VHS (173MHz analog TV) spectrum that has unobstructed propagation strength of 3-5 miles. The bad news is that you need to have a LoJack equipped car to listen to this signal, else its alerts are wasted. Even then, the police car needs to triangulate the position of the signal, which takes time and effort. The even worse news is that LoJack is only licensed for that spectrum in 29 out of 50 states.
- BMW Assist (and all similar Telematics services) use national wireless carriers' spectrum (700MHz and above - better in-building signal penetration!), and communicate to local cell towers all the time. Virtually all Telematics Control Units (TCU) also have a GPS chip, so positioning is exact in open air, and at worst, as bad as LoJack's (tracking the signal, not the GPS coordinates).

But even in the worst case, TCU signal always talk to the cell tower and you know roughly where the vehicle is.
With LoJack, if there are no receivers (police cars) nearby, or you are in one of 21 states where LoJack has not licensed the frequency, the service is useless.

Telematics services are killing LoJack's business (LOJN).
Revenue is dropping, they are loosing money, and burning through cash.

Originally Posted by Robotechnology

LoJack is active as soon as the vin is entered in a police database as stolen (assist takes much longer for police to be able to cooperate with assist). Lastly, professional thieves know that it is standard in almost every new BMW, which means it is deactivated immediately.

Not so simple.
Assist works off the TCUs integrated into the car's CAN bus. That means that BMW assist (and similar services, like OnStar, MBrace, etc) can also slow the car down, stop it, shut down the ignition, lock the doors and turn on the alarm with the thieves locked in the car ;-)

If you tear the dashboard apart, you can get to the TCU (if you know where to look and what to look for), but accomplishing that is neither easy nor quick. It's easier to find and remove the LoJack device than the TCU.

As far as taking advantage of the Telematics tracking services - it's done all the time. That's how they tracked down and took down the Boston bombers. Their final and biggest mistake was hi-jacking an MB SUV with TCU tracking service...

Originally Posted by Robotechnology

Think about it, how many cars/trucks with factory equipped tracking devices are found in shipping containers headed overseas every month!?!

Your probability of getting Wireless connection out of a container to a wireless cell tower is ALWAYS greater than that of a LoJack's ping (that needs an active listening device in the vicinity to be of any use).

Other than that, do what you want with your money.

a

[boss2k]

Originally Posted by X2Board

Stolen vehicle recovery is included with BMW Assist.

How do you access BMW Assist, is by the SOS button in the car or dialing BMW road side assistance number?

[SuckaGDog]

If you remove the shark fin (antenna) off the roof it renders anything BMW Assist related useless.

I know this is how most thieves were stealing previous model BMWs along with removing the corresponding fuses.

Both BMW Assist theft recovery and LoJack have their pro and cons. If you want the best chance for recovery have both in your car.

Originally Posted by morgan302

Had it on my 08 M5 did not know then that the BMWs system was there also and better than LoJack and to my knowledge it can not be defeated like LoJack

See above ^ Very easy to defeat especially in the E60 M5. That's where I saw it all start lol.

There was a thread some years back on M5Board where a guy had his M5 stolen out of his driveway in NJ while he was home! He said he was only upstairs for ten minutes when he got home. When he went back down the primary keys were missing along with car. But long story short police found the car a few weeks later and only 30 miles away. Whoever stole it was using it as a personal car because of the items found inside the vehicle. It had stolen plates from another car on it but the telematics unit was disconnected in the truck. Car was wrecked, but nothing really stolen from the vehicle. BMW Assist was never able to "locate" the vehicle via the sent pings.


Edit: Found the thread I am talking about.

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e60...ne-stolen.html

[boss2k]

Originally Posted by boss2k

How do you access BMW Assist, is by the SOS button in the car or dialing BMW road side assistance number?

Do i need to activate BMW assist ? How to access or contact BMW assist ?

[boss2k]

My CA told me he activated that for me and i can use SOS button to call BMW Assist anytime.

[mephiska]

Originally Posted by boss2k

My CA told me he activated that for me and i can use SOS button to call BMW Assist anytime.

He did activate it but you need to press the SOS button now to confirm your details and finish the setup process. It's not fully activated until you do.

[boss2k]

Originally Posted by mephiska

He did activate it but you need to press the SOS button now to confirm your details and finish the setup process. It's not fully activated until you do.

I ran into big issues trying to test the system when i hit the SOS button, the cust representative told me they are not receiving signals and i should try again and thats where the system kind of froze saying transmitting data and nothing in I-drive worked for 30 mins. I rushed to the dealer and called BMW assist where they told me my CA needs to fill up the ESA form and he did it again and they enrolled me online and asked me to test after 24 hrs again using SOS button.

For those that used SOS button how long does it take for the SOS call to get terminated at the car when the cust representative hangs up the call, i got worried when the system was hanging for 30 mins , also my phone was connected thru bluetooth and it did not work , i could not place calls or receive calls from the phone and had to restart my phone to work without the bluetooth.

[Swancoat]

Originally Posted by Robotechnology

BMW Assist is not the be all, end for theft. Does not work whenever the vehicle is not in direct line of sight of the Satellite (Parking Garage/chop shop Etc). LoJack is active as soon as the vin is entered in a police database as stolen (assist takes much longer for police to be able to cooperate with assist). Lastly, professional thieves know that it is standard in almost every new BMW, which means it is deactivated immediately. BMW assist does work well with amateur thieves though but most of those cant take a BMW. Think about it, how many cars/trucks with factory equipped tracking devices are found in shipping containers headed overseas every month!?! A little extra protection for $700-$1K is good to have as an option. Remember... 50% chance your car will be found if it's stolen. 100% chance you have no say on if your insurance will total it or not. I'd rather have an increased chance of getting my car back QUICK than having it found 3 days later. This has happened to me. I always am in possession of at least one car with LoJack. Unfortunately a Boxster that was stolen was not the one with LoJack in it at the time and I did get it back and it wasn't totalled but, was missing $7k in parts

Vendors are supposed to register with the forum admins.

[Robotechnology]

Originally Posted by Swancoat

Vendors are supposed to register with the forum admins.

And what purpose would I have to register if I don't solicit (or want!) ANY form of business here? I personally own 6 cars. 2 of them have LoJack and I've owned 3 other cars in the past with LoJack prior to being involved with the automotive business in any way shape or form. I speak about things I believe in and it makes no difference to my thought process because of where I work. If you ask me my opinion while I'm playing guitar on a gig in NYC, you'd get the same answers.