Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

LoJack and the Model S: Beneficial or Redundant?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I'm curious: among existing Model S owners, are you using any theft prevention products like LoJack in your car, or are you crossing your fingers and hoping the GPS and other comms stuff is still activated if your car's ever stolen and you and Tesla and law enforcement try to track it down?
 
Last edited:
I work for lojack and company bias aside you would have to be crazy not to lojack your S, especially if you live in SoCal where cars are being stolen every minute of the day almost. Why wouldent you want an extra layer of protection in case your car came up missing? While GPS is great and has it uses, what if the car goes into a garage, or under trees, under a bridge, in a container, etc.? GPS wont work. Police use radio frequency to track down stolen vehicles equipped with lojack, which penetrates steel, concrete, etc.



[Mod note: advertising removed, but I felt the rest of the post was relevant.]
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm curious: among existing Model S owners, are you using any theft prevention products like LoJack in your car....?

If I understand it correctly Lojack isn't a theft prevention device - it simply aids vehicle recovery, and does it in much the same way that the Model S already does.

Why wouldent you want an extra layer of protection in case your car came up missing? While GPS is great and has it uses, what if the car goes into a garage, or under trees, under a bridge, in a container, etc.? GPS wont work. Police use radio frequency to track down stolen vehicles equipped with lojack, which penetrates steel, concrete, etc.

IMO Model S already has an extra layer of protection in that it doesn't have a standard ignition that can be hot-wired. There's no easy access to the 12v battery so no quick way to disable the alarm. The phone app and Tesla telemetry system will be telling you where the car is and so far I've personally never had the app not be able to contact the car, regardless of where I was parked. I guess that might be an issue in an underground garage where there was no cell service available, but that's probably also a pretty secure location anyway.
 
I don't think the model S will be a theft target, at least any time soon. The market for shopped out parts is almost non existent right now. Thieves would much rather go steal a honda accord which has a very liquid market for parts then to figure out how to make money on MS parts without getting caught.
 
Joy riding is really impossible in a Model S unless you're fool enough to use valet parking or someone steals the fob.

I agree. Unless someone steals the fob, it can't be stolen - at least at this point. If someone does steal the fob, you can track it down using your smartphone and call the police. If they steal your fob and iphone, you might have some trouble but I suspect you could just call Tesla and they would send a remote kill along with the coordinates for the police to collect the car.

Way easier targets out there than the Model S and likely ones which can be parted and sold off to much better returns. I would worry much more about your teenagers than a thief (if you got em).
 
The Club Brake Lock is a simple device that prevents depressing of brake pedal and therefore starting the vehicle. It is "old tech"; but in some situations may deter theft when a fob is lost, stolen or cloned.

The club is easily defeated using a small hacksaw to cut through the steering wheel (a battery powered grinder would be even quicker). About the only time it's successful is if you are parked next to another similar vehicle without the club, otherwise it's hardly a bump in the road to stealing your car.