Hi all,

my S4 was stolen last week from right in front of my house. I am doing some research on vehicle recovery options. Anyone have good info such as personal experience or tech specs on GPS vs cellular triangulation?

There doesn't seem to be any SOLID evidence on either method being better. My research so far shows that either method can be scrambled using handheld scramblers...

Thank you in advance.

 

Are you sure it wasn't some Habs fans upset about Carbo?

Sorry to hear about your S4, I had an 05, nice car.

 

I would say you don't want it back. It will never be the same car you had before.

Just my 2 cents.

 

i know this isnt what you're asking but why not let the insurance handel the loss. more than likely it will be trashed by the thieves

 

Are you saying the car was fitted with a phone AND a GPS based tracker?

GPS will generally always be more accurate than cellular triangulation.

 

Sorry about the delay in response guys. For some reason, I did not get an email informing me about the replies on this thread...

Ya for the S4, I definately don't want it back. Insurance will pay + luckily, I also have dealer bought replacement value so I get all my money back For once, I paid for something extra and that was worth it

But for my Porsche + whatever I am gonna get. I am worried that if they were to get stolen, I might have a problem insuring my cars. This is why I am going for vehicle recovery. Some of these companies promise automated monitoring, meaning they inform you when the car is stolen, not the other way around. The way it works is that you carry arrround an RFID equipped key fob and if the key fob is not detected the system sends a signal to the recovery company which than tracks the car through either a cellular or GPS based system (depending which company).

GPS is more accurate as than cellular triangulation but GPS also has the problem of not working anytime line of sight is broken...

The problem is that either system can be bypassed using handheld cell phone or GPS scramblers. In my readings so far on other boards it seems that depending on the install, it might be easier or harder to scramble the signal. So it isn't a 100% recovery rate with pros but it is still better than nothing.

I wanted to know if there was someone with first hand experience here working with these technologies.

Thank you

 

Thuis true about a car stolen by joy riders or thieves that want to strip that car for parts. With these kinds of cars, most likely, the theif will be careful as the car will be placed in a container and shipped overseas for resale...

 

And just to clarify, my S4 was not equipped with a recovery system. I am researching for future cars.

 

No drama - seems like you're way ahead of where most of us (read me!!) are!

 

lojack?

 

my understanding ok lojack is that it works differently than the systems i am descibing

 

yes, I think LOJACK uses RF signals..