RAC Trakstar

[Magaboy]

Rx300SE owner for 2 months.

Does anyone know how long Lexus have recommended this as their default tracker and is this still the case?

[Rodders_UK]

Welcome to the club - it's great to see another RX owner here!!

I know that come of our members have had the TrakStar fitted - I would imagine that they may be reluctant to discuss it due to the seciruty implications though.

[Magaboy]

Rodders....thanks

Sorry I don't want to know if anyone has this fitted i wouldn't want to point any rogues in anyones dirction.

I beleive i have been mislead by my dealer and may take issue with them as they told me Lexus do not fit or reccomend this unit and have not done so for some time. Strange as it appears in thier options brochures still.

[Rodders_UK]

I certainly know of at least one member who has had it fitted on a new Lexus and who is delighted with it.

[pgrier]

My 2001 RX300SE had Tracker fitted to it as an extra. The dealer didn't even mention the RAC product.

I'm happy with Tracker as I've had it in previous cars. Can't say whether it's good or not, as (fortunately!) I've never had cause to use it...

[Wallace]

When we bought our Lexus 12 months ago, Lexus were recommending "Tracker", and Lexus Insurance were offering money towards the cost if you had it fitted. There was no incentive to buy RAC Trackstar.

[spinteews]

I have no idea...

its some kind of GPS in euro???

[Rodders_UK]

Originally posted by spinteews

I have no idea...

its some kind of GPS in euro???

They are devices that report the position of the car if it has been stolen.

[spinteews]

oOoOooo i c

here in america we have something similar called LoJack.

[pgrier]

The problem with the RAC product and the Tracker product is that if someone either steals your carkeys and then the car, or if you're carjacked, the monitoring service isn't alerted, because of course they think that the car is being driven as normal.

This happened to a mate of mine whose house was broken into while he slept, his keys stolen, and his brand new BMW M5 stolen from his driveway.

I think the best product on the market at the moment is NavTrak. This involves you carrying a card in, say, your wallet, which interacts with a chip in the car. If someone steals the keys (assuming they don't steal your wallet at the same time!), and drives the car away, as soon as the car gets 30 feet from the card, the monitoring system is alerted. Works as well if you're carjacked - as long as you get out of the car with the card, as soon as the carjacker drives 30 feet away from you, again the monitoring kicks in.

The other issue to be aware of is that some of these products - e.g. the basic Tracker systems - are radio and not GPS based. This means that, unlike their advertising implies, the car is only found if it happens to pass near a police car. It doesn't mean (as I thought) that there was some magic system that lit up a screen at the monitoring centre saying exactly where your car is.

Tracker Horizon (their top level product) is now GPS based, but if you're serious about wanting to retrieve your car if it is stolen, then consider both a security model that covers key theft, and a GPS based system.

:-)

Paul