mister_johnn

https://www.gbnews.com/lifestyle/cars/toyota-lexus-drivers-compensation-keyless-car-theft

Ok. Try asking about this one, seems to be doing a similar job to Ghost

Have you tried looking into Meta track 5 with deadlock and OBD immobilizer? Someone on the forum said that he had this on his ES and you get a better package... A bit more expensive, but might be a good option... He said that he had 2 theft attempts on his ES, and ended up selling it to avoid more attempts because damage will still be done even if they can't drive the car away... https://www.trackershop-uk.com/metatrak-s5-deadlock-pro.html

Looking forward to know the story... In the meantime another theft attempt on an RX and other 2 stolen last night in the London area... More details here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/794001950679901/permalink/7043584442388256/

You are right, this is not for everyone without some experience in electronics. The hardest part is to find the power cables by using a multimeter, and make sure everything is insulated properly after the connections are done. I still recommend the Garmin Mini 2 as a dash cam. Being so small can be easily fitted at front or rear without causing any distraction when driving. Their application is not great for getting video footage from the camera via WiFi, but as long as you can remove the MicroSD card and put it in a laptop you should be good. Their application doesn't split the video in sections (like every 1 min, 3 min) so you end up having a very long video and is very hard to trim by using the app, most of the time is crashing. I didn't use NextBase yet, but my previous dash cam were from Xiaomi and I can say that their software was easy to use and never crashed, the videos were good quality. At the end of the day I recommend any small dash cam which doesn't cause a distraction when driving, without a screen, with WiFi, and a good quality video in which you can read the number plates other cars. Regarding the installation of a dash cam you have 2 options, the simple one is to use a USB from the car to power the dash cam and you can hide the cable under the panels or to get power from the fuse box by using a fitting kit for dash cams that includes all the necessary extras, there's plenty of videos on YouTube on how to do that, and you can hide the cables under the panels. Not hard, but it shouldn't cost much to have it fitted either, it's all up to your budget.

I ended up buying a Garmin Mini 2 because is one of the smallest dash cams without a screen, has WiFi, and went the extra mile by fitting it in the mirror. Had to take down the case from the dash cam, make a good cooling system for the CPU, add a power converter plus a few modifications to the plastic case of the mirror. I like to keep everything nice and tidy, so I took power from the mirror and avoided having extra cables coming from the fuse box or cigarette lighter. All that was noticeable to the mirror was the camera lens next to the mirrors light sensor. I had similar setups in my previous cars, but with different dash cams.

The only cars in the same category are Mercedes E Class, BMW 5 Series, Audi A6, Volvo S90, and maybe a few more. But none of them have a great hybrid system to bring them in line or close to Lexus in regards to fuel consumption or reliability. This is only for the PHEV cars, I didn't consider petrol, diesel, or Tesla Model S (as a fully electric option) because they stopped manufacturing it in the UK around 2020. I will try to make a small summary of what are some main differences/advantages/disadvantages between these cars: - all of them have a 2L petrol engine, so should have similar MPG. About 30 MPG in the city and 35 on the motorway with an empty battery. If you have a driveway then you can improve your MPG by charging the battery overnight, newer models have bigger batteries and you can drive pure electric up to 50 miles. - performance is by far the best with the Volvo S90, the PHEV models have a turbocharger and supercharger. - included tech is more with Volvo. You get remote access in case you forget your keys you can use your phone, remote pre-conditioning like cooling/heating cabin/seats, defrost windscreen, with the rest you have to pay for the most basic things like reversing camera, blind spot monitor, adaptive cruise control, automatic tailgate or other. - booth space 360L Audi A6, 370L Mercedes E Class, 410L BMW 5 Series, 460L Volvo S90, 430L Lexus ES - I haven't found any report or news regarding the theft of a Volvo with a reg plate over 2020, searched on social media, news, and any place possible on the internet. If you know one, please let me know. - when purchasing a new Volvo you get the option to buy a service plan up to 5 years or 90.000 miles (serviced every 18.000 miles) for around £1.150 or £699 for 2 years or 36.000 miles for a pre-approved used. BMW is £1.080 for 2 years or 36.000 miles, Mercedes is £1.152 for 2 years or 20.000 miles, Audi is £520 for 2 years or 20.000 miles. Lexus is £885 for 2 years or 20.000 miles. All are pre-approved, I'm sure most of them have a deal for new cars, but I am looking for a pre-approved one. - Volvo has most of the controls on the central tablet which can be distracting while driving. The rest like design, ride quality, and other things are debatable as we all like different things. I miss my ES, but I want to sleep relax and not think about being stolen or damaged, and so far Volvo ticks the most important boxes for me... for you might be different.

Where did you see the price? Have you contacted the seller?

I had the 2021 version with the big screen without touchscreen and I tried improving it by adding an Android box with wireless Android Auto or Apple CarPlay and I was able to install anything from Google Play Store, like Netflix, YouTube, Games, Facebook, Instagram... I can say that watching a movie on Netflix felt like being in a cinema due to the sound, but most of the movies didn't play on the whole screen... Any apps available on the store were available... Which sounds great, but because of not having touchscreen capability it was infuriating using the touchpad because is not precise and the games didn't work at all and felt like a very bad experience... I tried adding a Bluetooth keyboard, a PS5 controller and still didn't work properly... so I ended up selling the device and only used the screen when I was reversing, or to switch off the AC from the menu because there's no physical button in the car (I have some friends which don't like AC), or during winter to use the wiper defrost, sometimes my other half to change radio stations... Other than that I kept the map showing on the full screen and avoided using it, most of the controls have buttons somewhere... Personally I didn't like the infotainment system from Lexus because it felt outdated. I had previously the IS300h from 2014 and almost everything was exactly the same, even the quality of the reversing camera hasn't changed... But once you have the car you start forgetting about these things and really like the way it drives, its reliability, best MPG in its class, comfortable, quiet... Then you find out that it can be easily stolen, its value drops and in the worst case it does get stolen... so instead of thinking about the infotainment system you end up stressing about the car's value or how to keep it safe... maybe I went too far, but it's the sad reality.

I was doing some research regarding 3rd party immobilizer for PHEV cars, and I stumbled upon this: https://youtube.com/@IKARkeyless4go?si=CCVTDMncaBx5fUZc This is a YouTube channel where they advertise devices for stealing cars, Toyota and Lexus included. I noticed that they have a video on the device (JBL speaker) used to steal a Toyota/Lexus... The guy is a bit slow to do the demonstration, but he just wants to prove that this device can do it:

This reply from Lexus gets me ... they had quite a few chances of advising me (or anyone else) about theft rising on these models, they are aware, but obviously will never admit it. I wish there was a way to find all the people affected (Lexus and Toyota) and take them to court... Almost 2 months later I'm still waiting for a settlement payment which made me lose about £8.500 in 1 year of ownership, plus the fact that the insurance doesn't cover extra costs... a week before the car was stolen I did a full service, tires, wipers, MOT... costing almost £1.500... so yes, almost 10k down... plus when I purchased the car I was "lucky" to buy it almost 4.4k under the market value (according to Autotrader)... Plus my insurance premium will be up for the next 5 years... 😠 Sorry for the rant, but felt the need to say it...

I wish mine was one of them... Missing my ES...

Forget about key cloning. CAN theft is what you should be worried. My car was stolen 2 weeks ago... If you want to still find the car the next morning make sure you fit an immobilizer and a tracking system, but damage will still be done... read the thread about CAN BUS theft! The administrators from this website mixed all conversations about all people discussing about their stolen ES so it might be very difficult to read or understand...

Do you have a link or a picture with the article? That sounds about right... I'm 1 million % sure that Lexus is aware of this and they won't admit it until is too late...

I was waiting to see your post regarding the sale... I'm happy that you finally let it go. At least you still had a car to sell compared to others, including me... I was kind of expecting the replies you've got from the dealers, but at least you found a good one in the end. I might need to make a post regarding the refund of a service plan, as I have no car to service so I'm just curious how easy will this be. I've sent them an email and waiting for a reply. Mondeo is a good car and I'm sure you won't need to worry about car theft too soon... Did you copy/paste from the insurance claim? 🙂 My time to move on will follow once the claim is over and I won't be looking back. That means that they know but they won't admit it... and all Lexus and Toyota are subject to this vulnerability, no matter what model it is.