Dealer installed immobilizer - snake oil?

The thief needs to be held accountable. Every single car can be broken into and stolen, if we try to place blame where it shouldn't your just hurting everyone for living in an area of high crime.

Go after the criminal not the manufacturer.

 

I think Toyota is on the hook for at least one thing. They sell replacement keyless fobs for crazy amounts under the false pretense they are a “key”. Maybe they acted like a key for the few weeks they went with keyless fobs, until somebody got the latest copy of techstream to make new keys at will.

Well, if the cat’s out out of the bag, they should dispense with the charade of 400-600 dollar fob replacements. They should sell and program fobs for 10 bucks, tops!

 

The club is a deterrent though. Thieves want quick and easy, and a club is another step and more time and noise. Any step you can take to prevent theft is a good thing.

 

I agree, however in this day and age manufacturers should be doing a better job to prevent theft.

 

Toyota should be rightfully blamed for making bad design and security practices decisions. For example:

1. Why the same key fob can be added to multiple cars? For example, Mercedes binds key to the car and car to the key. They also ask for proof of ownership prior to selling you a new key. This makes theft via adding new keys rare, there aren't enough blanks around to make it widespread.
2. Why is there no accelerometer in the key? If key wasn't moved for 5 minutes it should automatically shut off.
3. Why can you add a new key to a locked car? Only unlocked car should allow this. If someone loses both keys, well they would need a new module. This is by far lesser evil than having cars easily stolen.
4. (technical) Why is there no gateway module on CAN BUS restricting messages from any modules that is externally accessible?
5. Why is there no PIN-to-start feature?

 

Someone recommended this anti-theft solution: https://www.ravelco.com/ I am considering it.

 

Did you ever install this? How did you like it?

 

Here's a little update. I checked with dealership on my recent service. They gave me a number who installed this "dealership installed security system" and that phone number is not working nor the company exists after almost 5 years. Highly recommend you walk away if the vehicle has "dealership installed security system".

If anyone in Denver CO know a place who is knowledgeable & known to be removing this, let me know. I would like to remove before it start giving problems.

 

Haven't installed yet. Don't know if will void the warranty.

 

True, but maybe I'd like to know just who the thief was. Sometimes bad things happen to bad people.