I'm currently interning with an investigative engineering firm and we commonly do vehicle theft. Although most are just insurance fraud (you'd be suprised how many there are), some are actually real.

The real thefts almost NEVER occur in a vehicle that has an immobilizer system in it as the the common car theif has no where near the amount of tools to hack the system (its very difficult despite what bs magazines say). The easiest thing to do is NEVER leave your OEM key OR valet key in the car! Without that key and its little mircochip, your almost golden.

There are other obvious things to do as well. A loud annoying alarm will deter most theives, parking in a safe area (preferable a garage), etc. Its really common sense stuff that helps the most.

Oh, and as far as professional theives go, low jack won't help. By the time you realize its stolen, the cars on a shipping container where the GPS won't even work. IMO, they are a waste really. I wouldn't even want a stolen car back.

 

Lojack works best in big cities where the police can get the car before it leaves town. If the car leaves the metro area or is beyond the police jurisdiction then Lojack doesn't work anymore.

The factory immobilizer does more than cut the fuel pump (which is all that's described in the Honda manual). I've bypassed the fuel pump and it still won't start so I'm assuming the ECM fails to fire the injectors or spark plugs or both (probably both). In that case you'd need to bring your own ECM with matching key (meaning you already have an S2000).

I too have a friend in the "insurance/theft/investigation" business and the insurance companies he deals with have said the only real thefts of S2000s have been hauled away on flatbeds and there haven't been many of those. They had several "key thefts" and one "trailer theft" that were all traced back to the owners. It seems they had trashed the mechanicals from abusing the car and were hoping to get a new car after it was "stolen". Some of them didn't even realize the car had an immobilizer and had faked a "hot-wire" scenario. Not too bright.

 

I'll be in NorCal (Sacramento & SF Bay Area[Berkeley/SF]) so it sounds like LoJack might be decent idea for this area. Is there any real sense in getting a car alarm? Will it really help prevent interior theft, or will they just bypass/cut it? Just weighing my options at this point...thanks!

 

you guys should head over to the SFlorida forums, they're breaking into and driving off with our S's on a regular basis now, almost 3-4 a month on avg.