Enhanced GPS Car Kits - risk of theft? ideas?

[navguy]

I posted the follow on an unrelated thread and wanted to get some feedback regardless of whether you have a TomTom or going to get Magellan's car kit ...

i received the TomTom kit for Xmas and am thinking that with the value of these mounts, it will be important to remove from window / dash while parked in public places ... these are more expensive than many GPS units that are being stolen from cars every day ... i've never had to remove a mount before, seems like kind of a hassle ... i'm thinking that a future design should take this into account. For example, put the GPS chip and BT capabilities on a removable portion of the mount ... leaving behind the post and power ... the mount then can be removed from phone and placed in a car compartment ... otherwise, the suction will need to be romoved each time and that's a hassle especially since the suction can get dirty and lose it's suction over time ... just thinking ahead on these devices

Is anyone thinking the same thing? ... what ideas or suggestions do you have related to placement in vehicle to minimize or eliminate risk? ... and what future design considerations do you have?

Since the higher cost mounts may influence theft, removing the suction a few times a day is going to be a major hassle!

Thoughts? Thx!

p.s. ... one option is to not purchase in the first place due to cost, but since I received as a gift, that really isn't an option I could consider

 

[ShaneXman]

To be honest, I haven't really worried about someone stealing the mount. I have gone various places, and I just leave the mount up. In my opinion, it doesn't look much different than a standard GPS/phone mount, but maybe as time goes on thieves will become more aware of these particular cradles.

However, I have been researching beanbag mounts, and trying to figure out the best way to make this cradle work with one. I currently have a Garmin beanbag mount in one of my cars, but it has a proprietary locking mechanism that is unique to Garmin.

I was thinking of maybe picking up this Magellan Beanbag Mount...

...that way I don't have to unsuction the mount, I can just pull the whole beanbag off the dash and throw up it back up there when I get back in the car. Much easier than messing with unmounting/remounting.

 

[alamperti]

Is anyone thinking the same thing? ... what ideas or suggestions do you have related to placement in vehicle to minimize or eliminate risk? ... and what future design considerations do you have?

Don't know the situation in the USA, in Italy there are a lot of GPS devices around and several stolen, too. I own a TomTom car kit and I never let it unattended on the windshield. I agree with @ShaneXman it looks similar to a normal cradle, but there's a lot of hype around iPhone and his accessories here. I feel better hiding it

 

[ShaneXman]

Don't know the situation in the USA, in Italy there are a lot of GPS devices around and several stolen, too. I own a TomTom car kit and I never let it unattended on the windshield. I agree with @ShaneXman it looks similar to a normal cradle, but there's a lot of hype around iPhone and his accessories here. I feel better hiding it

I haven't hid it yet, but I will probably start...just to be safe.