Hey guys,

After hearing so many getthing thier cars stolen or broken into. Is there a good alarm that works well that'll help to deter theives from taking the car or down right unstealable by most theives. Let me knwo, i think i wanna protect my investment.

 

IMO there are aftermarket alarms that are superior than the standard equipment we get here in Europe.

 

alarms are useless......if a thief wants your car......he is going to take it......ever hear of a tow truck?

 

Gary - Nothing short of sitting in your car with a loaded gun will TOTALLY make the car unstealable ( & THAT's optimistic as well!! ). If a thief wants your car, he'll get it eventually. All we can do is make it harder for the CASUAL crook to steal either the entire car or break in for it's contents. The usual rules apply - park in a well lighted area, lock the doors & hide the valuables out of sight ( trunk ). A good alarm might make a joy rider think twice about taking your car but those can be defeated as well. Consider a good alarm ( Clifford, Viper, Ungo ) & pay a good installer a little extra to do a custom job. By this I mean that 99% of the alarms installed today have their brains in the SAME place ( under the steering column & easily accessable upon entry to the car ). Move it to the other side or, better still, in the trunk ( like mine ). Yes, that'll cut down the range of your remote but U can add an external antenna for that. Invest in a backup battery & possibly a pain generator ( for the interior ). Have the installer cover the alarm wires in the same wire loom as the rest of the car's wiring so that the crook can't easily find them ( & cut 'em ). As U can tell from Themis' post, the factory alarm's pretty useless! IMO, it's more of a convenience feature than actual protection.

 

Yeah a tow truck is a good tool for the theives but when they tow a car that has a screeming alarm, thay will get a lot of attention!!

 

I couldn't say it any better. If they want it, they will get it---> that is why you get insurance!!!!

 

That is all true, but i jsut want something that'll deter the car? Do those tracking alarms really do a good job? How about lowjack?

 

I agree with AP0718, if they want to steal your car, let them. Insurance will cover it. If anyone wants to steal mine, let me know and I'll tell you where it's parked. Then I'll take the insurance money and get a nice used GS400. Just document everything you have in the car and make sure everything is covered under insurance. You want to carjack me? No problem. Just make sure that I never get it back or it's so trashed that they have to total it and give me the whole amount.

 

Not much U can do about a tow truck - they're even putting the cars in rented Ryder trucks & when they close the doors, not only can't U see the car but the alarm siren's muffled!!:eek: Only suggestion I have there is to park with your front wheels angles into the curb - makes it harder to hook up a tow bar. About Lowjack - does anyone still offer that? It used to come standard with the higher end Clifford alarms but not sure that it caught on & didn't it require some form of independent tracking service?
Broke - Don't be so confident in your insurance company, at least based on MY experiences! My RX-7 was HEAVILY modded ( bodykit, BBS wheels, aftermarket turbocharger & big stereo ( of course!! ) ). I had pictures & receipts totalling $25k ( including the cost of the car ) but when State Farm finally paid off, I ended up with $16k & change and I had to FIGHT for that much!! Some good neighbor, huh?! I had even purchased an additional rider to cover the mods but afterwards they told me that it only applied to a break in & NOT total theft!!:eek: Some BS about having to consider the car as a whole & not piece by piece, even if those were modded parts. Wouldn't wish it on anyone!!

 

Here is one of the best security system add-ons in my opinion, if you read the information on the web site, you can see that it is impossible to bypass any part of the system.

http://www.powerlock.com/consumerfront.html

 

umm guys.... after market alarms void factory warrenty.....

any time you tap into the cars wiring it voids the warrenty.

 

That's one part that we don't care.

If we have an aftermarket alarm and it cause problems, it'll be that the car is still stolen.

I don't think if you have stock alarm and the car gets stolen, the dealer will pay you back.

 

not the point.......

point is if you do get an alarm and even if your car dosent get stolen....

and soemthing in your car mess's up (defects) the dealer wont fix it for free because you have tamperd with the wiring by installing the alarm and that could of messt with the stuff that is defected now.

 

not the point.

if something is messed up, the shop that messed it up should be responsible. The dealer will not void the whole car's warranty....

It's not like performance parts where if an intake kills the engine the intake manufacturer won't buy you a new engine.

 

Globe's right - it depends on what part's become affected by the alarm. If nothing's come out of all the SEMA shows it's the exposure of owner's rights to modify versus warranty repairs. If U tap into the wiring which controls the power windows with your aftermarket alarm & the windows go out because of it, then U have violated the warranty in terms of repairing THAT feature. However, if the power mirrors go out, those will still be covered under warranty because U haven't tapped into the wires which control that system. Lots of cases on file where owners fought ( & won ) against manufacturers who tried to make them think that by lowering their cars they voided their warranties as they applied to the engines!? :eek: We're not as stupid as the manufacturers think we are!