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Whats anyones opinion of tracker devices for your car? Im thinking of getting one for my new Alfa 156 GTA. Your talking about £1000 for fitting and subscription for the time I own the vehicle. Do they work, are they any good? Any comments would be helpful
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Has your insurance company insisted on a tracker?Has the Alfa 156 a record of getting stolen and not coming back?
My alarm fitter tells me that the low life that steal cars that never come back know which cars have tracker and by putting it into a modern steel and aluminium building they can 'work' on it to disable the tracker very quickly,b4 any signals are picked up.
Could be an Urban Myth.
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I suppose it depends on what you want really.
Personally I think £1000 would go a long way to paying extra premiums due to a theft claim.
You already pay Insurance, why pay more money for their benefit?
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had tracker monitor fitted to my m class, unit had fault after a couple of weeks had a phone call after a few minutes to say the unit had been activated so proves the system works.been ok for 2 years now.friend of mine used to be a traffic cop they found plenty of stolen cars intact which had tracker on.i think the monitor is better as they tell you when something is wrong,peace of mind for me.
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You already pay Insurance, why pay more money for their benefit?
If you're particularly attached to your car, if you view it as more than just an expendable lump of metal, I suppose?
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You already pay Insurance, why pay more money for their benefit?
Trackers have reunited a large number of cars & owners. Surely the most compelling argument in favour is that a higher number of scroats end up in front of the beak!
The £1000 sounds a lot - I didn't pay much over £400 for "like of the car" cover.
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oops "life" of the car, cover.
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My alarm fitter tells me that the low life that steal cars that never come back know which cars have tracker
How? - other than if the owner has posted a sticker to that effect (to which I believe Tracker expressly say, *Don't*, on the basis that the low life should get no warning of its presence and you're therefore more likely to recover the vehicle undamaged).
Oz (as was)
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My sons bodyshop had 3 breakdown trucks pinched in 6 months...never saw them again. Insurance would`t cover unless Tracker fitted on new truck. That was pinched and thieves arrested in 15 minutes by police using helicopter.All these vehicles were in locked workshop under alarms and cctv.They pinched cctv as well, along with a steam cleaner.
I have Tracker fitted to my car now and get 10% off car insurance.
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Oz
Never under estimate the bad guys and their intelligence on such matters.
Many moons ago, lifted two guys who had travelled some 60 miles down to us and they screwed the bungalow of a lady that had left for a holiday in Oz (no coincidence)only 4 hours after she had left her house.She left none of the usual telltale signs.
Quizzed them as to how they knew house was unoccupied. All I got out of them was that they had been trained on house observations whilst serving in the Army in Northern Ireland.
DVD
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I think the RAC trackstar looks better. Not only gives you theft coverage, but can tell if the vehicle is stolen before you do and can be used to give your exact location in an accident or breakdown in a strange place...
Plus, it can be paid for outright so there are no more service charges to pay every month.
Blue
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A cynical question I have on the subject of trackers
How do you know you've got one?
You pay a a dealer money to fit one, then pay subscription. The only time you'll ever know if it's there is if your vehicle is stolen, AND it's recovered AND the recovery is down to your tracker device!
I've had dealings with a dealer which seems to be incompetent in many ways who admitted that a vehicle they were selling with a tracker fitted didn't have a tracker fitted! They had it fitted between them closing on the Friday night and me picking it up on Saturday morning!
And with the idea of faults. If it goes wrong, how do you know?
I'd imagine an annual check-up would be a good idea. They tell the tracker to emit a test signal. This will show it is fitted and is still working!
cheers
Durelli - son of a famous Italian tyre maker
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As a recent buyer of a boxster (I collect it on Saturday) I too have been looking at both tracker vs trackstar. I appreciate all the advice given above and would welcome more feedback.
In short the optiions are:
Trackstar from RAC at (1)£499 or (2)£599 plus £120 per year with the difference being that (1) you tell RAC your car has been stolen and they then track it or (2) your trackstar device tells RAC your car has been stolen and they tell you it has been stolen.
Couldn't understand why they didn't have a third option of the car telling RAC, RAC telling police, police finding and phoning you and RAC returning car to you - afterall you are paying £620 for the pleasure in the first year!
Second option is Tracker.
Three prices and options levels (1) Retrieve £249 (2)Monitor £449(3)Horizon £674. PLUS £99 per year subscription.
Their site quotes the following.......
Retrieve = You tell TRACKER when your car has been stolen and the system is activated to send out a unique signal which the police will follow knowing it is your car.
Monitor = The system detects any unauthorised movement of the vehicle and sends a theft-warning signal to TRACKER's 24-hour monitoring centre. This means we tell you if we think your car is being stolen, enabling us to activate the system and begin tracking as quickly as possible once you've reported it to the police.
Horizon = combines TRACKER's Monitor system with the company's own satellite based Global Positioning System. This means that TRACKER's control centre can immediately establish the geographical location of the stolen vehicle and relay this information to the Police who then use their TRACKER equipped vehicles to identify its exact location, wherever it may be hidden.
Will probably go for option 2 but would be interested in your comments.
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Wait....
I have just bought a Smartnav device (www.smartnav.com) primarily for navigation purposes. It has some advantages and disadvantages over regular SatNav. It was £625 fitted and connected. There are various ways to pay the ongoing subscription - 0.89 per route, or £120 per year or £300+ for longer options. (As it happens, mine was fitted last Thursday but isn't yet operational due to some mix-up over the SIM card.)
SmartNav have just announced two add-ons. One is GPS Speed camera locator for an additional £6 per month, the other is like Tracker and is £8 per month. (It all looks very good until someone cuts the cord to the GPS antenna though - this is mounted in the corner of the dash while not obvious to a scrote, might be obvious to a hardened crim!).
I have no connection with smartnav btw
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