I have just bought a (nearly) new car. Is it worth installing a tracker device?
If so, which sort? What are the different types?
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Depends on the car and also whether you would want it back after it had been stolen?
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As Bobby G says - do you want the car back.
When i bought the Impreza last year, Direct Line wanted me to put a tracker on it, whihc i think was £500 to fit and quite a hefty subscription after. I insured with Endsleigh for an extra £100 instead.
I wouldn't want the impreza back after it has had the wotsits driven off it.
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Cost of an annual subscription is for a tracker device?
More than it costs me to pay for insurance - so I won''t be fitting one.
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In most circumstances, trackers help the police and the insurance companies more than they do the motorist.
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A common DIY solution is popular on internet.
You can hide a mobile phone inside the car [with auto answer]. There are some cheaper services where you can locate position of your phone by paying a small fee [much less than a tracker].
Advantage of this method [other than cheaper] is that you can even hear conversation of thieves!
This method is good as long as your hidden phone is not discovered. But same goes for tracker as well.
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A Tracker already fitted to the car I recently bought. Tracker made contact wanting around £125 per year or £350 ish for 'lifetime' cover plus a £25 'registration fee' on top for the privilege of recording my name while they relieved me of said £125/£350!
Without the 'registration fee I would probably have signed up. They wouldn't budge on the fee so said no. imo they were just taking the proverbial.
As said above more useful to Police and insurance industry.
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movilogo wrote:... You can hide a mobile phone inside the car and locate position of your phone by paying a small fee...
movilogo,
I wonder how accurately the phone can be located, I thought it was just the cell - too big an area to be of much use in a stolen car scenario.
Tracker is nothing if not impressive.
I recall it found a bunch of car thieves who were arrested inside a lock-up with a recently nicked rental Peugeot in several dozen pieces around them.
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>>I wonder how accurately the phone can be located...
It's my understanding of the workings of GSM phones that their radial distance from a base station is a known quantity, within about 550 metres.
The phone transmission data is into a timed "slot" at the base station, interleaved with other phone transmissions in adjacent slots.
This delivery is achieved with "timing advance" incrementing from 0 to 63 as you get further from the base station, each increment is another 550 metres away and gives the maximum range of 64x550 - about 35 Km.
If you are in range of two base stations, the phone could be in one of two places where the two 550 metre doughnut shapes intersect.
I believe that temporary base stations are used to triangulate a location in extreme situations.
Edited by Another John H on 07/09/2008 at 17:41
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Drbe
If your (nearly) new MB Exxx goes missing may well be in a container to Nigeria or somewhere before you know its gone :-)
I would not expect joy riders to borrow it and thrash it.
It depends how you cherish your work tool plus you need an "instant" replacement of a like for like model - not a Corsa.
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Drbe If your (nearly) new MB Exxx goes missing >>
henry k - you have been paying attention, haven't you!
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No, dont waste your money. I used to work for a company who put trackers in their vans to spy on the staff. One night a van was nicked, got pinpointed on the tracker but the Police didnt bother going to find it then it disappeared for good. Total waste of time and money. Police would rather read a paper at the roadisde and let the speed cameras earn their brownie points for them than get an innocent theft victim his car back
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I stuck a £15 Nokia 1100 and cigar lighter charger in a project box and fastened it behind the boot trim wired to 12v. As said above, it is not that accurate using www.followus.co.uk/ but may help put two and two together. I think if it was parked in public you would find it within 10-15 mins in another car.
There are some cheaper alternatives to tracker here.
www.followgb.co.uk/
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My Nokia e51 with Google maps pinpoints my location with a 3G location to tens of meters. Not bad.
Tactic for thieves of cars is to park in an underground car park for a bit (so tracker useless) to see if someone coming for it. The mobile phone probably still works though.
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how new is nearly new.
like others have said. do you want it back after it has been thrashed or worse.
use the money to get gap insurance. so if the worst happens at least you should not lose out money wise.
not sure if gap is available on only new cars or not, but i think you have to take it out within 90 days of purchase.
cheers
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I suppose it's also worth getting a Tracker fitted if you have a half-decent car just so that you can check-up on the antics of the dealership staff! (Particularly nice Audi ones)
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