What do you all do to protect your car? eg Car alarm

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What do you all do to protect your car? eg Car alarm

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I've just got this car and I was wondering what you all do for securing your car?

Have any of you fitted car alarms, do you use steering locks, immobilisers?

My dad has seen an alarm system that he reckons I should get and I just wanted to know what you all use?
 
Alarms are a waste of time IMO, how many times have you heard someone's car/house alarm going off? Did you ever go and see what was happening?

I just put the steering lock on (key out and turn the wheel until it locks) and deadlock the doors (press the lock button on remote twice, hazards will flash 3 times)

Dom
 
I just use the standard factory features at the moment. I am considering one of those little GPS trackers though.
 
Trackers are very good but id only go for a GPS one rather than the cheaper radio frequency ones.

They are expensive though, i would question if its worth it for the fact GPs are very very unlikely to be stolen.
 
I presumed most car thefts now are from scrotes breaking into the house first, then nicking the keys - which of course would have all the remotes on, etc.

Personally, I can't see the point aside from what is standard fit.
 
Might get you some dosh off your insurance which would be welcome if you are young and a new driver but from a practical sense I also see little requirement for an alarm over and above what the manufactures supply and fit to their vehicles. Another option would be to get one of those insurance companies who use boxes fitted to the car to show how you are driving etc. Might be worth a look, again, if you are a young driver.
 
I asked my insurance company if an alarm would reduce my premium and they said as long as its got a Thatcham cat1 immobiliser (which the 500 has) then no. So I left the £300 worth of drinking tokens in my wallet :eek:
 
Yeah deadlocking the doors is a good one. Dombooth also taught me this. 2 years of having my GP and i only recently (4 months ago) was shown this beautiful little trick.

Having a hatchback i like to leave the drivers seat forward, very good deterrent to would-be-thieves who soon realise they can't fit in the seat and abandon their efforts. ... ... ... I jest ofcourse.
 
I presumed most car thefts now are from scrotes breaking into the house first, then nicking the keys - which of course would have all the remotes on, etc.

Personally, I can't see the point aside from what is standard fit.


Correct, its far easier to break into a house than steal a car without keys.

They usually go for german makes or high value stuff though
 
Cheers for your input on this, I'll definitely start dead locking.

And to whoever said about the various alarm going off and people ignoring it, you're right mate but I think it would be a pretty good deterrent to see the red flashing light that shows it is alarmed up also of they do touch it or try anything the loud noise should make them run off shouldn't it?

This is what he has seen...

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=140680779661
 
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You already have a flashing red light on the centre consol.

I'm not a fan of aftermarket security stuff, the factory fit immobiliser means that if your car is going to get stolen it will be with the keys.
 
Well how many of you have an old smartphone lying about? For a while I've been meaning to wire in my old HTC somewhere under the bonnet to keep it always on, put an old sim in and let it keep reporting its location online (will use bugger all data, and none most of the time at home on wifi). Much cheaper and dare I say it more effective than a purpose built GPS tracker.
 
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Well how many of you have an old smartphone lying about? For a while I've been meaning to wire in my old HTC somewhere under the bonnet to keep it always on, put an old sim in and let it keep reporting its location online (will use bugger all data, and none most of the time at home on wifi). Much cheaper and dare I say it more effective than a purpose built GPS tracker.

Not a bad idea, might look into doing that but I was more after a deterrent for people touching it and trying to rob things off it, eg the alloy centre caps because some chav has already stuffed the alloys by trying to do this :(
 
Well how many of you have an old smartphone lying about? For a while I've been meaning to wire in my old HTC somewhere under the bonnet to keep it always on, put an old sim in and let it keep reporting its location online (will use bugger all data, and none most of the time at home on wifi). Much cheaper and dare I say it more effective than a purpose built GPS tracker.

Thats a really good idea! Where would you mount it tho? Also wouldnt heat from the engine damage the smartphone?
 
Well how many of you have an old smartphone lying about? For a while I've been meaning to wire in my old HTC somewhere under the bonnet to keep it always on, put an old sim in and let it keep reporting its location online (will use bugger all data, and none most of the time at home on wifi). Much cheaper and dare I say it more effective than a purpose built GPS tracker.

Not a bad idea, although the GPS on my Samsung isn't usually very accurate especially in rural areas. Don't know if others are any better.

Standard thing with car thieves is for them to park the car up somewhere for a few days to see if its found using a tracker. They usually leave them in multi-storey car parks or out of town locations where the signal will be quite poor.
 
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