Can anybody recomend a cheap car alarm?

prl100

Hi there

Witnessed somebody attempting to break into my car last night, luckily they ran off as soon as we switched the lights on (in the house) alerting them to our prescence. My car has sustained a little bit of damage (where they've tried to screwdriver it open by the looks of it) but at least they didn't break a window.

It is in part my fault for leaving something on the back seat - which looked interesting, but was actually worthless.
I would like to get a cheap and cheerful car alarm for the future and wonder if anyone could recomend one?

tykesi

When was the last time you paid attention to a car alarm that was going off? Nobody does so save yourself some money and just don't leave anything on the back seat in future. If a thief wants your car or something in it they will take it alarm or not.

knightstyle

get a shed type alarm fix it with double sided tape near the car, they detect people and have a loud siren, lots for under £10 on fleabay.

AdrianC

For the sake of your neighbours, please don't. It'll do zip to prevent some passing scrote from trying to nick whatever you've left on view, not least because it WILL go off randomly so frequently that everybody in earshot will ignore it.

Strider590

As above, no point fitting one at all.

Just keep everything out of sight, hell you could even leave the glovebox open to show theirs nothing worth stealing.

topdaddy_2

Be more wary whats left in your car and save money by not buying an ineffective alarm.

jimjames

How old is the car? I thought most cars in the last 15 years already had alarms and immobilisers fitted?

scotsbob

If you just want a basic shock alarm then the Crimefighter CF5000 has had a lot of good reports.
A considerably cheaper and possibly just as effective solution would be to install a couple of flashing LED lights displayed prominently. You could get them on Ebay for less than a fiver.

If you really want to seek immediate justice then plenty of American web sites sell alarms that give a nasty electric shock to would be thieves. They might not be fully legal here but a thief is not in a position to complain.

prl100

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

To answer some of your questions, my car is a '98 VW Lupo, it has no close-able glove box - just a little cubby hole (which was clearly empty). My car does have an immobiliser, which would prevent it from being stolen, but definitely no alarm fitted. It also does not have electric windows or central locking which I think makes it an easier target for thieves?

I usually do remember to leave the car empty, but on this occasion I absent mindedly left a large plastic white tray on the back seat. I think this may have looked like a white box (like a DVD player box, or maybe a laptop box) in the dark, to the thief hence why they tried to get it.

The response from most of you seems overwhelmingly against fitting an alarm, so I may take the advice from scotsbob and put some flashing LED lights on the dash to give the impression of an alarm - that and make a more conscious effort to leave the car totally empty!

Thanks

AdrianC

prl100 wrote: »

It also does not have electric windows or central locking which I think makes it an easier target for thieves?

Only in that it's easier to forget to fully close a window or lock all the doors.

poppasmurf_bewdley

I had two cars in the past 10 years which didn't have an alarm fitted. In each of these cars, I fitted a flashing red LED bulb into a prominent position on the dashboard/centre console which cost about a fiver from Maplins. These could be seen from outside the car, even in daylight. Cheap and cheerful.

I never had an attempted theft from either car.