Car tracker recommendations and questions

SouthLondonUser

Can you recommend a tracker for a car – one to be connected directly to the wiring of the car, so it turns on and off with ignition? Oxford make a portable one which is relatively cheap, but activating and deactivating it every time with the phone is a pain.

How much of a battery drain would a tracker be? The battery on my motorcycle lasts for more than two weeks with the tracker (and the bike not in an underground garage), so I’m hoping it shouldn’t be an issue with a car.

I don’t own a car yet; I am not planning to buy a Maserati and, yes, I fully appreciate that nothing can make a vehicle impossible to steal – I’m wondering if a tracker might make sense because I’d only use the car at weekends, and I fear a situation where it might take a week for me to realise the car has, in fact, been stolen. I don’t have a driveway, I’d park somewhere in the neighbourhood, so the car may easily be out of sight during the entire week. I am afraid it might not be straightforward to prove the car has been stolen if I only realise it has, and therefore tell the police, after something bad happens – eg the car gets stolen, hits somebody, the police come after me because I am the registered keeper, and I didn’t even know it had been stolen. Or say I get a ticket for something the thief does before I realise it was stolen – how do I prove it wasn’t me driving?

forgotmyname

You want a tracker that turns off with the ignition? Seems a silly idea.

A tracker does not prove you were / were not driving. You prove you were not driving by proving you were elsewhere.

How will the tracker company know its you driving it and not a thief?

I think you have the wrong idea on how trackers work.

SouthLondonUser

I have had a tracker on my motorcycle for a few years so I think I am capable of grasping the concept.
I was unclear, sorry for the confusion. I want a tracker that gets armed and disarmed automatically as I turn the engine on and off. This is how the tracker on my bike works.

SouthLondonUser

Let me phrase my question differently : how does a car tracker know it's the owner, and not a thief, driving the car, and therefore how does a car tracker know if it has to notify the owner/control centre etc when it detects movement?

agrinnall

I had something similar to this when I bought a new Boxster in 2006, although not as sophisticated.

http://www.trackerdirect.co.uk/tracker-locate?utm_source=tracker.co.uk&utm_medium=find%20out%20more&utm_campaign=tracker%20direct&utm_term=Tracker%20Locate%20-%20Car

Looking at the desription I don't think they do know that it's been stolen if the thief uses the key, only if it's been broken into and hot wired. If it's taken with a key they would be reliant on you informing them so that they could then track it.

rudekid48

If the thief has your keys then you would need to report it stolen. A tracker that doesn't take a live feed (I.e. Only draws power when the ignition is on) will have a "tow-away" capability - if it detects movement and the ignition is off then it will send an alert. It would also be less likely to be found by a potential thief using a 'wand' to locate any tracking device. Have a look at swiftrak - that device doesn't take a live feed.

forgotmyname

They do not know who is driving or whether its stolen unless someone reports it as stolen.

Then you use the tracker to locate it. A tracker doesnt know whether a thief or yourself is driving.

Disabled when the engine is off, so they could tow it away and you will never find it because the tracker is disabled?

Or or wired the other way simply providing power will disable the tracker?

You may have a tracker on your bike but you dont seem understand how they work.

SouthLondonUser

Thank you for explaining me I don't understand how the tracker I have been using on my motorcycle for years works. I thought I did, but no, you have enlightened me and I shall be forever grateful :T:rotfl:

Let's take a step back, shall we?

My motorcycle tracker alerts me when it detects unauthorised movement. "Alerts me" means a combination of automated texts and emails, plus phone calls from a response centre manned 24/7. "Unauthorised" means that movement was detected but that the engine was switched off.
It should be self-evident, but, for the avoidance of doubt and for the sake of clarity, this of course means that the tracker keeps working even when the engine is switched off.

How radically different are car trackers?

The trackerdirect website talks about detecting unathorised movement, but it's not clear to me what unauthorised movement means with a car. Motorcycles are stolen loading them onto a van or even simply pushing them from another bike. cars are rarely stolen this way. They could be towed away, but I'd guess that's rare! I imagine cars are typically stolen because thieves find a way to break into and start them - whether that's just by crossing some wires like in the movies or by cloning a key.

forgotmyname

Towed away is not as rare as you may think.

When a certain cabriolet was popular it was not unknown for recovery trucks to roll up and remove it from a persons drive after a bit of research to see when the car is there but nobody was at home.

Neighbours would watch and one even had a chat to the driver who said it had broken down, neighbour thought nothing more until they noticed the police car. Thats when they used to come out and not just issue crime numbers.

When they lift it into the van, if they are professionals it will be lined so any signals wont escape. Unless your tracker detects movement of a couple of feet it wont even know its gone. It may alert you to the lost signal. But no signal from it moving away from its parked position.

sccooter

Technology offers better solutions nowadays. Cheaper at least. just throw a cheap 20 quid bluetooth tracker in the car. Peer to peer tracking. Tileapp trackers have a community of over 8 million Tile tracker users. 100s of users in every 20 square miles or so. One drives past your car and it automatically reports its location back to the app on your phone. Costs next to nothing. Perfect for bikes. Beats spending hundreds and then 100s again on subscriptions each year to tracking services.
https://youtu.be/IkLo6ETvMcg