Aftermarket tracker.

dori2o

parking_question_chap wrote: »

I think you are confused. A tracker is an electronic device used to locate the object it has been fitted on. I guess they are not often fitted to farm animals so I suppose one can be excused that little error.

@OP, you say if your car is stolen you cannot get to work. Given that a tracker doesnt stop your car being stolen, and then when it does you still have to try and convince the police to investigate something that isnt a "racial hate crime". I think you would be better putting a huge disc lock on the steering wheel, thus stopping it from being stolen in the first place.

Thanks for the advice.

I understand that trackers don't stop the car from being stolen. But it seems neither do alarms these days.

When I insured the car they were asking about trackers, and looking at online comparison I was getting a bigger discount for a tracker than a non factory fitted alarm.

Is there a reason for that?

Regards disc locks is there a preferred company or are all as good as each other?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

dori2o wrote: »

Thanks for the advice.

I understand that trackers don't stop the car from being stolen. But it seems neither do alarms these days.

When I insured the car they were asking about trackers, and looking at online comparison I was getting a bigger discount for a tracker than a non factory fitted alarm.

Is there a reason for that?

Regards disc locks is there a preferred company or are all as good as each other?

Your right alarms don't seem to stop anyone, and at the moment if you ask ford Merc and BMW and Audi they'll tell you the same, sometimes a basic key and a basic transponder fob is they way to go.


You get discounts for trackers because of their Thatcham rating, If you look up Thatcham theyre a company funded by insurers to test all things Vehicular including alarms systems and immobilisers and trackers.
Trackers also have higher recovery ratio to those that aren't fitted to a tracker, That's not to say trackers aren't infallible, Keep a stolen car in the back of a HGV with metal sides and roof it cant see the satellite , therefore your tracking company cant "ping it" to gain its location, or that the thief has pulled out the power to the tracker and or removed it. The best trackers are the ones you can put into a remote alarm the tracker has its own keyfob when you arm it and the trackers senses movement it goes into active alarm and informs your tracker company as an alert, The company calls you to confirm your not driving with it armed and if no answer from you or you confirm to them its gone stolen, they inform police and give live details of its movements and where abouts. These type of trackers, usually give the biggest discounts.

gord115

https://www.carnoisseur.com/products/details/disklok-steering-wheel-lock?gclid=Cj0KCQiA28nfBRCDARIsANc5BFArsYtvStu_a4JMGbWTEN1EAXr1P8YbLWRrLhRSoSYJSNgJfN2As0saAqrcEALw_wcB

Most opportunist car thieves will go for easier pickings with one of these fitted. These were regarded as the best by Which! magazine when I bought mine about 10 years ago. Thatcham approved.

Richard53

Horrendous bickering on this thread.


OP, your car isn't one that is likely to be stolen to order, so a tracker is probably a waste of money. With comprehensive insurance you will be back on the road soon anyway, and as others have said, if the car has been stolen and used by thieves you probably don't want it back anyway.


The threat to your car is much more likely to be joyriders, so focus your efforts on deterring them. A steering wheel lock (Disklok are well regarded, although I use a simple lockable bar through the wheel) is highly visible and hard to defeat quickly and in public. Don't forget the obvious stuff - leave the car empty (even a few coins on display will be tempting to some), lock everything valuable out of sight in the boot, park in well-lit places with plenty of passing traffic, and if possible park next to something more desirable


I have followed the above and haven't had a car stolen in 47 years of driving. The one time I was broken into, I had a desirable car (Capri 2.8i) and had parked in a dark corner in a very dodgy area with my wallet on the passenger seat. Learned my lesson there.


Sorry about the willy-waving contest that some posters have started on your thread. This forum is usually helpful and civilised. Usually.

Goudy

I would save your money on the tracker and have a Thatcham approved immobilizer professionally fitted, your insurance will recognize one of these and offer a discount, but it will take a few years to recoup the cost of it.

Nothing is really going to stop someone determined enough, but you can make it harder for them.

Nearly all trackers work on the mobile network and they can be quite limited.
They also do nothing to stop the theft in the first place.

As already mentioned earlier, the thief blocks the tracker/mobile signal with a cheap and readily available device.
Or
Steals and stashes, so parks it up somewhere, then returns to it once they are sure it's not tracked.
Or
Joyrides in it for the evening before crashing it and setting it on fire.

In all cases you've had your car stolen and they'll have probably done enough damage to write it off or enough that you just don't want it back.

It's more common these days for thieves to steal the keys, either by breaking in to your house, hijack or mugging.
They've even been known to "fish" through the letterbox for them.
With an immobilizer, you can keep the fob and keys separately and further reduce the chance of theft.


In regards to a dashcam, there are some mini ones that fit discretely behind the mirror which can be hardwired into you car's power supply with a suitable hardwire kit.
Your local garage should be able to fit a properly hardwire one in in around an hour.
Have a look here
https://dashcamtalk.com/best-dash-cams-of-2018/
The Mini 0906 and the A119's are popular, cheap and easy to fit and give a decent image.

Halfords sell the BlackVue range, they are similar, but a lot more expensive (even though the internals are made by the same companies), though they should be able to fit and hardwire one for you.

Scrapit

parking_question_chap wrote: »

I really hope you are trolling for your own sake.

Obviously there is a chance any car "can be stolen", thats pretty damn obvious and doesnt really need pointing out.

The responses to OP are based on probability, which is the relevant variable, and in reality, probability the important variable in nearly every decision a person makes.

Let me explain how it works, numbers just for the sake of demonstration.

Example A

Ferrari 458 2017
Value £150,000
Chance of being stolen during ownership 1%
Cost of fitted tracker £350
Tracker cost as percentage of car value 0.233%

Example B
Peugeot 108 2017
Value £7000
Chance of being stolen during ownership 0.1%
Cost of fitted tracker £350
Tracker cost as percentage of car value 5%

Personally I can see there merit of a tracker in example A due to the low cost of tracker relative to car value, but in example B imo the numbers do not stack up to justify a tracker. In addition I would be more inclined to put a tracker on a car that is likely to be the target of "stolen to order" rather than a car that doesnt really have an appeal to professional thieves or joy riders.

How are you generating these likelihood percentages?

James2k

@OP,

You sure it doesn't have an alarm already? Wouldn't bother with a tracker, if it gets stolen it will be by people who will dump it after driving around their council estate.

I would however get a dashcam, they could actually be useful in cases which would otherwise go 50:50

parking_question_chap

Scrapit wrote: »

How are you generating these likelihood percentages?

"numbers just for the sake of demonstration"

Out of thin air, example not an accurate depiction of reality but purely to demonstrate how situations and decisions should be judged on probability.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

James2k wrote: »

@OP,

You sure it doesn't have an alarm already? Wouldn't bother with a tracker, if it gets stolen it will be by people who will dump it after driving around their council estate.

I would however get a dashcam, they could actually be useful in cases which would otherwise go 50:50

In this case then a tracker would be perfect wouldn't it? if its dumped it could be recovered.


I second the dashcam.

Richard53

James2k wrote: »

Wouldn't bother with a tracker, if it gets stolen it will be by people who will dump it after driving around their council estate.

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

In this case then a tracker would be perfect wouldn't it? if its dumped it could be recovered.

If your car is stolen by joyriders, ragged until the tank's empty by a 16-year-old with six drugged-up mates, then dumped in the car park of Nelson Mandela Towers and used as a mobile drug den (or worse), would you want it back?


Personally, I would rather kiss it goodbye, and buy a new one with the insurance money.