Immobiliser ideas

[indy4x]

Mate of mine has just had a tracker fitted to his 110, the service he has paid for includes location tracking but also if it moves away from home he gets text and email alerts straight away

It is well hidden and has it's own internal battery so even if the vehicle battery is disconnected it carries on working

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Mate had a new Renault Espace, probably 20 years ago, and had a Tracker fitted. At first service, 12 months later, he was told the Tracker installer had used the rear fog light feed as an earth so first time fog light switched on it had blown the fuse. That meant he'd been paying for a service that didn't work. In the end Tracker paid for garage to sort of wiring properly and gave mate something like 2 years free service. Since then he's had maybe 10 brand new cars of far higher value but has never considered a tracker again !

 

[dannyp]

only reason to bother with trackers is to lower premiums if its worth it, police are only botherd about prosocuting the veichel actual owner for anything as then it seems to guilty by default as soon as its stolen they have to prove something they just give up

i dought they would even bother looking up where the tracker said it was but i bet if you went there yourself to round it up they would find something to pin on you

 

[wookie]

It is well hidden and has it's own internal battery so even if the vehicle battery is disconnected it carries on working

Having fitted them in the past, I'm of the opinion that they aren't worth it. The main unit can be hidden but the aerials can't be buried too much or they don't work and there are limited places you can install them which means it's fairly obvious where to look for them, once they are disconnected it's game over.

Sure they allow you to recover your vehicle when idiots take it but anyone with half a brain will be able to successfully steal your vehicle and avoid getting caught.

 

[daleyd]

Years gone by cars didn't even have locking doors

My brother had a cortina that was affectionately known as "the skip". He used to leave the doors open as he reckoned that if anyone wanted it theyd just smash the window anyway, not that anyone ever bothered...

 

[Bill Edwards]

Mate had a new Renault Espace, probably 20 years ago, and had a Tracker fitted. At first service, 12 months later, he was told the Tracker installer had used the rear fog light feed as an earth so first time fog light switched on it had blown the fuse. That meant he'd been paying for a service that didn't work. In the end Tracker paid for garage to sort of wiring properly and gave mate something like 2 years free service. Since then he's had maybe 10 brand new cars of far higher value but has never considered a tracker again !

Who'd want to pinch an Espace anyway...?

Like with everything, a tracker has to be installed properly to work, but it's hardly rocket science. The hard bit is making it well hidden.

 

[GW8IZR]

Or, on a serious note, how about something along the lines of ones of these?

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=b...UTF-8#q=car+battery+removable+isolator+switch

Unfortunately as an antitheft device they are a complete waste of time, they are defeated in a fraction of a second with nothing more complex than a piece of twig.

 

[indy4x]

Just had recall moment, 20ish years ago I work in a local garage, used to specialise in Triumphs and MG's but the boss was always looking to turn a profit.

We had a XR3i convertible that came to us from a salvage yard having been stolen and loads of bits go 'missing'. Put it all right and we had a chap come in wanting to test drive it. Was on my own at the time but he left his Audi Coupe and keys so wasn't too bothered. Needless to say it didn't come back and the Audi wasn't his. Reported it to the Police and from our description they knew who he was but didn't do anything. Had a chat with a few of the local shady characters and found out where he lived and then went round at night, found the XR3i and recovered it

Following day he was back at our workshop, bold as anything wanting the Audi back, but too late as the proper owner had been round (local whispernet was amazing LOL) but the Audi had already been collected by it's rightful owner.

He disappears and about 10mins later an RS2000 we had parked on the forecourt disappears off in a cloud of tyre smoke.

Back on the phone to the Feds and still no action from them and this time we were explicitly told to not approach him or attempt to recover the car as he was well know for extreme violence

Few days later during the wee small hours the RS2000 was collected and hidden away in a mates lockup until it had all blown over.

He was eventually arrested and banged up but don't think any of the stuff he did to us was brought up in court and we were never called to give evidence