Help! How do I protect my purchase?

[vegas300c]

So I live in a nice area but I work downtown. Some of my co-workers told me that people were looking through my windows and touching my TIS 20's. I wish i was because they admired it, but I think they had other things on their mind. I already have wheel locks. Their are other nice cars in the lot like a zo6 vette and a H2, but I guess mine draws the most attention. What alarms are not too expensive but will do the job? What's the best way to protect my new purchase?

[Alsmag]

I used to have a sweet lil snub-nose .357 revolver I'd take on collection trips when I worked for a pay phone company. Not sure why...but it got people to move away a lil faster.

[HEMEEE]

I did put Lojack on mine, which will help with recovery, but in reality I get the greatest sense of peace from just accepting the fact that if someone is bent on taking the car they are going to take it and there's not a helluva lot I can do about it... except have insurance

[wesexcellence]

There are alot of tracking devices on the market. We are putting the Viper piece on mine. When combined w/ a security system, your cell will ring w/ a pre-recorded message when your alarm sounds. If stolen, you can track it from any computer and so can the cops. The other benefit is that you can track where your car has been up to 2 weeks back.
Talk about big brother........

[NDENT]

How much something like that cost Wes ?

[wesexcellence]

Originally Posted by NDENT

How much something like that cost Wes ?

About $800. or so installed. Plus you need a monthly monitoring of about $10.

[Tha187um]

Originally Posted by wesexcellence

There are alot of tracking devices on the market. We are putting the Viper piece on mine. When combined w/ a security system, your cell will ring w/ a pre-recorded message when your alarm sounds. If stolen, you can track it from any computer and so can the cops. The other benefit is that you can track where your car has been up to 2 weeks back.
Talk about big brother........

Ok, how is this benefit? when you tell the wife you were working late and she tracks you back to find out you were in happy hour with the boys

[CottyGee]

I put LoJack with Early Warning on mine. It's GPS satellite tracked - if the car moves without the little fob with it, it emails me, emails my wife, calls home, calls my cell and calls my wife's cell.

[majestic]

Like Hemeee said... you can put whatever alarm or antitheft deterrent on your car.. but if someone wants your $h!t... they'll take it.

The only thing you can do is invest money into making it more unpleasant and more difficult to steal. For example... if you get an alarm... it's pretty well usless without a backup siren and some sort of ignition/starter kill. From my experience as a car audio installer, a person who will attempt to steal your car will either jimmy the window/door, set the siren off, pop the hood and cut your siren. Now they have all the free time in the world. If they have more than one person this can be accomplished VERY quickly without anyone really noticing. One thing I often upsell is a backup siren (120 - 160db) that can only be disarmed with a key (which you would have). Even if the theif was to cut the backup siren and chuck it as far they could... it would still be screaming in mid air as they threw it (because of the built in battery that charges it). Now another thing you can do is hook up a hood release lock which also operates with a key. So if someone was to break into your vehicle and try to pop the hood they could not gain access to the engine bay without the key (which you would also have). This deters them from cutting the siren, cutting power to the vehicle, etc.

One other thing I can suggest is optional sensors. Most people will go for a tilt/motion sensor or a proximity sensor.

Ultimately tracking is one of the best features however can get pricey and sometimes I've seen cars stripped before they locate it (theives work quick and even quicker in teams).

Hope this helps,

Nick

[tekhen]

This is going to sound smart a$$.... but

Comprehensive Insurance.

Like Nick, said if they want it.....