[Flowki]

How desirable is the new Mini to thieves??? Anyone got any thoughts on the effectiveness of immobilisers, vs manual locks, vs alarms, vs Tracker??? Esp. if the windows go down and the car unlocks itself...

What have you gone for?

Flowki

[zoooooom]

Quote:

Originally posted by Flowki
How desirable is the new Mini to thieves??? Anyone got any thoughts on the effectiveness of immobilisers, vs manual locks, vs alarms, vs Tracker??? Esp. if the windows go down and the car unlocks itself...

What have you gone for?

Flowki

If the window goes down its still immobilised and steering locked.

Tracker: Picture this some Ahole manages to nick your car,thrashes the living daylights out of it and uses all the wrong gears.
DO YOU REALY WANT THIS CAR FOUND AND RETURNED
no I thought not.

[Racer]

My tracker experience

Scenario 1 Car is nicked - and parked (legally) prominently by thief ie on A road outside police station if police don't take any notice of it it's not trackered, thief returns and drives it to his bat cave

Scnario 2 Thief keeps eye on car for days / weeks knows how long it is until you return (ie all day at train station) - Nicks car drives it straight to his bat cave - you activate tracker 5 hours later by which tim,e its in the bin (and your cars probably following)

Scenario 3 - You get 'active track' which switches itself on if car is removed without deactivating (ie Scenario 2) - Thief talks to friends who have friends only a limited number of places to hide tracker device - Thief removes device and drives to bat cave


Scenario 4 (yawn) - You pay big wedge to have tracker fitted insurance company give you 10% discount (but reduce their risk substantially - agree smiffy ?) If you keep car for 10 years you might just get your moneys worth

I've had tracker on two high value / high risks cars but wouldn't do it again - Not worth it IMHO

[AER]

How are they going to find it? The only person that theoretically know's where it is, is the installer, so the thief will have to strip the car down to find it and remove it, by the time he's done it, nice Mr Copper will be standing behind him, ready to nick the thieving ***.
If the car has been stolen for a reason i.e. to be broken for parts/stolen to order/to go overseas, then the thief knows when and where to take it to get it stripped down/out of the country, before you have managed to activate it.
The majority of thefts (dependent on area/car) are done by opportunists for a joy ride etc then dumped. On this scenario, you tend to get the car back sooner or later, either when they are caught by the police or when it's recovered by them.
If the cars your pride and joy, then it's worthwhile.

[zoooooom]

I have to disagree Tracker is a great idea for plant etc but for a car?thats what I pay Insurance for.

[Racer]

Because of the nature of the tracker 'unit' it can only be fitted in a certain number of places per car and just like all thiefs know how to get into your car in 2 seconds they know where to find a tracker 'unit'

Trackers not all bad but you have to be very emotionally attached to your car to want it back bad enough for tracker to be financially worth it

[AER]

It depends on how much you are prepared to fork out as well. For eg, it costs approx £200 to supply and fit tracker, £99 per year fee (std tracker fitting), you now get approx 10-12% discount on your insurance. Car gets stolen, police recover car in a matter of hours, any damage is put right by your insurance company, you either keep or sell (premium goes up next year). Or, you have an alarm that nobody takes any notice of, car goes, is found either burnt out/written off or returned to you in the coming weeks/months. If insurance company has paid out due to taking longer than the specified period in finding it, the car is theirs, they will have only paid you trade value for your car upon the loss, so you lose the balance (unless that is insured as well) AND your insurance premium goes up.
You have no car, seriously out of pocket, and have to buy a new car, let alone pay off any finance you may have on it.
I would rather have the car back, repaired admittedly (to my std, not insurance companies!), and then sell it if you have lost faith in it, recoup your losses and then buy another, transfer the tracker to another car if need be.

I have been reliably informed that the tracking device can be fitted any where on the car, is not affected by heat etc, therefore there are inumerable areas the thief would have to look.

[Racer]

AER

It's worth remembering that the £200 +£99 p.a. fee is for std find and recover - You have to know your car has gone before you can notify Tracker and then hope that a passing police car gets the tracker signal - It's not like the GPS orientated examples which cost substantially more -

IF I were to have one again I would definitely go for a GPS constant monitoring system that knows immedaitely the car is moved without the device being turned off.

THe GPS based systems are probably worth it giving you a great chance of retrieving in good state and quickly - Basic tracker WELL we'll have to agree to differ

As for fitting heat doesn't affect but the signals mean it shouldn't be placed where it can interefere with electronics (whole of front) or ABS (all four corners) or speakers (few more places) hence it might not be so difficult to find.

Tracker guy who came to service mine once without knowing where it was got to it in about 2 minutes !!!

Racer

[AER]

scary!

what stops fitter's letting slip, where they commonly instal the units?

[Racer]

Exactly - in the pub on the train !!! - Sitting here quite bored PM me if you want to go to chat?

[batemano]

The thief might not know that the car has a tracker.

[smiffy]

I did read a story before that a guy had a tracker fitted to an Escort Cossie & he left the tracker book in the car & the details of where they put it. They removered the tracker & left it on his door step

[Rebbit]

Anyone know how the Tracker Monitor system works ?

Supposedly it knows the car has been moved without the owners authority - but how can it do this unless its connected to the central locking or alarm ?

They say an increasingly common type of theft is where the thief gets hold of the keys and just opens the car up and drives it off - just like the owner. Which leaves me wondering if the Tracker Monitor system would still be able to know that it was unauthorised movement.

[ricardo]

Quote:

With TRACKER Monitor, a sophisticated sensor detects any unauthorised movement of your car, even if it is towed or lifted away. It then sends a warning signal to TRACKER's 24-hour monitoring centre who will call you to alert you of the possible theft.

TRACKER Horizon operates in the same way as TRACKER Monitor with one exception. TRACKER Horizon also has a satellite locating device installed. Using the Global Positioning System constellation of 24 satellites, TRACKER Horizon enables the TRACKER control centre to immediately establish the geographical location of the stolen vehicle through its GPS mapping screens. The Police then use TRACKER's proven radio transmission technology to pinpoint the location of the stolen vehicle wherever it may be hidden, including steel containers and garages where other satellite systems fail to maintain contact.

The above comes from the Tracker site.

[Rebbit]

Yes, but it doesn't say how this sophisticated sensor works. It all comes down to the simple question "can it figure out if the person with the keys is the authoirsed driver or not ?"

[Racer]

Absolutely not hence the discussion AER and I were having higher up the thread - whats more only Tracker Horizon with GPS(see my earlier comments) can actually pin point your car - Otherwise you rely on the car being driven past a police car or the police car driving past the car - Both quite unlikely after all if you've just nicked a car you wouldn't go driving up some policemans a*** would you !

GPS system DOES NOT work out of GPS range ie underground car parks garages or the thieves bat cave

[ricardo]

I'm not saying they're necessarily a good investment on a vehicle with the value of a MINI and your money may be better spent on other devices. However, tracking systems seem to have had remarkable success in:[list=1][*]recovering stolen cars[*]helping police catch the villlains.[/list=1]
Another thing to consider - if you pride and joy is nicked, getting it can be more important than you first imagine.

If not the consequences can go way beyond the inconvenience and financial discomfort of losing your car. A few years back, a friend of mine had a Nova that was stolen near Cardiff. After being absent for a couple of days, it was found abandoned and apparently undamaged - the police informed the owner. But before the vehicle had been picked up, it was taken away again by a lad of about 14. The boy lost control of the car and mounted the pavement, killing an 8 year old child in the process.