are car alarms a thing of the past?!

[BoostedD1]

please discuss...

I remember the old school annoying yet cool clifford, alpine and viper alarms... but I realize now as an adult that insurance covers a new vehicle... exc....
Yet it will never cover and replace all your custom expenses like a custom stereo setup or a race car setup.

[abecx]

thanks denny for install lojack

[BoostedD1]

Lojack can be located through concrete and steel?! And no monthly fees. Pretty cool.

[8mpg]

ask EW (if hes still around)

[jluv]

Why would car alarms be obsolete? They become more important every year, in my opinion, if you live or work in the city. Thugs everywhere. I'd be freaked out without one down here.

[EW]

Many people think their factory keyless entry is an alarm. Usually, it is not. Sometimes it is but they will only detect if the door is opened and nothing else.
The modern stuff is better than ever. Only you care about your car so communication through your phone if it is going off is great. You don't have to put 15 sirens on it to try to make it loud so you can hear it if it is triggered. The cheap alarms are still cheap but the good ones give you lots of information through the remote and control over the sensors. The sensors are better than ever and the good stuff does not false when adjusted correctly. Hopefully the alarm will at least make the criminal break into one of the other 99% of cars without an alarm.

[ceyko]

Yeah, I was on the Viper/Clifford bandwagon back in the 90s as well. These days we're so accustomed to the honking and whatever that no one really pays attention to it anyway.

That's why those pager alarms back in the day were cool, but as EW states if it goes directly to your phone - that adds real value.

In the end though, if folks want your crap they are going to get it. You have to decide what makes more sense. I personally don't have nice stereos/electronics in my cars any more and nothing gets stolen as a result. When I had nice stuff, a 200 deductible and an alarm - stuff got stolen - so paid the 200 dollars and had new rattles/not the same as before.

[Labora]

I have been meaning to get one for one of my cars, at this point I think it is pointless to have the alarm but a GPS unit would be worthwhile.

[IHaveAMustang]

I drive a Ford Taurus.

Who needs an alarm when your have car camouflage in the form of generic 4 door that has no part out incentive .

[4bangen]

I just put a $20 stereo in my $600 van, come and get it.

[Grimpala]

With the wife's new impala you can locate it with an app on your phone. I send her addresses and locations through the app to her GPS all the time. I'm sure some savvy crooks could override this system, but your average joy rider wouldn't think to do that.

[mardyn]

I had an alarm on my Pantera that alerted to a pager that I carried back in the 80s.

Damn thing went off one time while I was in a meeting and I went running out to parking lot like a crazy man....

false alarm I guess.

mardyn

[lowthreeohz]

Lojack can be located through concrete and steel?!

maybe in limited depths/thicknesses but that is not a true statement across the board.

[CexMashean]

My 2008 didn't come with an alarm or remote start. I added a two way paging clifford unit that also functioned as a turbo timer. My car will still be the most annoying thing ever when the alarm starts going off, but my keychain remote also starts flipping it's shit so I know it's happening. I'm about 125-150 yards away from my car right now and my remote can still communicate with it.

[Chili]

With the wife's new impala you can locate it with an app on your phone. I send her addresses and locations through the app to her GPS all the time. I'm sure some savvy crooks could override this system, but your average joy rider wouldn't think to do that.

We have that on Lea's son's car. Viper product that we got from EW. We can check the location of his car from our phone anytime (including speed and direction of travel). We can also set alerts for speed, if he leaves a preset area, or if the vehicle is moving at all after certain hours.

The systems has other functions as well, but we only bought the GPS tracking piece.