Are car alarms effective?

ShivaYash

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Good evening

I'm toying with the idea of getting an alarm fitted to my car. The secure garage I park in has had a few car break ins recently. Annoyingly, if someone can enter the garage, they have all night to quietly break into the car.

I avoid leaving things in the car, iPods and related cables etc.

But I visited a car audio shop today and spoke to a nice chap who has been installed alarms for 27 years. He has recommended Autowatch as a company and rates them highly. The remote is nice and small, only two buttons and the alarm itself is easy to use. But at £220 fitted its pricey.

So do car alarm prevent theft, could an led light on the dash work equally as well, or a steering lock?
 

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You can get the stickers saying alarm, the flashing LED could put them off, and no different to a car that is alarmed, thieves do not know what alarm is genuine
 

SteveX

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How many times have you heard an alarm in a tesco car park or something and just thought someone has set their alarm off?

The problem is, over time you become a bit immune to car alarms, it almost seems normal to me hearing them go off.

I do look, on occasion and if I saw any strange behavior would do something, but to be honest, more often than not it is just someone setting their own alarm off or a faulty alarm.

I don't think in general they are very effective in public, but they can be pretty useful in the middle of the night when no other noise is present to scare people away or at least wake you up so you can take a look.
 

SteveX

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And in answer to your question, a flashing light is probably as much of a deterent as an actual alarm.

Lets face it, a thief couldn't tell what the LED was wired to, and are they really going to try and brake in to find out if it is real or not?

It will either put them off or it won't, whether you have an alarm to back it up or not.

True some theifs try to rock cars etc to set alarms off, but not all alarms are set off in this way.
 

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And with all the sirens that fail in the MB's from 2003 ish now it just adds to the ignore problem.
 

Frontstep

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My alarm wailed loudly while the thieves stole a Sat Nav from the glovebox.
A lot of thieves won't care if your car is alarmed.
 

SteveX

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And with all the sirens that fail in the MB's from 2003 ish now it just adds to the ignore problem.

This is so true, mine had a failing siren when I bought it, it was going off every now and then for the first week until I realised it was not a cat, or a burgler in the middle of the night but just the car itself!!
 
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ShivaYash

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Many thanks, the question has been answered!

It would however be nice to have remote central locking on the car. Handy when hands are full with shopping + baby etc!

With best wishes to all.
 
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SteveX

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True RCL would be a nive feature if you do not already have it.

Of course, we are just talking alarms here, imobilisers are another story all together, they can and do prevent 'actual' theft of a car by a commited theirf (provided they are fitted well). But they do not stop the break in.
 

brandwooddixon

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If your parking the car well away from you then check out mobile reception.
I would think that one of those alarms that sends you a text message would be quite handy.

You just have to ask yourself whether you'd want to tackle anyone late at night that was breaking into it.
 

ianstaley

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A car alarm is NO deterrent to the opportunist thief, if you something in full view that has a value doesn't matter the real value to a junkie it may have value. It only becomes a useful item if they can't get in full stop. That is an almost impossible feat, and yet it can almost be done. I am thinking of having the windows covered in a clear plastic film that can't be seen from outside or inside for that matter but what it will do is stop the window from shattering. I have seen this film attached on both sides of a car window and the dude had to use a 14 Lb sledge hammer to get the glass out of the way to get in and open the door, time about 4 minutes; and that is the key time, time is what the opportunist doesn't have.

I have seen this stuff in South Africa applied to a jeweler's window that remained intact long enough to allow the police to arrive.

So how much it would cost on a car ????
 

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Many thanks, the question has been answered!

It would however be nice to have remote central locking on the car. Handy when hands are full with shopping + baby etc!

With best wishes to all.

You can add it quite easily and nice to have, we had a post a while back where the member with a 124 added it.
 

Miffy

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You could always fit a GPS alarm, much like tracker but self run
 

Xtractorfan

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Probably best to try and secure the door to the garage, then use plenty of well positioned stickers to indicate that cctv monitoring is in place...a few dummy cameras well out of reach might help..and a cheapo siren wired to the door may also help
 
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ShivaYash

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It's a communal garage but I've told the managing agents about the thefts. How tricky is it to wire up an led to come on, or flash, once the key is out of ignition?
 

television

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It's a communal garage but I've told the managing agents about the thefts. How tricky is it to wire up an led to come on, or flash, once the key is out of ignition?

Just have a relay (£2) or I can send you one free, you wire the relay so that is is energized while running and use the closed contacts when off
 


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