Security system for Mercedes?

scotsboi

Active Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
34
Reaction score
0
Location
Kent - or there abouts
Your Mercedes
Black 320 CLK Convertible
Hi,

I recently bought a 2005 CLK 320 convertible. The car is absolutely fantastic and a dream to drive - I'm also building up a good rapport with the local petrol station assistant whom I now meet on a very regular basis!!!!

I am going to be moving from a very safe area to Gravesend in Kent - which I believe is not as great! In fact, it is pretty close to the centre (I am trying to look into renting a garage as my new flat has only street parking.

Other than the cars' built in security - does anyone use one of those security tracking devices? If so, would you recommend them?

As always - thanks in advance for your advice and guidance.

Jason.
:confused:
 

drmw

Moderator
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
3,793
Reaction score
198
Location
Yorkshire
Website
www.autonomed.co.uk
Your Mercedes
M6 Cab - prior to that, SL63 AMG, A-M V8 Vantage, SL55, SL500 and many more
Hi,


Other than the cars' built in security - does anyone use one of those security tracking devices? If so, would you recommend them?


:confused:

Mine came with a Tracker (as did the last SL) & in both cases, it a was an insurance company prerequsitefor theft cover.

The day after I bought the last SL I had to go to Glasgow to a funeral - got halfway over the A66 & it died on me(well, a big red light told me the brakes were about to take a holiday). MB Carlisle came to pick it up - drove onto the back of the loader, jumped in behind the driver, set off.

No more than 15 seconds later my mobile rang with a recorded message from Tracker along the lines of "your vehicle has been detected moving without the key in the ignition - press 1 if this is ok, 2 if not".

Impressive, so yes, a good product if you are concerned about theft :D
 
OP
scotsboi

scotsboi

Active Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
34
Reaction score
0
Location
Kent - or there abouts
Your Mercedes
Black 320 CLK Convertible
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #3
Hi David,

That sounds like a good system you have. Even if I find a garage to rent its not going to be in my back garden, so would like the peace of mind of the service such as the one you described. It is from a specific company/Mercedes own brand?

Regards,

J
 

drmw

Moderator
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
3,793
Reaction score
198
Location
Yorkshire
Website
www.autonomed.co.uk
Your Mercedes
M6 Cab - prior to that, SL63 AMG, A-M V8 Vantage, SL55, SL500 and many more
Its from Tracker - www.tracker.co.uk. They nail you for annual subscription - in my case £135/year but I'd guess they are all much of a muchness re subscription. Tracker seem to be the biggest - several different levels of system, but even the basic is good.
 

dieselman

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2001
Messages
6,017
Reaction score
12
Your Mercedes
A diesel
The day after I bought the last SL I had to go to Glasgow to a funeral - got halfway over the A66 & it died on me(well, a big red light told me the brakes were about to take a holiday).
That's two posts saying about SBC failure in the last day.
Nothing particularly noteworthy about that except it was recently said that SBC didn't fail...:Oops:
 

Benzman

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2003
Messages
120
Reaction score
0
Location
East Sussex
Your Mercedes
C43 coupe
Regarding the cost of tracker at £135 per year, when my annual renewal was due, I phoned Tracker to say it was too much and I was cancelling. After some telephone debate, the quote was immediately lowered to £60. The moral is to bargain hard !!
 

cmax200

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2003
Messages
327
Reaction score
0
Your Mercedes
C230 Sport
Whats wrong with Gravesend, I dont actually live there but I do go into there fairy often, in fact I think its better than a lot of places. Yes, it has a comparatively high Sikh population, but I find them to be respectful and pretty trouble free, not like the old days when it was a Sailors town. You could be going somewhere worse.
 

Mic

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
4,271
Reaction score
130
Age
74
Location
Oxfordshire
Website
www.bennettgibbons.co.uk
Your Mercedes
MB SL500(2003), MB SLK320(2001), Volvo V70 XC AWD(2001)
If you intend keeping the car for a long period of time Tracker do a one off life time subscription (or they did). In 2003 I paid £1289.16 for life time cover but as David says it was a requirement of insurers to have Tracker cover.

Mic
 

jberks

Senior Member
Joined
May 12, 2004
Messages
11,153
Reaction score
41
Location
M1, Outside lane, somewhere between Leeds and Lond
Your Mercedes
Jaguar XF 3.0 S, LR Freelander 2, Fiat 500 & Fiat Panda
That's two posts saying about SBC failure in the last day.
Nothing particularly noteworthy about that except it was recently said that SBC didn't fail...:Oops:

Did he crash?
Did the car fail to stop?
Nope. Obviously I don't know but I assume it just exceeded the activation count, triggered the warning and he sensibly heeded the warning and stopped. The SBC didn't fail though!.
What have you got against it by the way - nobody is saying it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and clearly someone screwed up on the operation count - but it works just fine and I have trusted mine with my life for over 100,000 miles now and I'm still here and I still trust my car completely. As I say, a servo clearly has better longevity but what I object to is people running it down under the 'dangerous', 'It costs £1500' and 'it always fails' banner when thats utterly untrue, it rarely fails and MB have always done the decent thig and replaced it FOC. Sorry but I don't see a downside.

On the tracker - similar story - my car was taken away on a low loader (broken front spring). Within 2 mins my phone was ringing.
One thing though.
Without the keys or access to a low loader, MB security is state of the art and the car is pretty much unstealable. Clearly if they get the keys, they get the car but in such a case, tracker wouldn't trigger, and you'd have to call them to have it activated.
 
OP
scotsboi

scotsboi

Active Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
34
Reaction score
0
Location
Kent - or there abouts
Your Mercedes
Black 320 CLK Convertible
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #10
Whats wrong with Gravesend, I dont actually live there but I do go into there fairy often, in fact I think its better than a lot of places. Yes, it has a comparatively high Sikh population, but I find them to be respectful and pretty trouble free, not like the old days when it was a Sailors town. You could be going somewhere worse.

Hi,

My aunt lives in Kilmarnock so I know what the rough end of the stick looks like ;) its just that I currently live in an area where there is no crime - to an area that has a dense population, higher crime and that I know relatively little about - with my nice new car - with a cloth roof!!

Its not the Shiks I'm worried about - its a high number of unemployed youth looking for something to scratch and a load of eastern Europeans looking to make some money!

I did walk past a Wetherspoons in Gravesend on Saturday and sitting outside the pub was a drunk plump old Scottish woman with 2 teeth swearing at an old bald bloke with a fag hanging out of his mouth - so feel at home already! :rolleyes:

Anyway - the tracking system is for peace of mind - and will need to get a garage to try and get the insurance down a bit - I'm sure the people of Gravesend are fabulous! At any rate - I'm gonna find out soon enough!

J.
 
Last edited:

television

Always remembered RIP
Joined
Mar 14, 2005
Messages
164,073
Reaction score
367
Age
89
Location
Daventry
Your Mercedes
2002 SL500, 216 CL500, all fully loaded
That's two posts saying about SBC failure in the last day.
Nothing particularly noteworthy about that except it was recently said that SBC didn't fail...:Oops:

On the other one it did not say that it failed thank you
 

biglips

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
241
Reaction score
3
Location
Bristol
Your Mercedes
S211 E500
If you intend keeping the car for a long period of time Tracker do a one off life time subscription (or they did). In 2003 I paid £1289.16 for life time cover but as David says it was a requirement of insurers to have Tracker cover.

Mic

By lifetime, do you mean for the duration of your ownership, or the lifetime of the car? The reason that I ask is because my car came with a tracker fitted by previous owner. Could this still be valid?

Tom
 

jberks

Senior Member
Joined
May 12, 2004
Messages
11,153
Reaction score
41
Location
M1, Outside lane, somewhere between Leeds and Lond
Your Mercedes
Jaguar XF 3.0 S, LR Freelander 2, Fiat 500 & Fiat Panda
If you intend keeping the car for a long period of time Tracker do a one off life time subscription (or they did). In 2003 I paid £1289.16 for life time cover but as David says it was a requirement of insurers to have Tracker cover.

Mic

Are you sure about the £1200?
I only paid around £360 from memory for lifetime cover in 2007/8. My tracker was already on the car when I got it (dealer demonstrator) but the tracker device doesn't cost much anyway. They offered 2 options at the time. An annual fee of (roughly) £120 or a one-off 'lifetime' that didn't work out much less than 3 years payments. There was also an unwritten understanding (since revoked) that if you rang up during year 3, paid the annual fee a month or so early and asked them to, they would convert you to lifetime cover. I did this and whilst I got an initial argument as the MD had put a stop to it, as I'd agreed it with them 2 years earlier, they let me do it anyway. So I haven't paid anything for the last 2 years.
Lifetime cover, in my case anyway, only covers for as long as I keep the car but as I always intended to keep it for >3 years (5 years now and no plans to change) it's good value for me.
I've had quotes and and asked if my tracker makes a difference and the answer has always been no. I guess an E270cdi isn't so desireable!
 

drmw

Moderator
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
3,793
Reaction score
198
Location
Yorkshire
Website
www.autonomed.co.uk
Your Mercedes
M6 Cab - prior to that, SL63 AMG, A-M V8 Vantage, SL55, SL500 and many more
That's two posts saying about SBC failure in the last day.
Nothing particularly noteworthy about that except it was recently said that SBC didn't fail...:Oops:

nor did it fail in this instance. the problem was that the consumer battery wasn't keeping pace with demand so a succession of (easily ignored) error messages started, eg ABS off then ABC off , then comand shut itself down, etc but the biggie was the red message to tell me the brakes were about to stop working (can't remember the typically Teutonic terminolgy but you get the gist!)

MB "upgraded the software" for the alternator but it eventually needed a new battery
 

Mic

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
4,271
Reaction score
130
Age
74
Location
Oxfordshire
Website
www.bennettgibbons.co.uk
Your Mercedes
MB SL500(2003), MB SLK320(2001), Volvo V70 XC AWD(2001)
By lifetime, do you mean for the duration of your ownership, or the lifetime of the car? The reason that I ask is because my car came with a tracker fitted by previous owner. Could this still be valid?

Tom

Tom

My payment was for supply, fit and ''one-off duration of vehicle ownership network subscription''.
If the vehicle is sold/bought there is a one off re-registration fee followed by network subscriptions payable by the new owner.......presumably one-off or annually to your choice.

Mic
 

type49

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2005
Messages
1,601
Reaction score
1
The reason that I ask is because my car came with a tracker fitted by previous owner. Could this still be valid?

Tom

The cover will not be valid but the old tracker can be re-activated. If you phone tracker with your reg number & chassis number, tell them you just bought the car & ask for cover. Depending on what type of tracker you have (most common is "monitor"), the annual subscription is about £115
 

Xtractorfan

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
6,085
Reaction score
159
Your Mercedes
S class
Any ICE /Mobile Phone fitting guys normally have the ability to check if a car is fitted with trackers.... ICE (In Car Entertainment)
 
OP
scotsboi

scotsboi

Active Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2010
Messages
34
Reaction score
0
Location
Kent - or there abouts
Your Mercedes
Black 320 CLK Convertible
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #19

cmax200

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2003
Messages
327
Reaction score
0
Your Mercedes
C230 Sport
Hi Scotsboi,
I can understand your fears but its not just that one place, its a fact of life nowadays, your car is at risk wherever you leave it. Your description of Gravesend is common to most places in the UK, nothing is safe anywhere. i.e you take the very upmarket area of Chislehurst, apparantly according to a TV programme your car stands more chance of being nicked/vandalised there than anywhere.
A sad indictment of our modern day society.
 
Top Bottom