Tracker?

[jberks]

Got a letter on Saturday to say "you have a tracker on your car". News to me, but fair enough. Now I have to decide whether it's worth the £300+ to have it activated. Seems a shame not to, given that the box and installation cost £450 and its already there, but the insurance co don't care, so no discount, and I'm not certain how useful these things really are.
Thoughts?
Also, its a "tracker Monitor" which apparently tells them if the vehicle is moved without your permission so they know before you do and they ring you to check. Any idea how this works? I assume it's alarm related but given the security on W211's already, I assume most are nicked with the keys and so this is pretty useless.
Anyone know?
cheers,
JB

 

[SLinKyjoe]

if i remember right, trcker is £109 a year or £325 for life of your tracker unit. (10years)

if they steal your car keys it is not going to let anyone know until you ring tracker to report your car stolen. the police will find the car within the hour once you have! with monitor, your car tracker monitors your car all the time. if you tow the car they ring you to let you know your car has been moved unauthorised! if they cannot contact you within 1 hour of your tracker activation, they ring to police. so if you have your car recovered and forget to let them know, the police head towards your car and ask why you have a mercedes.

some companies insist on it, some do discounts some dont.

its not connected to your alarm in anyway and works seperatly. altho if your alarm activates they wil contact you, but they dont ring the police unless it moves.

tracker Echo means you also need a smart card with you, this is prevention for anyone stealing your keys, if they dont have the car the tracker activates etc.

it is a device to locate your car, not stop if from theft.

i think its worth it. but there are a few different types. Tracker itself gave al the 52police forces the equipment to locate your car, so that's useful. RAC Trackstar use RAC vehicles to locate your car then contact the police.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Had the same dilemma myself about whether to re-activate the tracker system fitted by the original owner. I considered it might be worth it if I could obtain a discount on my insurance each year to offset the costs but none of the companies that offered competitive quotes seemed bothered. In the end I considered that as I would have to fork out the full £350 I didn't bother.

Hard to say how many later Mercs are stolen nowadays and for what reason. I would imagine as you say without the keys it would be very difficult. Unless the thiefs are part of an organised ring who might export what they steal I can't see the appeal to the joy rider brigade so I would have thought fairly low risk. I'm sure if that if we were running high risk vehicles the premiums offered would indicate this, mine certainly doesn't

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

You don't have to pay all £325 in one go, although it doesn't say that in the blurb. I checked with customer services. If you take the annual option @ £109pa, the first two years are charged at £109, and the third is charged at £107, and no more subscription required thereafter. I reckon that's pretty good. Check with Tracker Customer Services though, if it sounds like a better way of doing it, to make sure this still applies.

 

[jberks]

Thanks Bobby - Did as you advised.
Apparently, you can pay the first 2 years, then call them up during the 3 year and pay the final one effectively as an 'upgrade' and that's it -but they don't remind you to make the final payment, so if you call after the 3rd has gone through, they'll still want the 4th!!

 

[DAD190E1990]

I have Tracker Guard. If it's stolen and then found again, a bloke from a local security firm goes and sits with it for as long as it takes for me to get there. i reckon Tracker is well worth it, especially with the 3 year payment plan.

 

[Speedmaster]

My BMW (now sold) came with a Tracker Horizon which the BMW dealer subcribed to for me when i got the car but the I read that my local police force had only reovered a few cars using it in 4 years - needless to say never bothered renewing it

 

[jberks]

Its a hard one. I have seen them use it on those 'street crime' progs so I know it works, though as they say, drive over africa and trigger it and it would light up like a christmas tree so clearly some get away.
I suspect that if they get the call early enough you have a chance. Mine is the monitor unit so it will trigger without me if they nick the car. I also live in fear of someone swiping the keys as thats pretty much the only way to nick a merc in which case chances are I'd see it driving away and be able to alert them before it got to a container or lock-up. Apparently it works for 2 days without the car battery so presumably they park it somewhere, disconnect the battery and leave it for 3 days. If its still there, they can safely tow it to a container or strip it for parts.
I once came out of a shop whilst loading a trailer on my car. Couldn't have been gone more than 45 seconds, came out and no sign of either. It gives a little peace of mind at least and at £100 per year over 3 years I reckon its probably worth it.

Interestingly, I got these figures off their web site - I assume BMW and MB promote trackers more than the others - or are they just more nickable!
Value of stolen vehicles
recovered by marque in 2003
Vehicle Make Value
Abbey £14,000
Alfa Romeo £15,000
Aston Martin £640,000
Audi £2,842,500
Bentley £400,000
Bessacar £16,000
BMW £9,683,000
Chrysler Jeep £104,000
Citroen £20,000
Cormack £15,000
Eccles £20,000
Elddis £33,500
ERF £215,000
Ferrari £185,000
Fiat £17,000
Ford £1,598,400
Harley Davidson £8,000
Honda £105,500
Isuzu £37,000
Iveco Ford £247,400
Jaguar £834,000
Kawasaki £18,500
Land Rover £579,500
Lexus £166,000
Leyland DAF £485,000
Lotus £18,000
MAN £189,000
Maserati £113,000
Mazda £25,500
Mercedes-Benz £7,848,500
MG £191,500
Mini £147,000
Mitsubishi £341,500
Nissan £156,000
Peugeot £10,000
Pontiac £40,000
Porsche £4,052,200
Range Rover £484,000
Renault £63,000
Rolls Royce £20,000
Rover £47,800
Saab £139,000
Scania £416,500
SEAT £22,000
Subaru £1,099,500
Suzuki £41,500
Swift £15,000
Toyota £207,500
Vauxhall £109,500
Volvo £335,300
VW £468,500
Yamaha £49,500
PLANT £3,514,700
Total £38,464,800
Value of stolen vehicles


recovered by county in 2003
County Value
Avon £283,000
Bedfordshire £293,000
Berkshire £1,055,200
Buckinghamshire £659,500
Cambridgeshire £293,000
Central Scotland £40,000
Cheshire £1,688,000
Cleveland £86,000
Cornwall £61,500
Cumbria £20,000
Derbyshire £347,500
Devon £25,000
Dorset £100,000
Durham £141,000
East Sussex £372,000
Essex £2,532,000
Fife £10,000
France £90,000
Gloucestershire £178,000
Greater
Manchester £1,788,400
Gwent £64,000
Hampshire £186,000
Hereford
& Worcester £52,000
Hertfordshire £1,387,500
Humberside £224,000
Kent £2,119,500
Lancashire £813,000
Leicester £182,200
Lincolnshire £146,000
London £7,968,000
Lothian
& Borders £145,000
Merseyside £845,500
Middlesex £972,000
Norfolk £133,500
North Wales £53,000
North
Yorkshire £288,000
Northamptonshire £367,000
Northumbria £137,000
Nottinghamshire £522,500
Overseas £94,000
Oxfordshire £460,000
Shropshire £50,000
Somerset £211,500
South Wales £181,000
South
Yorkshire
£909,000
Staffordshire £661,000
Strathclyde £573,500
Suffolk £150,000
Surrey £1,503,500
Tyne & Wear £53,000
Warwickshire £454,500
West Mercia £283,000
West Midlands £2,668,300
West Sussex £556,800
West Yorkshire £2,928,900
Wiltshire £58,000
Total £38,464,800

 

[maddog]

I wonder how many of the MB listed were commercials?

Mind you i resisted getting a tracker when i bought my car new although some compnaies insisted on having one they werent the cheapest so didnt bother.

I have to say after having a car stolen once before i'm not sure i'd want it back should the Merc get nicked

 

[SLinKyjoe]

that means that more mercs and bmw's come out with trackers. If you looked at a stolen cars database you would find that mercs are lower on the list of stolen cars. surpisignly hwoever, BMW's are actually still stolen for robberies, strange when you consider they are very likley to have some tracking device added. maybe the TWOCers have not worked it out yet!

i had a subaru wrx and was suprised to find my insurance didnt recommend a tracker for it (It got one for peace of mind), but they insisted on it for the mercedes. i think the fact is, the more expensive the car is, the better chance of recovery if it is stolen which reduces payouts and so make insurance more profitable, err i mean cheaper.

Tracker itself is the more effective as the police forces in the UK have the equipement but that doesnt mean that others are not comparativley as good.

I am considering purchasing a 4x4 but to be honest i wont bother with a tracker on that. if it goes, it goes.

 

[DAD190E1990]

I think everyone's comments here are good. Tracker suits some people and not others. If i had bought a recent MB and it was standard then maybe i would not get tracker, especially if it were on hire purchase or something similar, i would just let the insurance sort it out. I now own my Fathers Mercedes 190E and now as it gets older it is more and more of a worry. So no-one is going to nick it for profit but a TWOCer will destroy it for kicks and leave me with a burnt out shell - which would destroy me. I thankfully live in a good area and don't tend to worry too much about it on the driveway but i am very careful indeed where i park it. I grew up with my Dad owning this car in Liverpool and i got used to how he parked etc. Now i will either park in a manned secure NCP or i will kick my wife and kids out shopping and buy a newspaper and sit with it.
I really like trackers attitude though, they have themselves provided the hardware for all 52 police forces around the country, at thier own cost. This means the rozzers have no excuses about resources or money and they get the job done. I knew a guy in Liverpool who saw the car go, called tracker and was phoned in 90 minutes to come and get his car back. Not a Mercedes but a very valuable MK1 Ford Escort Mexico. He arrived to find a sum total of a screwed ignition barrel, that's it. Cost him 20 quid to fix and he now displays a Tracker sticker to warn other idiots off.
With the world getting harder and more clever to our defenses i reckon ANY protection is good but i still agree with the comments here, it does depend who you are and how valuable the actual car is to you personally.

 

[television]

If theives really want a car,all you need is a lorry with a insulated metal container,winch the car in close the door and that's it. the tracker may not give any warning as the car would only move the length of the ramp, if it did it would only be for seconds and then stop. Drive away and you have all the time in the world to dis arm it in the container. for a list of cars on offer this month please ask

Malcolm

 

[john_boy]

Hi JB,

Lets push the Pub talk experts to one side for a min.....

I've been in Insurance broking for 28 years and here's my 10 pennyworth......

Insurers have looked to tracking systems as a "back up" when thieves started breaking into houses to nick the keys, as they could no longer get roung the vehicle's security.

essentially it was the punters being lax with their keys - who in their right mind would leave the keys to their pride and joy on the hall table ??

what i have always done is to HIDE all of my car keys - when i get home they are hidden and only got out when i need my car (s) .

When i bought my second hand SLK 350 a few months ago, it had Tracker fitted and they wanted whatever to transfer it over to me....

My atitude was that as i always hide my keys and that the average thief won't get round the Mercedes security was to say thanks but no thanks....

You are a big boy - You decide !!

 

[jberks]

Good views here.
I'm a great believer in fate - I've never had a merc stolen and I hope it stays that way, although I have a friend that had a break in, they found the keys and he lost his merc. No tracker and never saw it again.
I also had a friend a few years ago who we all hassled to get an alarm in his SRI. "I will" he would say. He did.... when he got his car back.
I bought a warranty for the 240 knowing that as I have it, I'll never need it. If I didn't have it, something expensive would no doubt go.
I guess what I am saying is that if it didn't have one I wouldn't pay to install one. However, sods law decrees that as I do have one, if I didn't activate it, I'd regret it. As I have, I can now sleep soundly knowing I could leave the car on the drive with the keys in and it will never go anywhere. Exaggeration but you get the point.
cheers,
JB

 

[philharve]

Hi All

How could you not know whether you have a tracker fitted?

If one is fitted, where would it be most likely found, how big is it and what does it look like? Are they 'anonymous' boxes about the size of a car radio or are they smaller?

I wonder if there other MB owners like jberks, running around without knowing they have a tracker fitted?

REGARDS Phil

 

[SLinKyjoe]

you only know if someone told you it had it or you had it fitted yourself. they dont advertise the fact normally and leave the theifs to take the chance.

they are about the size of a pack of fags. and are generally hidden quite well.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Thanks Bobby - Did as you advised.
Apparently, you can pay the first 2 years, then call them up during the 3 year and pay the final one effectively as an 'upgrade' and that's it -but they don't remind you to make the final payment, so if you call after the 3rd has gone through, they'll still want the 4th!!

Glad to have helped matey!!