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Hi

I'm looking at an Rs3 at the moment and wondered if you have had Tracker or similar fitted?

thanks

The official line from Audi is that they only approve the "Cobratrak" system...

I'm sure other people go for different brands, but Cobratrak is worth a look - it's pretty advanced and works by GPS as opposed to the older Tracker GSM network.

Trackers (and similar) are a complete and utter waste of moneys on cars like the RS.

Why?

1) Most thefts of this sort of car are done by breaking into the house and stealing the key.
2) Most thefts are done by professionals (often stolen to order) and they know EXACTLY how to defeat all the tracking devices on the market.

Tracker won't give statistics on how many cars are NOT recovered, only how many are - so you cannot work out their success rate - e.g. if 1,000 cars are recovered but 100,000 are not then the success rate is appalling but if 1,000 are recovered and 10 are not then it's fantastic. The fact they won't give the data suggests it's appalling...

And, if your pride and joy is robbed, do you want it back?

PetrolDave wrote:Trackers (and similar) are a complete and utter waste of moneys on cars like the RS.

Why?

1) Most thefts of this sort of car are done by breaking into the house and stealing the key.
2) Most thefts are done by professionals (often stolen to order) and they know EXACTLY how to defeat all the tracking devices on the market.

Tracker won't give statistics on how many cars are NOT recovered, only how many are - so you cannot work out their success rate - e.g. if 1,000 cars are recovered but 100,000 are not then the success rate is appalling but if 1,000 are recovered and 10 are not then it's fantastic. The fact they won't give the data suggests it's appalling...

Which is why Cobtratrak is designed to help.

The perpetrators of the theft would have to move the car to somewhere to try to disable / remove any tracking devices even if they steal the car using the true key.

This results in a GPS "snail trail" which can be called up on the map on demand, showing the car's movements. Even if they are dismantling the car inside a building the snail trail still leads to that building, even once the device itself is destroyed.

The track record they are publishedto have is to have cars back in safe custody within 60 minutes of the reported theft, so they must be doing something correct!

there pointless you can buy GPS/Tracker jammers on ebay for £200

the people who go after RS cars know this

and i seriously do not want a GPS system recording my friend doing 140+ in a NSL in my car just waiting for a court order to hand over the data ...

drybeer wrote:The perpetrators of the theft would have to move the car to somewhere to try to disable / remove any tracking devices even if they steal the car using the true key.

This results in a GPS "snail trail" which can be called up on the map on demand, showing the car's movements.

That's what Cobratrak want their customers to believe, but the professional thieves know how to disable this very rapidly after stealing the car resulting in a short and utterly useless snail-trail.

P.S. You can buy GPS jammers really cheaply.

I own a tracker company and personally involved in some product r&d so feel able to comment.

Gps is a waste of time. I got a gps jammer for £10 off eBay and it blitzed every test we had (including big name units from competitors). Gps signal is like looking for a candle 20miles away so you can see how it would be easy to screw up.

gsm/GPRS also jammable but slightly more resilient due to frequency hopping. But not able to get a good fix.

Every tracker install I've seen has always been behind the glovebox... Not too hard to locate.

Hell Ive seen cases where crims have rocked up and sent 400v through the vehicle. Surprisingly car protection systems are pretty resilient but the electronics often used in tracker units don't have this.

Cars stolen to order either are parked up nearby and left for a few days to see if tracker fitted or moved out of the country very quickly.

The only system that has a chance of working is the VHF tracker. it's harder to jamand constantly jumps frequencies. Shirt range though but they have receivers all over the place.

Personally I wouldn't have one to get the car back

Hi guys thought I'd add this,

I use a gps tracker that takes a mobile phone sim card , u basically call the sim card number it cuts u off and tex's u the gps co-ordinates and speed etc, also I can send it a message to text me if it moves , and I can call in and listern to what's going on, all u need is a unit from eBay etc and run a 12 volt supply to the unit to power it , done

It gives the edge over the others to a point as it works via gps sat not just a signal via radio wave and u have alot more control of the situation, that aside it doesn't get recognised by your insurance so get a tracker for the discount and a cheap gps for extra security

Sticks wrote:Hi guys thought I'd add this,

I use a gps tracker that takes a mobile phone sim card , u basically call the sim card number it cuts u off and tex's u the gps co-ordinates and speed etc, also I can send it a message to text me if it moves , and I can call in and listern to what's going on, all u need is a unit from eBay etc and run a 12 volt supply to the unit to power it , done

It gives the edge over the others to a point as it works via gps sat not just a signal via radio wave and u have alot more control of the situation, that aside it doesn't get recognised by your insurance so get a tracker for the discount and a cheap gps for extra security

on the cheap for internal devices

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Vehicle-C ... 256f8ef261

for full monty defeatage

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TG-120D-PRO-5 ... 1e6d4438ef

Sticks wrote:It gives the edge over the others to a point as it works via gps sat not just a signal via radio wave

As both I and adsgreen have already said GPS is really easy to block (using devices you can find and buy on the web for only a few pounds).

I was at a conference on GPS recently where one speaker showed data that proved one of these devices could jam GPS transmissions over a 10 mile radius - more than enough for someone to get a stolen car into a "safe" place.

adsgreen wrote:I own a tracker company and personally involved in some product r&d so feel able to comment.

Gps is a waste of time. I got a gps jammer for £10 off eBay and it blitzed every test we had (including big name units from competitors). Gps signal is like looking for a candle 20miles away so you can see how it would be easy to screw up.

gsm/GPRS also jammable but slightly more resilient due to frequency hopping. But not able to get a good fix.

Every tracker install I've seen has always been behind the glovebox... Not too hard to locate.

Hell Ive seen cases where crims have rocked up and sent 400v through the vehicle. Surprisingly car protection systems are pretty resilient but the electronics often used in tracker units don't have this.

Cars stolen to order either are parked up nearby and left for a few days to see if tracker fitted or moved out of the country very quickly.

The only system that has a chance of working is the VHF tracker. it's harder to jamand constantly jumps frequencies. Shirt range though but they have receivers all over the place.

Personally I wouldn't have one to get the car back

Interesting and thanks for the info - I've not heard that before. Possibly as Cobratrak don't want you to know!

I have a tracking system fitted to mine and have to say it is top notch

What I think you gotta remember is alot of these car thiefs dont think about gps sim card stuff and don't come prepared with jammers etc if they were that sophisticated they wouldn't need to break in to steal car keys, when some little gippo try's nickin your car I think the only 2 questions they think is does it have a tracker and will the owner wake up and batter me half to death, it doesn't matter how much you spend on security if they want your car or wanna break in to your house they will end of! The main thing is to have alot of security to slow them down or mess them up. I did see a very good system which texs you or watever when the car moves and it will cut the engine off etc but still if they want the car that bad they will lift it GONE. I must say I agree that trackker company's don't publish the numbers on how many are never found I remember a few years back I think Trevor McDonald or alistair Stewart took one of those trackker tackers over to Africa and Cyprus or turkey and they went up in a helicopter and the trackker receiver went mad with stolen uk cars down below along a motorway, what ever makes u happy good luck lol

Also The old take off the ht lead also
Works just fine

Sticks wrote:What I think you gotta remember is alot of these car thiefs dont think about gps sim card stuff and don't come prepared with jammers etc if they were that sophisticated they wouldn't need to break in to steal car keys

It's precisely BECAUSE they ARE so sophisticated that they know the best way to steal a car like the RS is to break into the house and steal the keys.

How do you think the cars got abroad? The local gippos wouldn't manage to organise that. Cars like this are normally stolen by professionals, either to use themselves as a getaway vehicle or stolen to order (and with the limited number of RS3s that's the most likely scenario).

Sticks wrote:Also The old take off the ht lead also

What HT lead? The coils are bolted onto the top of the engine and directly attached to the plugs - so there are NO HT leads to take off...