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I've just realised that the subscription on my tracker has expired.

seeing as I've read certain pages where cars have been stolen that have had trackers installed and the car has not been recovered, are they really that reliable? i know it gives a piece of mind, and maybe bring the insurance down(although more than said they do not give dicounts for trackers). the problem i see is that the thieves are quite clever and can disable the tracker somehow.

it's only just about a £200 per year, am i being a tight arse?!

I thought you could buy a lifetime subscription for less than that.

You have to haggle with them like they were Moroccan carpet sellers.

swannny wrote:the problem i see is that the thieves are quite clever and can disable the tracker somehow.

...not really a problem in your case, is it? You've just told the world that yours has expired...

It's ok, its locked up in a very secret place!

I think I know a man who installs trackers, I may just have to see what he can magic up!

You get bugger all saving insurance wise from my experience, and if some tea leaf pinched it would probably be ruined by the time they got caught.

el_ringo wrote:You get bugger all saving insurance wise from my experience, and if some tea leaf pinched it would probably be ruined by the time they got caught.

Got £8 off my insurance with the tracker lol

swannny wrote:It's ok, its locked up in a very secret place!

I think I know a man who installs trackers, I may just have to see what he can magic up!

Can't really magic anything up, you have to get intouch with tracker to have it turned on. I used to fit around 10 trackers a week to plant equipment around 3 years ago, haven't done a single unit in the last year. I would look for something better.

I'm a partner in a tracker company. Unless you are getting a massive discount OR would like the car back in the event if a theft then I wouldn't bother.
The issue with most trackers are these:
- I've seen tens possibly hundreds of tracker installs and all bar one was behind the glovebox. The reason is that it's easy to fit, waterproof, good gps signal through windscreen, and easy access to power. But of course trivial to remove. I did one myself on my own vxr8 ages back and took me about 10 minutes to remove and I was being careful. Not saying all installers are like this but just my experience

- all GPS/mobile phone type trackers can be jammed easily. A GPS signal is like looking for a candle 20 miles away do doesn't take much to kill it. Trackers using VHF are better but rely on a third party infrastructure.

- crappy build quality. The number I've seen 'just fail' is quite worrying.

They certainly are not the compete tool that the advertising would have you believe.

If it were me, I would install a dummy tracker box behind the glovebox and the real one somewhere else disguised (for example as a radio amp).

Nice work on saying where they are usually fitted, I know its not hard to find them but don't post it up here. Tracker themselves do a good job of hiding them but other companies are useless.

You might not be wanting to quote what he said then darling if he does edit it

I really don't help myself do I!

Ill take the hit for chunk.

It's a muppet thread to post really! I just hear so many stories about how clever car thieves are, and not many good stories!

It's been renewed this morning, if there's a slim chance that its a deterrent, then atleast it's a chance.

I'm still a muppet though..lol!

I just sit in it in the garage with a shotgun.

chunky79 wrote:Nice work on saying where they are usually fitted, I know its not hard to find them but don't post it up here. Tracker themselves do a good job of hiding them but other companies are useless.

Why? it's beyond common knowledge.
I WANT it to be known then maybe the lazy arse tracker companies and installers will get off their backside and change their way of doing things.
The ideal scenario would be to have stickers on the car saying "this car has a tracker but you'll never find it". They don't as they know damn well they are too easy to find.

You only have to be let loose with google to find the same info.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1169638
http://www.astraownersclub.com/vb/archi ... 20109.html
http://passionford.com/forum/general-ca ... s-van.html

And that was a simple "where are trackers placed in cars?" search.

The ideal tracker would be hardware built into the ECU as a self contained unit linked by can bus with the alarm, imobiliser and other bits.
Failing that, the tracker companies need to invest in decent hardware - the ones I have seen are huge which is what makes them hard to find a hiding place for. We have them the size of cigarette packets with batteries that last for 30 days when disconnected (and military IP protected). We could go to matchbox size if we wanted to say have 24 hours standby time.

I'm not bigging up our products 'cause quite frankly they are not for personal car security (although they would work ok - it's not their primary purpose). My point is that if you have a security system that relies on a secret being kept ("shhh... it's behind the glovebox...") then seriously, what kind of security system is that?!??!

swannny wrote:Ill take the hit for chunk.

It's a muppet thread to post really! I just hear so many stories about how clever car thieves are, and not many good stories!

It's been renewed this morning, if there's a slim chance that its a deterrent, then atleast it's a chance.

I'm still a muppet though..lol!

It's not even that really - sure, there will always be high tech clever thieves and only so much you can do.
The problem with trackers isn't so much the theif being clever but the installer and hardware manufacturer being lazy/cheap.