Trackers

[MARTINSSUNSET]

Rather than spend the money on a tracker you could look into purchasing a decent gap insurance which will pay out the difference between the invoice price of your pride and joy and the amount paid to you by the other scumbags in the mix, the insurance companies and their fateful MARKET VALUE FIGURE............

[scaghead]

Sorry to put a very negative spin on this but the majority of cars are now stolen with the key. Most people keep the key in their house, so in order for the scumbags to get the key they have to break in. Hopefully you are not asleep when this happens. After all of this do you then want you car tracked and recovered. Not matter how phenomenal the car is, if they want it that much they can keep it.

just leave your keys outside the front door then.....
we should not just give in to the scum..

[MARTINSSUNSET]

Sorry to put a very negative spin on this but the majority of cars are now stolen with the key. Most people keep the key in their house, so in order for the scumbags to get the key they have to break in. Hopefully you are not asleep when this happens. After all of this do you then want you car tracked and recovered. Not matter how phenomenal the car is, if they want it that much they can keep it.

just leave your keys outside the front door then.....
we should not just give in to the scum..

Agree that you should not let the scum win.

Howevere sometimes the smarter thing to do is live to fight another day.

Way up the risk v reward for having a tango in the middle of a night in your undies with a man wearing a balaclava looking for your car keys.........the car is insured after all.

[scaghead]

Sorry to put a very negative spin on this but the majority of cars are now stolen with the key. Most people keep the key in their house, so in order for the scumbags to get the key they have to break in. Hopefully you are not asleep when this happens. After all of this do you then want you car tracked and recovered. Not matter how phenomenal the car is, if they want it that much they can keep it.

just leave your keys outside the front door then.....
we should not just give in to the scum..

Agree that you should not let the scum win.

Howevere sometimes the smarter thing to do is live to fight another day.

Way up the risk v reward for having a tango in the middle of a night in your undies with a man wearing a balaclava looking for your car keys.........the car is insured after all.

so the keys outside your front door approach for you then

[pauly-b]

What's your approach then? Someone breaks into your house, threatens your 9 month old child for the keys - what would you do? Try & fight them regardless or just give them your keys and make sure your little boy's ok?

[JHT]

Rather than spend the money on a tracker you could look into purchasing a decent gap insurance which will pay out the difference between the invoice price of your pride and joy and the amount paid to you by the other scumbags in the mix, the insurance companies and their fateful MARKET VALUE FIGURE............

+1

[Iain_S4]

When I bought the car I checked with various insurers to see if there was any worthwhile savings in having a tracker system fitted. There were none which I think speaks volumes about the effectiveness of it. Also have gap insurance as others above have.

Having had my car taken for an unecessary 9 mile test drive that left the engine management light on the most useful feature may be that of some of the systems to tell you real time where your car was, what speed it was doing etc........but tracker systems are just too expensive just for that.

[reevesroadster]

I had a tracker response on mine, which also enabled vehicle speed and mileage logging with text/email alerts. I found it to be quite useful, but for added peace of mind fitted an anti hijack device, which shuts down the engine when the speed is reduced or the brake depressed.

I was also advised by the police to ensure the house was secure, and the insurance company I used confirmed they would pay out if the keys were stolen from the dining table (plainly on view to theives).

Bizarrely, when I was burgled, the thieves dropped the keys on the floor which woke me and flawed their attempt.

HTH.

[scaghead]

What's your approach then? Someone breaks into your house, threatens your 9 month old child for the keys - what would you do? Try & fight them regardless or just give them your keys and make sure your little boy's ok?

my approach is take my keys indoors with me..then if the half heads want the motor they are going to have to break in... if you dont want that agg it seems a no brainer you leave your keys hanging outside the front door..unless i am missing another alternative

[pauly-b]

Fair enough - I think there's more to it than that though - It's not just if you don't want the aggro, it's different circumstances.

I've been broken into in my previous house when I was awake & downstairs - I reacted, grabbed something from the knife draw and chased the idiot who was starting to come through the window. But, if I was asleep and they had grabbed my little boy they just get the keys full-stop.

It's not about leaving your keys outside because you don't want the aggro, it's about security and the circumstances that you'd defend your property - my cars insured, my little boy isn't.

Note - If he has another night like last night he'll be outside in the bloody garden with or without the RS4 keys the little bugger...

[rs4v8]

Rather than spend the money on a tracker you could look into purchasing a decent gap insurance which will pay out the difference between the invoice price of your pride and joy and the amount paid to you by the other scumbags in the mix, the insurance companies and their fateful MARKET VALUE FIGURE............

+1

+2 (And with GAP insurance I'd sincerely hope that I didn't get my car back along with a big bill for new brakes tyres etc). scumbags is too mild a description IMO.

[scottie1979]

I agree - wouldnt want mine back either

[JHT]

Some years back I spent over £1000 on a 'state of the art' Navtrak system for my then pride and joy, an S50 ZM Coupe. At the time the same system was being installed as standard on all UK Ferraris and Maseratis.

I sold the car to a friend and within 6 weeks the car had been stolen from his drive (without keys and without the Navtrak 'fob' that was required to be within close proximity of the car to start) and nearby CCTV footage showed them pushing the bloody car down the road before onto a lowloader.

The navtrak system didn't even activate (I'd had plenty of 'false' alarms with it when getting it serviced/valet parking etc so it did work) and as such they provided a loan Merc to my friend for 3 months as some sort of pathetic 'goodwill gesture'.

Funnily enough I lost faith in trackers thereafter and would rather spend my money on a RTI GAP Insurance.....

[scaghead]

Fair enough - I think there's more to it than that though - It's not just if you don't want the aggro, it's different circumstances.

I've been broken into in my previous house when I was awake & downstairs - I reacted, grabbed something from the knife draw and chased the idiot who was starting to come through the window. But, if I was asleep and they had grabbed my little boy they just get the keys full-stop.

It's not about leaving your keys outside because you don't want the aggro, it's about security and the circumstances that you'd defend your property - my cars insured, my little boy isn't.

Note - If he has another night like last night he'll be outside in the bloody garden with or without the RS4 keys the little bugger...

i have been done as well a e46 m3 while we were asleep the kids at the time were 8 and 3 so i know were you are comming from, but at the end of the day if you take your keys indoors with you at night it is a risk,which i am still prepared to take...a definate no-no is taking your keys upstairs with you when you go to bed.. back on topic my 46 m3 was recovered in 45 mins because it had a tracker...so sometimes it does help, as i said in previous post gives you that little extra sense of security...

[adsgreen]

Hampshire plod say that cars are left in containers with the vehicle battery disconnected until the Tracker (if there is one) battery runs down.

Agree that most thetfs are now of the key from the house, because the factory fit immobiliers are so difficult to get round.

We make/sell trackers with a 5 year battery and no connection to car at all. About the size and weight of a bag of sugar. Thats a long wait