Look Out, There's a Thief About (Again)

[sonny]

I hear you Dave. How many other Tracker companies in the UK are there, any better than Tracker?

[PetrolDave]

I haven't seen any that have published both sets of figures.

Since a tracking device does not deter thieves from stealing your car, does not (in most cases) decrease your insurance premium and it's unproven whether they improve the chance of getting your car back - I really cannot see any point in paying x hundred pounds per year for one?

[adsgreen]

I agree on the stats - it is hard to make an accurate judge.
As before, I own one company and I'm not about to divulge the recovery rate either
There are lots of "tracker" companies but most will push "fleet management" as their primary function. True Thatcham 5 units are fewer.

As for Tracker... Well I do nudge people their way if they want to recover a stolen car at all costs. From a technology standpoint they have the most widely adaptable and reliable system that works in many countries. Is it 100%? 95% 50%? who knows other than tracker but having their own network, plus GSM and having the buy in from the police does make it hard to beat. The only things going against them is battery life but no system will be perfect.

But given the initial outlay, ongoing subscriptions (the top one has no lifetime option), the lack of theft deterrent and limited insurance discount you should ask yourself "do you really need one".

[PetrolDave]

As before, I own one company and I'm not about to divulge the recovery rate either

I can see where you're coming from, it's a risk being the first to offer proper open customer information.

But, that doesn't change the fact that without knowing the "failed to recover" and well as the "did recover" you (and all "tracker" companies) are asking people to spend their hard earned cash on a great big whopping unknown.

Bigger fool anyone who "splashes the cash" that easily.

[adsgreen]

I'm not asking people to pay for recovery though. We (like most tracking companies) have decided to steer clear of that minefield and market it as a management and monitoring and not a stolen vehicle recovery system. But yes, those who push their systems as a T5 system should have some degree of stats to back up any claims esp Tracker as they are by far the most established and well known brand.

Saying that, even we do have more success stories than failures but our technology is different and doesn't use VHF.

The real problem is that once you start to say 90% 95% etc recovered people see this as a guarantee rather than a statistic. Similary if the answer is say 75% then even though thats pretty good all things considered people wouldn't buy it. I think the key stat though is recovery v's time. Most stolen cars are actually found eventually regardless of trackers but you'd need to find them within a couple hours tops to be any good.

[sonny]

people to spend their hard earned cash on a great big whopping unknown.

Bigger fool anyone who "splashes the cash" that easily.

True, and now im starting to think otherwise. Im paying £130 per year for the tracker subscription (and no I did not take out the lifetime option). Not a huge amount for what its worth.

[PetrolDave]

Most stolen cars are actually found eventually regardless of trackers but you'd need to find them within a couple hours tops to be any good.

Whilst that is probably true for "most" cars, for prestige marques that tend to be stolen to order I doubt that's the case, with many more being sent abroad or given a new identity and hence disappearing.

[adsgreen]

Most stolen cars are actually found eventually regardless of trackers but you'd need to find them within a couple hours tops to be any good.

Whilst that is probably true for "most" cars, for prestige marques that tend to be stolen to order I doubt that's the case, with many more being sent abroad or given a new identity and hence disappearing.

Yup. Although I think with RS4's that time has passed and it's now their stealth and performance for "jobs" that's more appealing. So it'll most likely be found eventually but you wouldn't want it back if it were.

Trackers are like chip n pin and Verified by visa/Secure 3d. They have no direct benefit to the customer but reduce bank and insurance company losses.

[Terry1948]

I would not mind having mine back providing the loot was still in the boot

[neckarsulm]

Tracker would work better if the insurance co. paid Tracker a fee when the car was stolen to activate the Tracker as they would be faced with a 30k pay out if it went missing.
Not very easy for Tracker's cashflow granted and if they go bump then I'd say that's a bad thing.
How many cars dont get stolen because of the risk of them having a Tracker fitted?
If there is no Tracker will things be even worse.
Just thinking out loud.

[PetrolDave]

If there is no Tracker will things be even worse.

No, because Tracker-like systems are no longer a deterrent - and once a system is no longer a deterrent then it is past its sell-by date.

[DuncS3]

Agree on not a deterrent - but can be useful though - a colleagues house was burgled by opportune individuals in the middle of night, basically took both sets of car keys - one car was a week old, the other a year old - not discovered until morning - as it was they found the newer car a week later pretty much okay minus some scrape on the side but the other was unfortunately found halfway thru a shop window and not recoverable - but was a few days after theft - in that case Tracker would have worked and there were personal belongings in the vehicle that could have been recovered (but subsequently weren't)

Saying that my car came with a tracker monitor already fitted but I haven't activated it

[adsgreen]

Tracker would work better if the insurance co. paid Tracker a fee when the car was stolen to activate the Tracker as they would be faced with a 30k pay out if it went missing.
Not very easy for Tracker's cashflow granted and if they go bump then I'd say that's a bad thing.
How many cars dont get stolen because of the risk of them having a Tracker fitted?
If there is no Tracker will things be even worse.
Just thinking out loud.

Couldn't work like that unless the activation fee was very large. Tracker need to maintain and extend it's own VHF tower network, 24 hour call centre, as well as pay for gsm charges on the top spec units (on it's own that's about 60-100 quid per annum per unit).

We don't know what the insurance premium consists of. Inmean for example how much is due to it being nicked and lost, 3rd party damage, own damage etc. I still find it surprising that my premium is 10% cheaper on the drive than in a garage. I would like to see more discounts from insustncd companies but it's not going to happen. All that will happen is more and more insurers will elect to make a tracking device mandatory. As i understand it, It's not a coincidence that the first insurance company to make trackers mandatory was owned by the guy putting the most up for tracker.

[^Qwerty^]

I seem to recall many moons ago that some BMW's had a OEM keypad fitted in the dash that required the entry of a code before allowing the engine to start. (a 325i that I drove had it). Clearly no technology is infallible, but a modern day version of that would put a stop to people breaking in to your house to steal the keys, unless they were also willing to start waving a knife/gun/baseball bat around, but you can't mitigate against that no matter what you do.

[adsgreen]

Sounds like a Clifford blackjack.
Other versions/products have a similar things using RFID tags or similar.

The best items allow the car to be started and driven but then cut out when the car next stops and sounds the alarm. This way you can hand over the keys but unlikely they will cone back.