Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

All things related to Audi and other manufacturers
joesnow
2nd Gear
Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2012 9:06 pm

Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by joesnow » Wed Oct 17, 2012 5:06 pm

Needing to get one fitted to satisfy the insurance company.

Can anyone recommend one or a company that fit them??

Cheers
Joe
Current: 2010 A6 2.0 TDi
Gone: 2006 B7 RS4 Avant

adsgreen
Cruising
Posts: 5571
Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:54 am

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by adsgreen » Wed Oct 17, 2012 6:57 pm

if it's for the insurance then I'd seriously look at changing the insurance company.
You get feck all discount now and there are plenty of insurers that will not need a tracker.

If you must get one, then go for the cheapest one that your insurer will accept.

User avatar
The_Coat
4th Gear
Posts: 986
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2012 11:03 pm
Location: Essex

Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by The_Coat » Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:05 pm

I have a Cobra fitted on my car, saved me a staggering £8 on the insurance.
RS4 Avant - Misano Red

joesnow
2nd Gear
Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2012 9:06 pm

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by joesnow » Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:10 pm

adsgreen wrote:if it's for the insurance then I'd seriously look at changing the insurance company.
You get feck all discount now and there are plenty of insurers that will not need a tracker.

If you must get one, then go for the cheapest one that your insurer will accept.
I did look at other companies but I already have 1 vehicle insured with them and they mirrored my no claims plus give me 10% discount so it was a good price.

I did look at the cheaper ones. I think the cheapest is £169 install and then £99 per year but thought I would see if there were any recommendations from here.
Current: 2010 A6 2.0 TDi
Gone: 2006 B7 RS4 Avant

Maximo
4th Gear
Posts: 775
Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:09 pm
Location: Swindon

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by Maximo » Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:11 pm

Who's the insurer?
R18 GTX Estate > Saphire 2.0i Ghia > R19 16v > Vectra V6 SRi > M3 > RS6 Avant

joesnow
2nd Gear
Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2012 9:06 pm

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by joesnow » Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:19 pm

Maximo wrote:Who's the insurer?
Axa
Current: 2010 A6 2.0 TDi
Gone: 2006 B7 RS4 Avant

Noyjatat
Top Gear
Posts: 1585
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 8:12 pm
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by Noyjatat » Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:21 pm

I have a tracker horizon fitted and it did save me money on my insurance, first year saved me £300.

Features of that one are:-

Activates of anyone starts the start other than with a key or if I phone them to ask for it to be turned on.

They have a 78% ish (as I haven't looked at the site for a while) recovery rate within 4 hours of being reported stolen.

The system allows the vehicle to be picked by any police car within a mile and any police helicopter within 50 miles.

It's also got a boosted signal system that allows the car to be picked up in underground parking or freight containers at the docks.

Of course this is all based on stats and figures I looked at when I bought the car a couple of years ago.

Cost me around £180 fitted and an additional £350 for lifetime cover for as long as I own the car.

Hope this helps answer your question and gives you at least one idea of where to look.

joesnow
2nd Gear
Posts: 216
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2012 9:06 pm

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by joesnow » Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:35 pm

Noyjatat wrote:I have a tracker horizon fitted and it did save me money on my insurance, first year saved me £300.

Features of that one are:-

Activates of anyone starts the start other than with a key or if I phone them to ask for it to be turned on.

They have a 78% ish (as I haven't looked at the site for a while) recovery rate within 4 hours of being reported stolen.

The system allows the vehicle to be picked by any police car within a mile and any police helicopter within 50 miles.

It's also got a boosted signal system that allows the car to be picked up in underground parking or freight containers at the docks.

Of course this is all based on stats and figures I looked at when I bought the car a couple of years ago.

Cost me around £180 fitted and an additional £350 for lifetime cover for as long as I own the car.

Hope this helps answer your question and gives you at least one idea of where to look.

Thanks for the info. Do you remember who installed it for you??
Current: 2010 A6 2.0 TDi
Gone: 2006 B7 RS4 Avant

Maximo
4th Gear
Posts: 775
Joined: Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:09 pm
Location: Swindon

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by Maximo » Wed Oct 17, 2012 7:49 pm

Although I'm sure the discount on offer looks very good, have you worked out whether your getting a deal? Is the discount on offer greater than the install of a tracker along with the first years subscription?
Have you checked out confused.com to see how much it would cost with another insurer?

I used to have my home insurance with Halifax and was paying over £600 for a years cover. They kept on sending me renewal's stating that I was getting various discounts for staying with them. This year I decided to Shop around and found myself higher cover for a third of the price. So it really does pay to look around to make sure you are getting a deal.
R18 GTX Estate > Saphire 2.0i Ghia > R19 16v > Vectra V6 SRi > M3 > RS6 Avant

Noyjatat
Top Gear
Posts: 1585
Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2012 8:12 pm
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by Noyjatat » Wed Oct 17, 2012 8:04 pm

I had it fitted by the garage who I bought the car from. Just had a look for the site for Tracker and here's the link buddy. Have a look and see if it works for you.

http://www.tracker.co.uk/for-your-vehic ... ker-works/

User avatar
gdavison
5th Gear
Posts: 1233
Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:49 pm
Location: Hampshire / Berkshire

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by gdavison » Thu Oct 18, 2012 7:21 am

This was recently discussed on the Porsche owners club .. many insurers seem to insist on Trackers for anything over 50K and Porsche have a "if its not our approved (and expensive) version of cobra it invalidates your warranty" position,

This unit has been discussed lately, which negates the "installed" as its portable and is cheaper to run. One advantage they claim is as its about the size of a fist it can be hidden in many places in a car and therefore as its not in the 2 or 3 places an installed unit is fitted its less likely to be quickly found and removed by a thief

http://www.mtrackonline.co.uk

http://www.mtrackonline.co.uk/Resources ... 202012.pdf

Has Thatcham Cat 7 approval too

http://www.thatcham.org/security/pdfs/c ... s/CAT7.pdf

I'm not affiliated in any way to the unit and have not use one myself, but seriously consider it for my next car etc etc
Ex RS6 C6 Driver, gone but not forgotten.. The best car I have ever owned

adsgreen
Cruising
Posts: 5571
Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:54 am

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by adsgreen » Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:21 am

Tracker do not ever (and I've tried hard to find out being a direct competitor) release recovery percentages.
For example: http://www.tracker.co.uk/pdf/TheftStatistics.pdf
They'll say how many they did find but not how many were reported stolen and then not found.

If you want your car back then Tracker is the best all round solution if not the cheapest. It is probably the only solution (well the VHF one anyway) that can not be jammed easily as with 5 quids worth of parts and 30 mins or so it's trivial to hook up a GPS/GSM jammer (or buy one from ebay ready made and they do work).
However without knowing the preceise recovery hit rate it's still hit and miss.

Seriously though if you are doing it just for the insurance company then get the cheapest unit they will accept.

adsgreen
Cruising
Posts: 5571
Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:54 am

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by adsgreen » Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:32 am

gdavison wrote: I'm not affiliated in any way to the unit and have not use one myself, but seriously consider it for my next car etc etc
Without going into the in's and outs, I know this unit well.
Being honest, self powered units have a lot of advantages in that you can put them anywhere and they are completely sealed so you can stick them on the exterior or in the engine bay etc. Mainly designed for truck trailers as they often don't have their own power supply.

Dowssides? well... in order to get the battery to last years it is a real technical challenge and compromises are made.
For example, where as an externally powered unit can report it's position constantly should it need to, self powered units have to be very economical with it's use of comms.
The gps receiver is relatively inexpensive but as soon as the cellular comms is activated then it can take a fair chunk out of the battery very quickly.
If you want to use the box as a monitor and view via the web often then you'll be very unlikely to get the 2 year battery lifespan.

£540 for unit a one year + internet access... Certainly not the cheapest.
Remember with self powered sealed units once the battery is dead you'll (most likely) need to buy a new unit.
Given it lasts up to 2 years then you'll be spending:
£172 / year on subscription
£152 / year on hardware (assuming one box every 2 years).
£324 / year total on the tracker solution. (not including the remote control which may or may not be transferable to the next unit).

That is actually more than my total insurance quote for the year...

May work for some people and the fact you can easily transfer it can be useful too.

Compare with tracker horizon over 2 years:
£99 / year for the hardware (one off £199 supply and fitting)
£149 / year subscription.
£258 total.

But if kept for 4 years
£49 / year hardware
£100 / year subscription (£399 lifetime subscription)
£149 total - less than half the price.

Not saying one is better than the other as they really are different unique selling points - just worth doing some homework on both.

User avatar
barryrs
3rd Gear
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:26 pm

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by barryrs » Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:45 am

My insurance quote went UP when I included the tracker thats fitted to my S6 but not currently activated :?

User avatar
gdavison
5th Gear
Posts: 1233
Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:49 pm
Location: Hampshire / Berkshire

Re: Can anyone recomend a car tracker??

Post by gdavison » Mon Oct 22, 2012 10:09 am

cheers adsgreen .. good points :beerchug:
Ex RS6 C6 Driver, gone but not forgotten.. The best car I have ever owned

Post Reply

Return to “General Car Chat”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Majestic-12 [Bot] and 88 guests