Looking for an Aftermarket Car Alarm Recommendation

"James" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@b28g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

$200 bucks at Best Buy will get you a nice basic alarm -installed,with ignition cutoff.

Personal experience;

An alarm is only useful if YOU are there and prepared to deal with the thieves,BECAUSE... No one else is going to respond to the alarm.

Police will not arrive in time to catch them,and 911 operators will be asking you all sorts of questions,eating up all sorts of time in the process. The thieves may not take off if you do come out.

Then there are false alarms caused by thunder or solar heating cycles. Others may decide to vandalize your car because of a false alarm,too.

I would also suggest some sort of steering column collar to protect from vehicle theft;In April,thieves cracked open my neighbor's '99 Civic coupe's column,ruined the ignition in the attempt to steal the whole car,then took his stereo.

Then they moved to MY car,triggered my alarm's "warning alert",and I went out there,legally ARMED.

"Jim Yanik" wrote

I didn't know Best Buy installers will cut the ignition. Did they changed the rules?

Python is available for $200 installed at Circuit City. It has ignition cutoff plus anti-carjacking and lots of other nice features. It also provides remote entry, which I've always wanted on my 96 Integra.

"Ron Jones" wrote in news:6fNtg.35839$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.ohiordc.rr.com:

My older alarm from Best Buy has the ignition cutoff,and they installed it. It's about 3 yrs old.(on a 94 Integra GSR)

The installer has a list for what options you want enabled,and they perform a check-off list you sign before they begin installation,to ID any problems your car has so they don't get blamed for them,and retest after installation. They had a very clean,organized shop,too.

I would be a repeat customer.

Regarding anti-carjacking,if they take your car with the keys(and remote!) in it,**how do you activate the feature** ??

Again,any alarm is only good if you are there (and prepared)to respond;no one else will.

"Jim Yanik" wrote

So the risk is yours to take. Sounds fair.

You enter a pin number on the keypad. You will need a spare key.

This is how it works. If the door opens and the brake light is on the horn and lights will go on less than a minute later. This is simple logic that I could build using a switch, two transistors, a capacitor and some resistors. If you want the horns and lights, just add a relay and a diode. My current home built anti-carjack setup is much simpler and it was tested on the field.

The current anticarjacking is far too expensive and does little to prevent carjacking. What might work is the flame thrower as seen on this video here.

"Burt" wrote

I meant to say, once the door opens with your foot on the brake, the car will shut off the ignition 30 seconds later with flashing lights and horns. You enter your pin on a keypad to restart the car.