mx5 cobra alarm

Many of us feel that a locked Miata is simply an invitation to have the top cut. Unless you have a hardtop, of course.

In which case it's an invitation to have a window smashed. :)

I don't know how it works elsewhere, but I've never been anyplace where anybody pays any attention to car alarms.

I do, actually--I enjoy setting them off with my FM Duals. But I recognize that a car alarm is a mandatory status symbol for kids, just like a cellphone or an iPod. Funny how I've managed to survive all these years without any of those toys...but then, don't ask how much it would cost to replace my hifi system!

I was doing that in my Z-car almost 20 years ago at the age of 18.

Car alarms are pretty old technology now, and both viewing one as a status symbol and getting enjoyment out of setting them off past the age of say, your early 20's, is pretty silly, imo.

Cellphones can be tools or toys, kind of like a miata. How did people survive so long without automobiles, without computers, or without the wheel for that matter?

In fact, how did you survive so long without the Internet and what are you doing using this trendy "new" technology so often?

Pat - hates car alarms, but come on.

Really? A car alarm as a status symbol? But pretty much all cars built in the last 5 years or so have got them?

Eric

Please tell me it ain't so.

Leon

They have immobilizers. Not the same thing as a loud alarm that annoys everyone within 6 blocks when your teenaged pals set it off on purpose at 3 a.m.

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of posts on miata.net from owners whose electrical systems have been bolluxed by aftermarket alarms. That's not counting the dead batteries--the Miata battery is too small to keep an alarm armed for more than a few days.

Ah, you're probably right there.

That's mine - I got an aftermarket one put in in order to halve my insurance premiums, and promptly had to go out and buy a trickle-charger since as you say it kills the battery (and I don't get to drive it nearly as much as I'd like to anymore now that junior is here). Fortunately the car lives in a garage so keeping it plugged in isn't a problem, though it would be a real pain otherwise.

Eric

That is a huge discount. We get a small one here, at least where I live. It is always one of the questions that is asked. My '96M came with a factory alarm, which I answered truthfully as being equipped with one and then took it out of there a few days later. I didn't feel too badly about it considering how ineffective they are, plus this one had an off switch, so you could achieve the same effect by just hitting the off button.

Another '96M owner used her factory alarm the entire time she owned the car and it never drained the battery. Are the aftermarket alarms just using a lot more power, and if so, why?

Between people ignoring them, the fact that they can just stop working, and the insurance company taking no steps to make sure that I really had one, offering an insurance discount for an alarm seemed senseless, but I wasn't going to pass it up. I can understand offering large theft discounts for cars equipped with a Lojack-type system.

Pat

effect by

I have an after-market alarm installed, which didn't quite halve my premium, but reduced it more than 15%. Now that I have a garage for Belle to sleep in, the alarm usually is turned off. Unless I'm parking in one of the less, erm, civilized, areas of town.

Depends on the alarm type. Mine has a proximity sensor so I can leave the top down and still have the car "protected". I have to admit that it's not used nearly as much since we moved to a better neighborhood. And the alarm did used to drain the battery occasionally. My husband's car had the same alarm, without the proximity sensor, and never had any battery problems.

working,

I want to install the electrocution model.

Iva & Belle.) '90B Classic Red.) #3 winkin' Miata

Yep - the alarm paid for itself immediately, and that was three years ago or thereabouts. Definitely worth it financially, and for the peace of mind as well.

How bizarre!

It would seem so, though I have no idea why.

Eric

Will burning them be sufficient? I think so. ;-)

Errrr, try this one instead.

You might have to add the closing parenthesis at Wiki to get this to show, using their searcher...

Yeah, I think the second one worked, not that everyone hasn't seen this, it has been around for 9 years.

I like how the guy went on to develop a "pocket-sized, personal flame thrower". Not my pocket, thank you. :-)

Pat

"The existence of the flame thrower is proof that, at one point, someone said, I really want to light those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough."

- George Carlin

Excellent :-)) Though having the pedal right next to the regular pedal is asking for trouble I reckon...

Eric

It would be a good way of getting the attention of the driver next to you that is yacking on their cellphone. Very hard to ignore.

It might make rollovers more interesting, too. More Hollywood-style with big explosions. :-)

Pat