Accessories on New Car: Trim/Moulding

Many people opt for a car alarm. Before you do, ask yourself what YOU do when you hear a car alarm going off. Run towards the sound yelling "stop thief" or feel annoyed and ignore it?

If you ignore it, consider that most others do, too. What do you get for your money besides a way to annoy people with false alarms?

You already selected a solution, but I was going to suggest the auto parts department at WalMart as a source for floor mats. An auto parts store is also an excellent place to shop for mats. If your online solution has shipping charges, the store might work out to be cheaper.

If your Corolla L is the base car, that is often a poor choice because you are now looking for stuff that might be included in a car that has the features already included. For example, if your car has manual door locks and you want an alarm -- it looks like you do -- then the power locks from the factory wold work better and cost about the same as having the alarm installer put in lock actuators, and the package that has power locks has power windows too, and probably has a better radio. The cost-up for the higher trim package is cheaper, usually, than buying parts of the trim package later and adding them on. As a bonus, the parts fit and work better from the factory.

WalMart and Pep Boys, among others I am sure, have very good products that fit over the door edge. There is no warranty implication at all with these. You should visit the dealership parts department and casually stroll the display cases. They have some good ideas of stuff to buy. I'm not suggesting you buy it there, just look as what they have already figured out what many customers want and they have it.

Stop by your local car alarm store -- Best Buy's radio/electronics department might be a good place to stop. It is not a difficult task to install a car alarm that has Ignition Bypass. If your Corolla has power door locks, then it is very easy to install an alarm system that locks and unlock the doors with the press of a button. If your car does not have power door locks, the alarm installer can add actuators that perform this task. I forget, but I think they are about $25 each.

If your car has an automatic transmission, you can easily install a system with Remote Start if that sort of thing is interesting to you.

If you financed the car, you already have the insurance you need. Your insurance carrier would probably discount the premium if you have an alarm system installed.

If there is anything "missing" on your car, odds are excellent that you bought the wrong car.

It's fine to buy a base model car, but if you turn around and start putting stuff on it that might be included as a factory option on a higher trim level car of the same model, a Corolla S instead of the Corolla L for example, it is easy that the stuff that you buy costs more and works worse than going up-market a little bit when you made the original purchase.

You asked about an alarm, but you need power locks so you will know that the doors are locked when the alarm is armed. Without power locks, you might have an instance where a door is not locked and the alarm is pretty much useless at that point. For the cost of the higher trim level, you would get both power door locks and power windows, and power mirrors too. The power package installed at the factory probably costs about the same as the door lock actuators you need, and the factory installs this stuff before the door panels are put into place, the alarm installer has to take the door panels off. He'll know how to do this, but anytime somebody has to take something off there is a chance it will be damaged in some way that will just annoy you for the rest of your life.

Good point Brian. But an advantage of a good car alarm is that it will disable the ignition and starter circuits, and with any luck at all the people that are breaking in will not take the car if they can't get it started.

And if the bad guys trip the alarm at the OP's house, which is in Florida, he can simply walk outside with his 9 and go all Zimmerman on the guys taking his stuff.

snipped-for-privacy@panix.com (Brian Gordon) wrote on Wed 07 Aug 2013 11:54:31a

No, I wasn't thinking some much about a bleating or even distinctive alarm, real or fake. I am fully aware that people are probably pleased that such a car is in fact stolen.

One would be a visible deterrent, like a lock (steering wheel or other).

Another would be the future (or present?) of personal notification that someone is tampering with a vehicle. Consider that WiMAX is supposed to connect our devices (laptop, whatever) to a network pretty much anywhere (the everywhere access point). Imagine a device with WiMax connection in the car in a hidden location, and with its own power system (no wires leading to its location traceable by the thief). The device transmits GPS coordinates every 120 seconds to a smartphone. That smartphone runs an app that brings an instant notification if the car's position is changed by more than 50 meters. A better device would inform the smartphone if the car's status is being altered before a thief has a chance to start it and run off (door opened, lock position changed, roll motion detected as if someone is sitting in the car).

It seems to me that custom installation riggings or do-it-yourself kits could start giving more trouble to the thieves rather than the owner, and not be prohibitively costly.

"Jeff Strickland" wrote on Wed 07 Aug 2013 12:48:52p

Thanks for a lot of the useful info.

The 2013 "base model" L sold to me is an automatic transmission with the smart key entry and power locks, mirrors, windows.

Normally I would have bought something better, but I just returned to the United States, and there is a lot of uncertainty about personal financial security right now. In fact, I was thinking if getting a low-mileage used car, but the prices in many cases were higher on those car types than buying the new Toyota: apparently Toyota was willing to take a bath [?] and unloading unsold 2013 inventory at cheaper prices than for certified pre- owned cars, same model, color and features! I looked at 2013 Corolla L with

900 miles that was certified pre-owned, and it was about $500 more expensive than the new 2013 Corolla L. And that was true at two dealerships in the city.

I have jotted down your advice for future shopping activities.

I'm quite pleased with the WeatherTech floor and cargo mats I purchased for our 2003 Matrix & 2004 Highlander. Excellent fit, and holding up quite well after almost 10 years.

Then you're golden. You can have an alarm installer put in a system that locks the doors and disables the ignition until you come along and unlock the doors again. If the doors/windows are compromised to gain entry, the starter and ignitions systems will not operate. You might already have an ignition bypass that is part of the smart key. You can test for this by putting a window down and then locking the car. Reach inside with the key (without unlocking the car) and see if you can start the engine. If no, then you already have an ignition bypass, and the alarm is nothing more than a horn that you don't seem to care about.

Since you have a smart key, then you may be able to get a Toyota alarm that is plug 'n play.

You can hit Walmart for door edge guards and floor mats as you need them.

This is true. And the percentage of vehicles recovered that have a Lojack is about the same as the percentage recovered without one. You can park in ways that would make it difficult to get the car onto a tow truck. An ignition immobilizer and fuel cut-off are also helpful.

In California (and several other states), Corollas are the most stolen car of all 21st century cars. The reason is that they are world cars with a high demand, for both parts and complete vehicles, in a lot of countries. My sister-in-law used to buy used Corollas and Civics at auto auctions and would ship them to China. The whole thing fell apart because buying the vehicles, versus stealing them, added too much cost.

So, now your sister-in-law steals the cars she ships to China?

LOL, it's because Toyota itself makes no money if someone buys a used Toyota (unless the seller goes and buys another Toyota). The high resale value of used Toyotas very often make buying a new one a much better option.

BTW, it's often not just for the same model year that you're better off buying new versus used (for Toyotas), but also for one model year older. Besides the lower price on the new car, you're also getting more warranty (unless it's a Toyota Certified Used Car).

My theory is that there are a sufficient number of buyers that believe that they must pay MSRP for a new Toyota so they opt for buying a used one. These people never even look at a newspaper, or look online, to see how low a non-negotiated street price can be. It's not the dealer's obligation to say, "oh, didn't you see our "All Corolla L Automatic in Stock for $15.5K" ad in the newspaper?" On the flip side, there are the more savvy buyers that are getting much lower prices for new vehicles.

I recall, many years ago, answering an ad for a one year old Camry and the seller simply would not believe me as to what a new Camry cost. He expected to get $1000 more for the one year old model than we ended up paying for a new one because he paid way too much for a new one.

Toyota is not taking a bath when they cut prices, they are just taking less profit per vehicle in order to keep production levels high (and sometimes they want bragging rights as to the "best selling car)."

Toyota keeps saying that they want to get out of the endless incentives and discounting cycle, but IMVAIO they will be as successful as JC Penney was in this regard. The dealers are pressured to sell more volume and do it by cutting their own margins, hoping that they'll be able to sell more extremely high margin stuff like paint guard, fabric guard, extended warranties, maintenance agreements, and my new favorite "dent and ding insurance."

most new cars, even if they don't have an "alarm" already disable starting the car if you don't have the proper chipped key. So you pretty much get the benefit of an "alarm" just without the noise.

Modern cars have key/ignition systems that keep the joyriding teens away. Can't start the car without the key. See your owner's manual.

You *have* read the owner's manual to your shiny new $20,000 toy, right? Front to back?

Nothing will keep the determined thief away. Consider that it takes less than 10 seconds for a guy with a repo tow kit in the back of his pickup to take your car from anywhere you might park it; insurance is your best bet.

Couple that with the fact that even if your Corolla becomes extremely desirable on the black market, there are millions of them on the road; your chances of losing your car even to the determined thief are nil.

you mean, you didn't buy it? It was sold to you?

Sucker.

I don't think there's a car on the market that can be started without the companion key--and its security chip--nearby.

Ergo, that functionality already exists. From the factory.

The guys are saying here that you already have an ignition bypass.

You can test this for True or False by locking the car as if you were not in it, but really are, and then trying to start it. You have to use the key to lock the door while you are inside, you cannot use any button on the inside to lock the door because that tells the car that it's okay to be started -- the car has to think you have walked away, not that you are inside. You could lock the door from the outside then put your arm through the window and turn the key...

If the car can be started while locked from the outside, then it does not have ignition bypass. If the car cannot be started when locked from the outside, then it has the ignition bypass, and all you need is the alarm system. If it has an ignition bypass, then it might have an alarm module from Toyota that is a plug-n-play unit that you can easily install at home in less than an hour.

The thieves now just show up with a flatbed tow truck to tow it to the chop shop.

There are a bunch of extra options available on the Corolla LE versus the L but the base standard equipment is very similar.

The only three real differences are the following:

1. Heated versus non heated outside mirrors
2. Variable Intermittent versus fixed intermittent wipers
3. 16 inch wheels versus 15 inch wheels (not necessarily an advantage to have the larger wheels in terms of MPG, ride quality, and tire cost).

The 2014 Corolla is completely changed and I would not buy one of those the first year because there's just too many unknowns. But at least it is supposed to be higher MPG (it's strange that the 2013 Camry has a higher highway MPG than the 2013 Corolla).

On the Camry L versus LE there are more significant differences. The LE has automatic headlights, remote keyless entry, and an extra 12V outlet, which the L lacks. Adding after-market RKE is a hassle. I was amazed at just how nice they've made the Camry, even the base model. It's basically a luxury car now. They've even put the large LCD screen in models without the navigation system (presumably so they can easily add it as an option). As Car and Driver wrote: "More luxury and more mpg for America's most popular car."

It was interesting buying a Camry with my sister in law a few months ago. We didn't see any L versions on the lot, but the price at the dealer she bought the LE for was the same as what other dealers were advertising the L for, $19.4K. Now, since it's closer to the end of the model year, prices have fallen another $500. We could have also went down to Southern California and saved about $500 more. I told her to wait two months but she got it into her head to buy a new car to replace her 21 year old Camry LE which would have needed some major engine work. Oh, BTW, the Costco car buying service was significantly higher than what the dealer was advertising and what we paid. The USAA car buying service is good, if you're a USAA member. They basically had the same price as the dealer's advertised price with the difference being that the price was not limited to the "x in stock at this price" gimmick, but was good for any of that model in stock. Often the "x in stock" vehicles are a color that is unpopular.

And as you found out, buying a low-mileage used vehicle is not necessarily cheaper than buying the same model as new, especially when the manufacturer and dealer are heavily discounting and incentivizing the new cars. As an article in Time explained: "Bizarrely, the situation is also one in which, as Kelley Blue Book noted, new and used versions of the same car model sometimes cost about the same, once dealership incentives for new vehicles are factored in. ?Buying a one-year-old used Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic will only save consumers about $20 per month,? the experts at KBB estimate." .

A car dealer knows that the typical used car customer is less well-off and less educated, doesn't research prices, and often will head straight to the used car section of the dealership. A private party that's selling a 1-2 year old vehicle that they bought new probably paid way too much for the vehicle (unless there's some other very good reason for selling a vehicle after such a short time). Since they paid too much for the vehicle when new, they expect to sell the used vehicle for too much, and it only takes one naive buyer for them to achieve their objective.

I have a relative that owns a repair shop in San Francisco and he'll often get people coming in to have him check out a used car that they intend to buy. He'll ask how much they are paying and he is often astounded at the extremely high prices they are paying for used Hondas, Toyotas, Acuras, and Lexuses.

Yep, as far as I know, most all cars going back several years use the transponder keys. I don't like it myself.. I'm afraid it's more likely to end up locking me out, than some crook. And all modern Toyota's that use a transponder key should have a little red LED on the dash that winks and blinks when the car is sitting. Mine does.. If you try to start my 2005 Corolla with a non transponder key, it will crank, but get no fuel or ignition. So it will crank the starter motor, but not start or run.

Dang.. I thought all Corollas had door trim, but maybe they took it off on the newer ones.. Mine is a CE which is the base model for 2005, and it has a rubber door trim in black stock from the factory. The upper models back then had the same trim, but it was body paint color matched. I suppose they did away with it, either to save money, "most likely", or to give a cleaner look to it.. "maybe, but I wouldn't hold my breath" :/

I wish I could disable my transponder setup.. Or at least have the option of switching it off.. Without disabling it, which I don't think is too easy, the only way to get around having the transponder in the key, is to tape a transponder key inside the steering column next to the switch. I can start mine with a non transponder key if I hold my "hot" key close to the switch at the right angle..

Sure, suckers are born every minute. But that doesn't mean some two year old cars can't be good deals. I probably saved $4k or so from the new car price when I bought mine. The exact amount would vary dealer to dealer. I think it was closer to $5k at some dealers. And I paid cash for the car, which made it even easier to get a good deal. The warranty is gone now, and I've never needed it. So I'm now even with anyone that bought the same car new. Except I paid a good bit less for it initially.