Do you really need a car alarm??

It's true that there are so many alarms these days most people just ignore them. However, what you might consider is one that has a pager. This was you'll know your car specifically is being tampered with, and there wouldn't even be a need for a siren, unless you wanted one. Consider the reasons someone would want to break into your car. For those who would want to joyride or take it to a place and strip it, you may already be fine with the key-chip setup. But, for those who would still want to break in and steal something, or even to ward off the annoyingly curious, an aftermarket system with a pager might be a nice addition. Just my two cents. Also, you might want to check with your insurance company to see if an aftermarket alarm would qualify you for any extra discount on your coverage.

Randy

We're living in a world that's been pulled over our eyes to blind us from the truth. Where are you, white rabbit?

A proximity or motion sensing alarm might save some heartache when it comes to the neophyte car thief, vandal or joy rider..... Having the horn or a siren sound might be enough to scare your problem away....... on cars that turn on lights at the tug of a door handle, you get some extra protection. Professional criminals will likely not be bothered with the alarm (having figured out what they will do in advance) or may even steer clear of some decals.

Not everyone ignores alarms.... I have a car just a couple of blocks from me and I enjoy having the owner share my midmorning alertness - yep, found out where the dork lives. Didn't take long for me to bbe able to stay in bed since I have made it obvious I will give the alarm a good reason to sound

Bottom line... the shock value may deter someone from further intrusion.....

YMMV

While it's true that most everyone ignores a blaring car alarm, they still serve a function.

Even though most everyone ignores an alarm, they also usually LOOK over at the car that is howling. The last thing a thief wants is attention, and if he trips an alarm, and can't readily silence it, he will *likely * move on to another vehicle.

The thing that sucks is poorly installed alarms that are zip-tied under the steering wheel, so if a thief trips it, he has only to dive under the dash, and rip it out by the wires. A well-installed unit that they would have to dig for can be a very effective deterrent .

I had the Viper 790VX alarm with pager installed in my 95 GT. Nobody's messed with it since. My car was stolen a week earlier when I had planned on putting in the alarm the next week.....too late. $7000 in insurance repairs later, I had the alarm installed. Very good one too, if I had an automatic, they would have hooked up the auto-start feature without extra charge for me.

One day at work my pager went off...I look out of the window and sure enough there is an older lady opening the passenger door of her SUV hitting my driver side door....I run out there real quick to see what damage she has done, but it looked like she didn't swing the door hard enough to make any mark on my door... she was lucky... I'm very glad I had it installed...I also had an extra siren installed for the hell of it.... (more noise)

Jason