Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

This is Pete

Active Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2011
Messages
462
Car
E350 CDI Sport Estate, Porsche 911 CS4
I have a tracker fitted to my new car, but it's not been activated yet.

I've been quoted £109 for a year or £349 for however long I have the car.

Normally, it would be a no-brainer, but MB gave me 3 years of GAP insurance which basically protects the value of the car should it be stolen (if I understand it correctly).

Thoughts/advice would be very welcome.
 
Both the SLK and CLK have a tracker. When they were new could not get insurance without a tracking device. Now insurers seem less bothered about having one. Both on lifetime subscriptions so now at 6 and 8 years this was not a bad deal.
 
Do you really want your car back after some low life has thrashed the life out of it and possibly crashed it?

I'd rather have the money and buy another one, esp if you have GAP insurance.
 
I have a tracker fitted to my new car, but it's not been activated yet.

I've been quoted £109 for a year or £349 for however long I have the car.

Normally, it would be a no-brainer, but MB gave me 3 years of GAP insurance which basically protects the value of the car should it be stolen (if I understand it correctly).

Thoughts/advice would be very welcome.

£109 per year is cheap. Most subscriptions are £130 +

The Tracker should reduce your premiums and also allow the Police to catch the thieving scum should they nick it! Plus the latest trackers allow YOU to track your car via the internet. Some even allow you to geofence the car, alerting you by text if it goes out of that area! ;-)

Not all car thievs take cars to thrash and crash. Many are taken to order and sold on quickly.

A lot of thieves take the car and simply park it up somewhere for a couple of weeks to wait and see if its tracked. If it is you get your car back virtually untouched.
 
Last edited:
Anyone tried those cheap Chinese ones on Ebay (around £60) that run off a PAYG sim and can even enable you to switch off the fuel pump remotely?
 
A lot of thieves take the car and simply park it up somewhere for a couple of weeks to wait and see if its tracked. If it is you get your car back virtually untouched.

THIS

I had a tracker on my Corrado, in my opinion completely pointless as it didn't affect my insurance premium at all (was hoping it would be a little cheaper).

And as already mentioned would you want your car back after some thieving scum bag had driven it?
 
All good information, thanks guys.

I guess the other good thing to having a tracker is that the police might have more of a chance to put some thieving chav in the clink if they know what lock-up to look in.
 
And as already mentioned would you want your car back after some thieving scum bag had driven it?

If a thief steals a car for a joyride, the likelyhood is that is will be burned out before the Police get to it.

If a professional thief (and it takes a professional to overcome modern security systems) steals your car they will drive it away discretely and probably drive it more carefully than you. They will certainly look after your car - its condition dictates its value when they sell it on.

If you don't get your car back after it's stolen (because you didn't have a tracker) prepare for a massive hike in premiums next year, plus the cancellation of the remaining proportion of your existing policy.

Why would anyone not want a tracker on a decent car??
 
If a professional thief (and it takes a professional to overcome modern security systems) steals your car they will drive it away discretely and probably drive it more carefully than you. They will certainly look after your car - its condition dictates its value when they sell it on.

Well, a good friend of mine had his 335D stolen a couple of years ago after someone broke into his kitchen and took the key off the counter (his fault for leaving it in view, but it didn't take a professional to get to the key).

I always have my key in my pocket (and the spare in a secure location), but if some neanderthal manages to corner me, then I'm handing that key right over.

Simply put, a car's security measures are only as secure as the key.

Having said that, a tracker would seem the prudent option.
 
Well, a good friend of mine had his 335D stolen a couple of years ago after someone broke into his kitchen and took the key off the counter.

A professional car thief may well break into a house to get the key - but a joy rider isn't likely to add burglary to his list of offences just for a quick spin in a nice car.
 
I'm inclined to think that if some chav sees a nice car in a driveway at night and the keys in easy view only separated from him by a single pane of glass, he might well be tempted. Judging by some of the kids I see on these police-chase TV programs, these kids just don't care if they get another line on their record.
 
Tracker is very good at locating your car when you've forgot where you've parked it in an airport car park :doh:. The ones I have had on cars have been supplied as standard by the dealer and the lifetime subscription paid for by them as well as part of the sales package

Would I buy one myself? probably not as the device that locates the tracker has now become freely available on the open market so they are now too easy to find and remove.
 
tracker retrieved my fathers car within 4 hours, with 3 arrests for theft etc, and was defo worth it. In your scenario, im not sure you would get the full benefit as you have GAP, but beyond gap, its worth it, and worth doing now :)
 
i use a system that is managed by the owner made my siemens (i think) It is mainly intended for the agricultural market called farmalert but could easily be fitted to anything. They are £350 and cost about £20/yr to run via sim card

Essentially you get real time tracking on any pc running google earth, you are able to set time slot where the vehicle notifies your via text if it is moved, set geofences, again notification via text and you can send a text to flip a relay. This relay can be connected to anything you like such as vehicle's ignition or alarm or horn.

Fairly simple to fit, about the size of a large match box with no markings on it. It could easily be passed as a fitment to that vehicle. It uses vodafone data network, which means you only need a very very weak signal for it to work. If it is out of signal area it will notify you of last location in signal and resend directly it comes into contact with signal again.

It needs fitting covertly. Downside is there is no discount with insurance since it is not thatcham approved as there is no remote dedicated centre watching over it (as you do it !!) stupid rule really. Far better and cheaper than tracker. And yes police can monitor them as you give them webaddress and password.

I also use it to find the location and see if my vehicles (tractors, lorries etc) are on the move and actually doing any work all via my iphone

I have 11 fitted and it gives me peace of mind when leaving vehicles in remote locations. It has worked for me twice now, once on a new £13k quad bike (6 days old) and once on a 15tonne digger. Both times we recovered on our own as old bill when given location to where they were (next to pikey camps) said they were too busy. When I went to pick quad up the pikeys nearby even helped me load it in the back of the trailer !!!!!
 
Last edited:
Now that sounds like an excellent idea!
 
I had a tracker on my BMW 7 series. it was well worth it IMO.
 
Being able to operate a remote relay could be useful, connect it up to a cyanide gas canister :D
 
Mine had a tracker fitted by the original owner - I maintained the subscription when I bought the car - why wouldn't I?
 
trouble is with a standard tracker it is totally out of your control, if it is stolen then the police may look for it if nothing more pressing is on hand. We all know the police are more pushed than ever with an increasing work load and falling numbers of officers, so you are now more unlikely than ever to be put to the back of the queue, as after all it is only a car and it is inusured anyway

Farmalert and similar as described before, you have the best of both worlds it can be tracked by you and or the police, surely far more versatile
 
lulz @ tags.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom