I finally succumbed this week to our insurance company, which insisted that my 1990 Pajero wasn't insured against theft unless it had an immobiliser.
Now, I didn't really want an immobiliser - but I duly forked out £130, which seems to be the standard price for a proximity device put in by a fitter approved by some organisation that's accepted by the insurance people.
The thing comes with two little pods, that are read by the immobiliser and allow the car to start. I imagine they contain a fairly straightforward chip and have a manufacturing cost of about £2..
However, when I asked how much a third pod would be, the man in the shop quoted £45.
Does anybody know how I can get hold of one of these things for a sensible price?
I also noted belatedly on the instructions that came with the immobiliser that there is a recommendation that it be "serviced" once a year - apparently this costs £25, and insurers are likely to demand that this "servicing" is done at least every other year.
Since this effectively amounts to an extra tax on the device, and since the chance of thieves targeting my 11-year-old juggernaut must be pretty remote, I suggest that anybody confronted with insurers' demands to fit an immobiliser would probably be better off bearing the risk of theft themselves - rather than instead submitting to something approaching theft from the "security" industry.
Does anyone else have reservations about these wretched devices?
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check with the insurers, if they are not bothered about you servicing the immobiliser, then dont service it. i have a CAT 2 immobiliser fitted, and i am supposed to service the thing, but the insurers arent bothered.
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u'd be surprized how many of these do get nicked...
sadly plod dont put as much effort into car thefts as they should
what exactly are they gonna "service" ? does it need a battery ? dont think so ?
if i have alarm stuff done i always give the garage an address where the car isnt stored cos cynical old me thinks they would otherwise be prime candidates for passing on info on how to nick it...
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good idea about the different address, i had my citroen GSA stolen a year ago, but the thing is that i had just fitted a remote alarm to it, and if the garage had a copy of the alarm fob, they could just press the button, and the car would have opened, i really think the garage had something to do with the disappearance, because the police couldnt find anything on the car to say that the thieves had forced they way in (no marks, scratches, etc)
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This does happen. A certain car stereo company in Norwich used to pass info onto a bunch of toe-rags after they'd fitted a particularly expensive bit of kit. Police only put two and two together after about 6 months when it was noticed that many of these car break-ins occured within 2 weeks of visiting aforementioned company.
dan
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Cat 2 on a Lada ,I do not believe it .The unit is worth ten times more than the car or are you insuring the immobiliser
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Andy
You can purchase a CAT 2 immobiliser for £30.
A CAT 1 is one with an alarm and immobiliser together in the same system.
Regards
Jonathan
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like I said worth twice the cost of a Lada
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Think that's bad?
Because of the huge car-theft racket here, any vehicle over R150 000 (about 10 000 GBP, or about audi a3 level) *HAS* to have a sattel;ite tracker fitted ...
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Depressing thought that this might be imposed on me one day. Hope not as my vehicle unlikely to be stolen. Wonder if requirement is because of the area you live in? I live in Colchester, Essex and vehicle is always in the drive.
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I live near Gatwick airport - and I don't think the local car crime rate is fairly low ... the man who sold the immobiliser seemed to think that itinerant travelling people target these cars for the engines, but I thought they tended to use the bigger-engined Land Cruisers ....
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On another thread a few days ago, Ladas are Cool wrote:
>my old citroen gsa used to light up like the starship enterprise, with two >strange dials that never lit up (one was the speedo, but i cant remember what >the other was), it was a very strange car to look at, and even more weird to >drive. (it was stolen two days after my 20th birthday, i loved that car for the >wonderful ride, it was found burnt out, behind a pub in north shields)
Not surprising there was no evidence of a break-in if the thing was burnt out. Do get your story straight, there's a good chap.
Chris
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Thing is Chris when you create a virtual persona for spoofing the forum the truth should never get in the way of easing into a thread where you have no real experience.
The actualities of this are not important but the other thing is that the GSA wouldn't have been immobiliser interfaced to central locking in this way. Being a car of the 70/80s, before serious theft reduction thoughts, the right length/shape of ****** used in the correct way would have opened the door quicker than a plip key. Then this virtual car could be removed by snapping off the steering lock casting and starting it with a screwdriver in the back of the ign switch.
David
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I used to have an old Hillman minx on which the drivers door lock didn't work. Used to leave it outside my house unlocked all the time with no problems. One morning I found a note pushed through the letterbox. "Wpc so and so found your car unlocked, if anything has been stolen report to police station". Went out to go to work - she'd locked the door for me from the inside. Couldn't get in. Made me late for work.
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look DW (i think i know what initials DW stand for, but i am not allowed to say), i did own a GSA, i even got an immobiliser for it, but you dont seem to believe me, you can go jump for all i care, you stay with your horrible, noisy, ugly, terrible to drive land rovers. plus i think i might leave this forum and go to a one just for lada's.
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Aaaw
we just got to know each other too.
Don't go, I've got something very special for you.
xxxxx
Crystal
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help me, i have a stalker here, who is this person called 'crystal'. if she is a millionaire i would go out with her though.
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I've not got a million $, but i know a million things I could do with a true lada user.
Hhhmmmmmmnnnnn
Lada's ...........
Spotty little boys...........
How did you know what I liked.
Email me again please.
Crystal
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ok, who is doing this, i dont believe that "crystal" exists, and also i have a girlfriend, so i am not interested.
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Two answers ago you were going out with her cos she had money, now you aren't 'cos you have a girl friend you are a 100% idiot
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i was never going out with crystal, i have had emma for 2 years now. i think its YOU who is the idiot.
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All anti-theft devices are useless if you leave your keys [including immobilser fob] on the your hall table at home. Friend of mine did just that. Thieves slipped into the house during the night taking £50,000 BMW from the driveway. Big problems with insurance company.
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Not sure if I've got a false sense of security here, but my Xantia has a keypad much like the alarm at home, and if I don't enter the correct code, the car doesn't start.
Wouldn't matter if you had the keys, you still need the code number to get it going.
I'm sure the same system was used on Pugs and other Citroens too, but they seem to have abandoned it for on-key immobilisers. Was there a flaw with the number system that made it less secure than the key based one?
Lee.
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It's easy to break into your house and take you car keys that way, Many houses are far less well protected than the average car these days.
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actually the toe rags in milton keynes break in, take the car keys, get another set cut, then go back and put the originals back... they usually get through open windows etc to do this...
then the car goes missing in the night...
its been known for garages to cut a copy key while in for a service also...
and the people who thames valley plod use to tow away recovered stolen cars are a bunch of crooks too, long list of dodgy dealings with them... shocking very shocking...
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Slightly off-thread, but I heard recently about the (possibly apocryphal) problems that motorists in Portsmouth are experiencing when using carparks near the Gosport ferry - It appears that the radio transmissions from HMS Dolphin(?) across the water are close to the immobiliser frequencies, and lock people out of their cars.
Anyone have any experience of this?
P.
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Peter, frequently!
My key-fob immobiliser will not work at about 7 different locations which I know of - and i'm finding more all the time! most annoying!
I have to then reach under the dash for the override switch ...
I'm sure HJ has covered this subject before.
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My own experience is in the vicinty of the main Post Office here in Loughborough. There are an abundance of masts on top of the building and what I think is a Telecom technical site next door. My remote sender will not work anywhere near this building.
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