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Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

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Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#11

Post by tsdlts »

u801e wrote: post #5
ryanmercer wrote: post #3

If you have your car at the mall or are in a big city parking garge, sure it doesn't do much. If you live in the rest of the United States, which is spread out and some quite rural, a car alarm can quickly notify you someone is messing with your car. My town has a population a little over 300 people, we have one resident that is... not well... that rides his bicycle around even int he dead of winter and pounds on peo…

> If you live in the rest of the United States, which is spread out and some quite rural, a car alarm can quickly notify you someone is messing with your car. That really depends if you're close enough to the car, or in a building that makes it easy to hear noises coming from a parking lot. If I go to a mall or a big box store, I'm not going to hear my car alarm going off and other people are going to largely ignore…

You can silence alerts, your phone could be dead. The point of the alarm is to alarm you at the exact moment something is happening.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#12

Post by vangelis »

u801e wrote: post #5
ryanmercer wrote: post #3

If you have your car at the mall or are in a big city parking garge, sure it doesn't do much. If you live in the rest of the United States, which is spread out and some quite rural, a car alarm can quickly notify you someone is messing with your car. My town has a population a little over 300 people, we have one resident that is... not well... that rides his bicycle around even int he dead of winter and pounds on peo…

> If you live in the rest of the United States, which is spread out and some quite rural, a car alarm can quickly notify you someone is messing with your car. That really depends if you're close enough to the car, or in a building that makes it easy to hear noises coming from a parking lot. If I go to a mall or a big box store, I'm not going to hear my car alarm going off and other people are going to largely ignore…

99% of car alarms from my experience are either people backing into cars, false alarms, or in my case, my truck being a POS because I had a key but not a key fob.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#13

Post by svachalek »

tsdlts wrote: post #11
u801e wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you live in the rest of the United States, which is spread out and some quite rural, a car alarm can quickly notify you someone is messing with your car. That really depends if you're close enough to the car, or in a building that makes it easy to hear noises coming from a parking lot. If I go to a mall or a big box store, I'm not going to hear my car alarm going off and other people are going to largely ignore…

You can silence alerts, your phone could be dead. The point of the alarm is to alarm you at the exact moment something is happening.

Times in my life that I have seen someone racing to their car while the alarm is going off to chase off the supposed thieves:

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Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#14

Post by mc32 »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #10
mc32 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t it implied that the noise not only get the attention of the owner if nearby, but also passers by which in theory might deter the criminal?

Passersby won’t deter the criminal. In places like the USA or Latin America where criminals are believed to possess guns, passersby wouldn’t want to risk getting shot for the sake of some stranger’s vehicle. Even in Europe, if passersby in the big cities saw e.g. a bike thief taking an angle grinder to a bike lock, they are unlikely to intervene. It would just be asking for trouble.

Right, that’s why I mention that that is the theory. In practice it is not a great deterrent, but it will deter some none the less because it brings attention to something happening.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#15

Post by tomchuk »

hedora wrote: post #4

I really wish there was a way to disable the panic button on my key fob. It has a hair trigger and only requires one click to activate. I regularly trigger it by bending over with my keys in my pocket.

Depending on the make, this could be something you could disable via app/ODB dongle. I use the Carista app/BT dongle and have used it to disable the panic button on my last two Toyoyas.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#17

Post by MaxBarraclough »

josefresco wrote: post #2

I'd rather see a tracking system attached to several parts of the vehicle. This would allow law enforcement to track the vehicle, and/or the parts if the vehicle is broken down and sold. In the United States we have "LoJack" but it's not a standard feature rather a dealer upsell.

You could buy a tracker device for this purpose. Presumably it would be possible to repurpose an old smartphone to do the job.

There's also the question of who you want tracking your movements.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#18

Post by nexuist »

josefresco wrote: post #2

I'd rather see a tracking system attached to several parts of the vehicle. This would allow law enforcement to track the vehicle, and/or the parts if the vehicle is broken down and sold. In the United States we have "LoJack" but it's not a standard feature rather a dealer upsell.

Tesla probably has the best solution to this so far; they have cameras around the car that record movement and send it to the cloud. A tracking system would work only until thieves figure out how to disable it; at which point it just becomes another part to sell. The Tesla solution is nice because it live streams the carjacking to the owner, enabling them to pick out details about the thief that could be useful to arresting them. Of course, Teslas also have GPS tracking on top of this.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#19

Post by mikestew »

hedora wrote: post #4

I really wish there was a way to disable the panic button on my key fob. It has a hair trigger and only requires one click to activate. I regularly trigger it by bending over with my keys in my pocket.

If you don't feel like desoldering, just fill the button depression with epoxy. It's what we did with our Scion xB. And then it would start panicking on its own, at which point we returned to the dealer and told them to take the whole damned thing out. Which they did without charge.
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