GPS Tracker?

Liam_Flag

Anyone ever fitted one to their car? How much would it cost for a good one including labour to fit one ya think?

My insurance is coming up for renewal and they asked did the car have a tracker? I'm guessing the premium would come down if I got one fitted?

Came across this one adverts that works with a sim card anyone know anyone with one?

http://www.adverts.ie/car-parts-accessories/car-personal-gps-tracker-via-text/436725

Mr Benevolent

A tracker would bring the insurance down if it was a Bentley or Aston. Wouldn't make a noticable difference on a Passat or the like. You'd spent more buying and fitting it then you'd save on insurance, that's for sure.

RandomAccess

I think they would expect it to be a professionally fitted and approved tracker.

In the UK some insurers used to offer reductions for having a thatcham approved alarm etc, so don't expect that just any tracker will qualify.

Heres some details from thatcham, probably varies from company to company.
http://www.thatcham.org/security/index.jsp?page=161

Thatcham Approved Devices List (pdf)

Some cars are high risk such as Audi RS4's because they are stolen for use in armed robberies. Thieving scum.

1916

They can drain the car's battery also

dingding

Liam_Flag wrote: »

Anyone ever fitted one to their car? How much would it cost for a good one including labour to fit one ya think?

My insurance is coming up for renewal and they asked did the car have a tracker? I'm guessing the premium would come down if I got one fitted?

Came across this one adverts that works with a sim card anyone know anyone with one?

http://www.adverts.ie/car-parts-accessories/car-personal-gps-tracker-via-text/436725

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/portable-mini-gsm-gprs-gps-tracker-for-personal-remote-positioning-33331

Here it is a bit cheaper if you can wait for it to be shipped from Hong Kong.

Homer

What are you driving OP as a matter of interest? Just wondering why the insurance company asked? Did they mention what difference quote wise it would make?

MOC1972

I have a friend in Sweden who told me you can buy a tracker blocker
to plug into the cigar lighter in the car for 50 euro so the cheaper ones are cheap for a reason.:)

bobdole968

3 main problems
1. drains main battery.
2. mobile phone sim need to be checked nearly monthly (because you need to top phone credit every few months and also need to use the sim or else the company will see the sim as not being used i think with vodafone its 170 days before they disable it if you dont make a call or text) this also means you would have to put the device in a place you can assess easily.
3. there are gps blockers on the market so a professional thief would have one id imagine.

drs1

ok i dont mean to be smart to previous post but
i think your points made are inaccurate

1. a professionally fitted tracker and thatcham approved system will not
drain the vehicles battery. a tracker contains an internal battery which allows it to go into a kinda "sleep" mode and consumes absolute milliamps when installed

2. as i said a "proper tracker "will not contain a ready to go sim card
they are monitored 24/7 365 days a year.. you will be notified if car moves with the ignition off (i.e tow away). or if battery is disconnected.they dont need top ups and are covered by your annual subscription

3.so far ive ive had 2 cars and one jcb digger type vehicle recovered that
were stolen equiped with trackers and the gardai thought the cars were part of a organised exporting ring.

im not been smart on this as i know some budget trackers may suffer from the issues you mentioned but cobra and cobratrack have spent a fortune keeping ahead of the game on this but these systems aint cheap about €700 supplied and fitted plus your annual monitoring of about 145stg a year.
to be honest any product in automobile security that carries the thatcham
stamp on it you can be assured its been thoroughly tested.

LoudSEO

I agree with drs1. Battery and other things shouldnt be an issue.

You can get wired ones or magnetic ones which will attach to any vehicle or piece of equipment you want to track so you can move it from vehicle to vehicle. Obviously the mobile ones are a bit more expensive! My mate got one from here, did the trick regarding tracking but not sure it brought down his insurance or not!

http://www.simple-tracking.com/products-page/vehicle-tracking/

Satanta

drs1 wrote: »

ok i dont mean to be smart to previous post but
i think your points made are inaccurate

1. a professionally fitted tracker and thatcham approved system will not
drain the vehicles battery. a tracker contains an internal battery which allows it to go into a kinda "sleep" mode and consumes absolute milliamps when installed

2. as i said a "proper tracker "will not contain a ready to go sim card
they are monitored 24/7 365 days a year.. you will be notified if car moves with the ignition off (i.e tow away). or if battery is disconnected.they dont need top ups and are covered by your annual subscription

3.so far ive ive had 2 cars and one jcb digger type vehicle recovered that
were stolen equiped with trackers and the gardai thought the cars were part of a organised exporting ring.

im not been smart on this as i know some budget trackers may suffer from the issues you mentioned but cobra and cobratrack have spent a fortune keeping ahead of the game on this but these systems aint cheap about €700 supplied and fitted plus your annual monitoring of about 145stg a year.
to be honest any product in automobile security that carries the thatcham
stamp on it you can be assured its been thoroughly tested.

The cobratrak contains a GSM module though for comms back to the monitoring station. This is the same as the others, just that maybe the sim is a subscription one.

These devices can be bought easily enough and configures to alert you rather than the monitoring centre. As a project I developed an application that could monitor/track and configure a device like this in 2002. You could source and buy an individual unit yourself and they are relatively easy to configure

Timmaay

MOC1972 wrote: »

I have a friend in Sweden who told me you can buy a tracker blocker
to plug into the cigar lighter in the car for 50 euro so the cheaper ones are cheap for a reason.:)

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/high-power-gps-blocker-with-ac-adapter-and-car-charger-110v-220v-8758 only dollars! Renders a GPS tracker useless!! Thats all a thief needs! To be honest I dont think I would even bother wasting my money on a gps tracker because of this!

keithclancy

drs1 wrote: »

im not been smart on this as i know some budget trackers may suffer from the issues you mentioned but cobra and cobratrack have spent a fortune keeping ahead of the game on this but these systems aint cheap about €700 supplied and fitted plus your annual monitoring of about 145stg a year.
to be honest any product in automobile security that carries the thatcham
stamp on it you can be assured its been thoroughly tested.

All GPS systems use the same signals, expensive ones don't use some special satelites to get a fix, interference in those ranges it uses renders it as useless as it would on a 20 euro SIRFStar based unit.

The only difference between expensive and cheap GPS units is how fast it gets a lock.

Timmaay

You can triangulate using phone masts also, I wounder is mobile reception blocked also with something like that device also? it might not be as good as GPS but would at least allow you some idea as to where the vehicle is!