Trackers. Yes or No?

ScottD3

ScottD3

I want your faulty electronics
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Before I bought my new car I did a HPI check and it listed that the car had a tracker fitted.
I contacted the tracker people today who said the tracker was fitted in 06 but was only active for one year. They asked if I would like to activate it for the yearly price but I would also need to have it inspected.
Inspection is £99, then a yearly subscription of £130 or a life of the car subscription of £350.
I asked if I can have it removed but they did not seem keen on having that answered, he made out that it was not possible but it will still cost me the price of inspection.

What's your general thoughts or experience on trackers?
 
We use trackers at work on our fleet of cars and vans. Only had to use it once when a van was stolen.

It's up to you, you could just leave it and forget about it or get it inspected and activated. What car is it on and have you asked what discount you would get from your insurance?
 
ScottD3 said:
Before I bought my new car I did a HPI check and it listed that the car had a tracker fitted.
I contacted the tracker people today who said the tracker was fitted in 06 but was only active for one year. They asked if I would like to activate it for the yearly price but I would also need to have it inspected.
Inspection is £99, then a yearly subscription of £130 or a life of the car subscription of £350.
I asked if I can have it removed but they did not seem keen on having that answered, he made out that it was not possible but it will still cost me the price of inspection.

What's your general thoughts or experience on trackers?
Click to expand...

Save your money Scott, unless you really think someone's going to steal it, then it's pointless.
 
The thing is, if you don't have it, and if your car gets stolen, the insurance company will have to pay out; and you can argue that the car was worth more etc etc. If you have the tracker activated, and if the car is stolen, you may get the car back, and the insurance company won't have to pay out so much. Now, it is just my opinion, but I think that the tracker helps save the insurance company money, and as such I think that they should be the ones to pay for it. Why would we pay the inspection fee, and activation fee coming to £230, for a bit off the cost of the policy- once?
When I bought my S4, Audi offered a tracker system, but I thought "if it gets nicked, would I want it back?" The insurance will pay me what they consider it to be worth, and GAP insurance will cover the rest.
Of course, it is only my view, but until insurance companies offer to fit them free, I won't be getting one.
 
Never had a car with one, however a friend of mine uses an old mobile phone hidden away with a pay as you go SIM - there is an app that beams out a location every 10 minutes or so - it also uses the normal signal to triangulate if GPS isn't available.
Much cheaper than a subscription, but useless for insurance purposes.
 
I would agree with the previous comment - who is the tracker really for?

If someone steals my car, I hope they rag the b@lls off it, have fun, outrun a couple of coppers then crash/burn it - I don't want it back.

I pay enough insurance already, not going to pay more then them to have a noose round my neck should the worst happen.
 
That's a good point about the car being stolen.
I doubt i'd want it back after someone has ragged it around and done god knows what to the inside.

Need to get it removed then.
That could be fun.
 
I did a massive thread on tracker over GAP, search for it cause it's a good read if your interested in lots of opinions. I didn't go for a tracker in the end, couldn't find an insurance company who would entertain discount for having one, apparently they don't anymore. I went for GAP in the end
 
I thought the Police didn't bother chasing tacker signals on stolen cars anymore! More important things to do these days.
 
I've heard from my best mate, who used to work for Pistonheads, of someone he knoew who had a Japanese sports car, that they had bought the car that had a tracker fitted when it had been imported. He had modified the car significantly for shows etc and it was his pride and joy. The subscription had run out on the tracker and wasn't active so essentially it was a useless box on the car.

The car was stolen and the police couldn't find it. He contacted the firm who manufactured the tracker, discussed the problem and paid for a years subscription. Moments later they activated the system and told him where it was and would pass the details to the Police. Car was recovered and minus a couple of bits that had been removed, got the car back.

I do agree however that if my car was stolen and hooned about/damaged/used for crime/etc, I would too not want the car back. I may however consider buying the car back and breaking it.

Although its not an official tracker I have considered fitting a self installed GSM/GPS tracker. Two guys I work with have them fitted and they are pretty clever, outputs googlemap live location data, opens a microphone channel from the cabin of your car so you can listen in and with some models, you can remotely immobilize the car. Not bad for £40 and some elbow grease.

GPS Car Tracker with GPRS and Vehicle Theft Protection: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics
 
Mate of mine had an R8 and RS4 stolen off his drive last Christmas. Both trackers were found ripped out on the side of the road some distance from the house.

I don't think these days the criminals that are intent on stealing certain types of vehicle will care less, and will check for trackers as part of the course if they think the vehicle is likely to have one.

It depends on how the car is treated as to whether I'd want it back, if it's joyridden / thrashed / rallied I wouldn't want it back anyway.

I'm sure I've read somewhere that there are 3 levels of tracker, and the expensive ones track automatically when the vehicle is activated / stolen, others have to be enabled (one it's alerted by the owner that the vehicle is missing - e.g. the cheap one). To me the cheap one is next to useless as a car can go a long way overnight. However as you'll remember from Clarkson's GT40 the expensive one can be over zealous and falsely report.

Personally I wouldn't have one again (I had a Tracker Horizon on an old Leon Cupra R), instead I'd rather rely on steering lock, diligent parking regime and a bit of luck.
 
I had 3 random cables in the left hand cubby hole in my boot.
One of them went through the rear vent and in to the bumper area.

So I removed the bumper to find out what that cable was and it turned out to be the aerial for the tracker.
I traced it back to the other 2 cables, which then went on to the tracker.

Since the boot was ripped apart I thought it was a good time to remove the tracker since I'm not going to use it.

Bumper off with the aerial.


Tracker removed.


One tracker.


One tracker apart.
 
I knew you'd take it apart when removed ha! :)

Why were you so bothered to remove it if you didn't use it? Surely you could have left it there and just forgotten about it?
 
it was tapped in to the power cables from the 12v socket, a ignition feed in to the BOSE amp and the aerial was stretched across all the tech in the side.
The cables was messy and in the way.
They looked rather bodged in.

Basically I was not happy with the fitting. So removed it.
 
Its just another electric toy for Scott to play with now :)
 
That does look a bad job, the hole point in fitting a tracker it to try and make it look like part of the cars wiring harness.
 
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