I've been away from the car audio and security trends for about a decade now. I need to get one for my '88 Mustang. I'm not familiar with what is good and bad these days. What are some decent alarms these days? I don't have any creature comforts in my car like a stereo system, but I want to start adding more go-fast parts to it and don't want to worry as much after I get them in. A lot of weirdos drive through my street to get to the airbase. I'm getting a bit paranoid these days, too. Seems that the nicer weather is already here and the thieves are coming out of hibernation. Where around South Tampa is a good place to get one installed?

 

Clifford?

 

theres a place on dale mabry called "Sound Visions" running an alarm sale, basic freedom alarm system for 89$ installed. Might wanna try that. I gotta viper 2 way alarm and i like it

 

its all going to depend on how far you want to go. different things scare different theives. i am having an engine kill switch installed on my car along with an alarm and the new club. i'll hide an ignition switch either under the dash or in my center console, so the switch must be flipped in order to start the car. the new club goes around your break pedal and back up to your steering wheel. you may also want to look into the new alarms that come with pagers, if your alarm goes off you get paged. so if your at the mall or where ever you know your alarm went off and can go see whats going on. or you can go all out and get lojack so the police can track your car if its stolen.

 

The lo-jack system seems to be pretty effective being it's almost impossible for a theif to disable it (let alone even know you have it). A car alarm doesn't safeguard you from anything, it's more of a deterrent. A good theif can either disable the alarm, or be in your car and have what he wants before the siren even attracts much attention (as if they do anyways nowadays). I think the key is in prevention. Keeping your doors locked and nothing valuable in the the car, and if you do have something of signifigant worth in there...keep it out of sight.

 

The www.vehiclelocate.net system is far more advanced and doesn't take hours or even days to locate your car truck or trailer. Usually in less than a minute.

The Lojack device works this way.
Car gets stolen
the time it takes from it being stolen to you finding out can vary. Sometimes minutes, sometimes hours.
Then you contact Lojack
Lojack turns on the tracker and notifies your local PD
IF they have a tracker installed on their police cars and IF they can spare an officer to devote several hours or more to locate your car, then you MAY find it.

Vehiclelocate.net works a little better.

Your car gets broken into
Your home, cell, pager, email gets notified within 10-15 seconds
You call the police
IF the car moves, you can:
Give them the precise location, direction traveled, and speed and keep them updated up to every 1-2 minutes.
You disable the starter so once the car shuts off, it cannot be moved again. Cops catch the bad guy and gets your car back all in about an hour.
No extra software, police equipment, etc. Lojack=Lotech.

All in less than