Compare When Trying to Choose the Best Car Alarm

Arguably, the best car security system is the one that fits your needs best. There are a lot of choices out there, at different price ranges, but not everyone will need or want a car alarm with 2-way and GPS capability. However, there is a minimum standard for automotive security systems to have in order to do their job of deterrence properly. Let's face it, it's an accepted fact that if a dedicated thief wants your car badly enough, he will most likely be able to steal your possession. What we can do is buy the best car alarm that our budget allows and take a few precautions that will help ensure the safety of our car.

For a car alarm to work, it needs sensors to monitor the environment in and around the vehicle. There are proximity sensors, which detect movement close to the vehicle, glass breakage sensors and shock sensors which detect blows or impacts to the vehicle and can discriminate light impacts from heavy ones. Sensor quality is a big issue, because sensitivity, discrimination and reliability are important factors to consider between brands. It's easy to compare two brands with the same types of sensors but you will have to ask around whether the cheaper brand will not constantly trigger false readings or will work reliably a year or two down the road. Immobilizers are a very important feature because when it is triggered, the thief cannot drive away with the car. Unfortunately, inferior systems also have the tendency to immobilize the legitimate driver of the car. Car alarms now also offer active or passive arming. Passive arming means that the alarm system will turn itself on automatically after a preset time when the driver leaves the vehicle. Active arming requires the participation of the driver to arm the system.

Other features of good security systems are panic buttons, which are practically standard on alarm remotes nowadays, remote start, which is convenient, specially in cold climates but are not a necessity, auxiliary channels, which are electrical outputs controlled by your remote, and which can be connected to other systems in the car, allowing them to be operated by remote control. Speaking of remotes, the best car alarms provide a minimum of 2 remotes per system.

In looking at car alarms, be aware of features like encryption type and progressive unlocking. A good encryption system will prevent code grabbers from learning the system codes that deactivate your car alarm. Progressive unlocking unlocks only the driver's door initially, to prevent thieves from getting into the car with you when you disarm your alarm system. Choosing the best car alarm can be a bewildering experience. Do your research and ask around for user's experiences so that you can get the best value from the system you have selected for your vehicle.

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The Pitfalls of a Cheap Car Alarm

As with a lot of things that are for sale nowadays, the adage you get what you pay for is also very true for automobile security systems. The pitfalls of buying a cheap alarm can result in frustration at the very least, to having your car stolen from a "secure" location because the alarm system you had been relying on did not do its job.

The number one pitfall in buying a cheap car alarm is that they can easily be disabled or bypassed by an experienced thief. It's true that if a dedicated thief particularly wants your car, he (or she?) will find a way to make off with your prized possession. However, making it harder for that thief to get away in your car may spell the difference between a close encounter and thousands of dollars in lost investment. This is especially true if you have a lot of gadgets invested in your car, such as GPS navigation, a radar detector, LCD displays and a multi-speaker sound system.

While cheap car alarms nowadays have features that were considered high end several years ago, engine immobilizers, auto arming, light warning and other features may not work reliably down the road. The pitfall of a cheap car alarm is that they will work fine for the first 6 months, if at all, and then start to give you grief by constantly giving false alarms or immobilizing the owner himself at the most inopportune moments. Additionally, cheap systems do not give the degree of adjustability that well-calibrated systems offer, so that false positives are reduced. Nothing is more annoying than a car the keeps on blaring for no apparent reason at all.

Nowadays, a lot of people are justifiably annoyed and irritated at the sound of car alarms because a lot of these are false. A recent independent study has shown that only five percent of car alarms that are triggered are actually necessary. The rest are false alarms. It will not be a surprise to discover that most of these false triggering is the result of overly sensitive car alarms whose settings cannot be adjusted. Over time, the owner will just disconnect the system due to embarrassment, or annoyance, or both. The pitfall in buying a cheap car alarm may not be obvious when you first buy it but if in the long run you stop using an unreliable system, then you will just have thrown your money away.

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Sometimes It May Be a Good Option to Fit a Simple Car Alarm

Any car owner must accept the fact that automotive alarm systems are simply a deterrent. At best, what they do is make your car the less palatable alternative compared to the car beside yours. This is why a simple car alarm which has been installed properly is just as effective as the most advanced and feature-laden alarm that has been poorly installed. It is an accepted fact that a thief with the proper skills will be able to steal your car if he is really after that particular car. A thief's worst enemy is time, because once an alarm has been triggered, it only takes one person to see if something suspicious is happening to a vehicle and make a call for help.

The truth of the matter is that a lot of car alarms are being ignored because of the fact that 90% of triggered alarms are false. These can be caused by an inadvertent bump, pranksters, loud noise or vibrations and, more often than not, faulty or overly-sensitive sensors. So, it could happen that your car is really being broken into but a public desensitized to car alarms is just ignoring it. So, a simple car alarm that has features like an immobilizer and a paging system will be enough to give the owner a chance to respond to his/her vehicle's alarm being triggered. Sometimes, half a minute is all it takes for a theft to be aborted, either by a nervous thief or because of a response from security personnel, or even an effort from the general public. Then again, there are reported cases of vehicles being stolen by loading them onto a flatbed truck or trailer. In cases like this, you will need a tracking module fitted to your vehicle.

The decision to install a simple alarm really comes down to a question of the owner's expectations on what the car alarm should do and, of course, the owner's budget. If the car being guarded is a lowly commuter car that doesn't have a multitude of accessories installed, then a simple car alarm with motion sensors and immobilizer should do the job. However, high dollar builds and rare cars should have the more advanced alarm system features installed, such as 2-way paging, anti-hijacking and tracking.

Compared to the majority of cars on the road today, exotic cars and expensive project cars are relatively rare, so unless you own such a car, a simple car alarm may suffice for your deterrent needs.

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