I am not sure if anybody has expereince in this subject but we will all have to learn because we may be forced by the insurance companies to fit these considering the newness of the car.

We should over the next couple of months identify which system is the best at which price. Hopefully we can then negotiate a group discount.

I am not sure if anybody has looked at this issue either previously or for the RX8 and is willing to share details.

rael.

 

I don't have a tracker on my current car, but I have started to look into this.

There appears to be 2 basic types of tracker:
one where the tracker is passively monitored and one where it is actively monitored.

With the passively monitored one the tracker is dormant until you call the tracker company and tell them your car has been stolen. They then broadcast a wakeup call to the device which then reports its location. The police can then trace it.

With active monitoring the tracker is always being monitored by the tracking company. If they think the car is behaving suspiciously (very high speeds ?), they call you. Thus your car can be recovered much more quickly. They may even link into the alarm system. There was a story last year of a guy being told his car was doing 120mph down the M6, while it was supposed to be being serviced by his dealer. Very funny story, very embarrassed dealer. The adverts for these claim your car could be recovered within 15 minutes of being nicked. Probably too quick for them to have thrashed the thing too badly.

The passive ones look to be around £300+ fitted with 3 years monitoring.
The active ones are up to £1000 including monitoring.

Anyone actually have any of these ????

 

I have been having similar thoughts...

Problem with tracker (as rael says in other thread) is that once car is stolen , the last thing I want is to get it back !
If it get's nicked , I want it to stay nicked.

If a real thief (as opposed to some spotty twerp in a hooded top) and it is destined to be crated and exported then fine - let them get on with it. I dont want the thing back damaged , disabled whatever.

The real menace is the acne-ridden brethren that plague our streets in the UK. These guys will nick it , thrash it , dump it - and your chances of getting it back (knackered) are high.

My personal choice will probably not be tracker - It will be Cat1 alarm , immobiliser and a proper steering wheel lock - probably of the 'whole wheel cover' variety. This should be enough to deter the mouth-breathers as it will be too much work.

Oh , I think it is Cat1 and immobilizer as standard. Dont know where I read that , but I think it is the case.

Morgan.

 

I have had tracker systems on my previous and current cars.

On my previous car I did some research and Navtrak came out on top for me ( www.navtrak.co.uk ). I did get a good deal at the time but prices seem very expensive now. This was a pro-active system that requires a seperate key card to diable it. Their latest system works on proximity, so as long as you have the card on your person it will disable it.

Navtrak prices here http://corporate.itisholdings.com/na...pdf/prices.pdf

My current car has RAC Trackstar ( http://<a href="http://www.ractracks....com/main/</a>) as it came with it. This is also a pro-active system but works from the key/immobiliser. This makes it transparent to use on a daily basis, but means if someone nicks your keys and drives off, they wont konw it's stolen.

Trackstar prices here http://www.ractrackstar.com/prices/non-members.htm

The other system I have no experience of is Tracker www.tracker.co.uk, and Im sure there may be others now as well.

The basic tracker system doesnt use GPS and I have read some insurance companies wont accept this. I think you need the Tracker Horizon for GPS & GSM.

I think it is a good idea if those who are interested get together nearer the time and see if we can get a group buy set up to get some discount.

 

Morgan,

I hear what you are saying re not wanting it back, but with a brand new car like the RX-8 you need to know how much your insurance company would pay out if it was stolen and not recovered.

Even after a few weeks they will make an adjustment and may well only pay out several thousand less than the new price.

It is also possible to purchase 'gap' insurance to cover any insurance shortfall, but last time I enquired about this it was around £500 so I went for the tracker anyway.

All this is a sad reflection of the society we live in.

 

Group discount idea good one MarkW.............