Alarm?
 

Since we're all not sure if the 8 is coming with an alarm or not, what are some good recommendations for aftermarkets?

I'm thinking some sort of Autopage one.. anyone got any opinions? What are some good ones?

Let the words flow.......

It's alarmed in the UK - kinda necessary unforunately...

There isn't much to recommend about alarms, the installation is the important part. installing it in such a way that prevents someone from easily disabling it. Features are what is important (how many extra channels do you want, LoJack, Remote Start, Valet mode, etc)

Ahh ok. . so what features are good?

I for one think an alarm does you no good if you're too far to hear it. Anyone know the lowdown on the Autopage type?

I'm not an alarm expert by no means but I think there's got to be something pretty good... As far as alarms go I don't know jack about them. What features should one look for?

lojack is the best, the black widdow is also a very good alarm...my friend has it. It comes with a keychain display that shows u whats happening to your car to cause the alarm, lie what part was touch and if a window broke etc...

what's a lojack.. is that a brand or a specific type of alarm?

pardon my stupidity.

lojack is sort of like a hidden beacon, if you report your car stolen i think it gets activated by uhm...cell phone towers or something?

anyhow then all the cops get a hot/cold signal if they're getting closer or farther from the car and they all zero in and beat the snot out of the mean mean guy that stole your purdy rx8

haha! sounds cool. Don't know if Hawaii has such as system in place. I wonder.. Are those things expensive?

I don't think LoJack is currently in HI, but they have a number you can call on they're web page to find out for sure. I guess they figure it isn't as necessary on an island... not too far the car could go I suppose... I do know that in most areas that have it, the cops love it. When one gets activated, its like a video game with all the cops racing around to rescue your precious car.. :D

I am planning on getting it, and I don't even live in a high crime area... just s precaution, y'know?

ill just shave the doorhandles and put the flamethrower alarm that you can get in europe on there :D

??? do explain ???

shave the doorhandles means remove them and have a remote pop them open with a solenoid (or something).

A few years back realTV highlighted an alarm that had a type of heat sensor that detected proximity to the car. If a breakin attempt was made the car would warn you that in 10 seconds, you'd be toast, then two propane jets under each door would ignite a 5 foot fireball. Turns out you could get charged w/ murder if it killed anyone in the US, so they didnt release it here. Sure looked cool though! :p

hahahaha that's crazy...... kinda like that system in RoboCop that eletrocuted would be car thieves hahaha

They mentioned it in the car and driver issue with the RX-8 where they were talking about some country in Africa that has the highest car jacking rate in the world or something.

to have or not to have?
 

So, anyone actually know if the rx-8 is going to have a car alarm?

That was South Africa, and it was to deal with carjackers, a very common species over there I believe.

Anyway, flames aren't loud enough to work very well as an alarm. Explosives might work better, but that kind of defeats the purpose. :)

Re: to have or not to have?
 

Yes, along with an immobilizer. Specs here:

http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/rx8/..._and_specs.pdf

I personally will be going with a CompuStar alarm (www.compustar.org ). The 2WSS series has a broadcast range of 6000 feet with an LCD based keyfob to alert regarding whatever is happening to your car. It's also got remote start.... He who dies with the most toys... :p

Re: Re: to have or not to have?
 

Whoa excellent PDF! Never saw that before.

Yo RotorMotor, how does that Compustar compare with the AutoPage 750?

http://www.autopageusa.com/autopageusars750.htm

And if the 8 really does come with an alarm, which it looks to be, I wonder if it's easy for installers to take the factory one out and put in an aftermarket.

Yeah, thanks for the PDF link lurcher!

np :) but I thought most of you US regulars would have seen that already, it's linked from the HTML spec table. It's the only detailed spec list I've found, the UK site is pretty sparse.

I dunno. I'm not too familiar with AutoPage and I won't have a chance to really go over the specs until after work (busy days...) At quick glance, they look really similar except for the fact that the AutoPage only transmits 1/4 mile while the CompuStar will transmit close to 2 miles. Then again, you couldn't run two miles fast enough to stop somebody from stealing your car anyway, so I guess that's a moot point... :p

The funny thing is I have seen that button on the Mazda website, but because of the limited information in the scroll window, I thought the "printable version" was basically the same thing. Next time I'll make sure to check out ALL the buttons!

:)