Monthly Feature - Vehicle Tracking Systems and their effects on auto theft

Okay, you have an awesome ride. Getting insurance is cool but hey.... your ride is your second girlfriend / wife. You have spent hundreds of hours perfecting it and making it look great. It is your pride and joy. Insurance will probably get you the same model car you had. No turbo / Nos / Mods you have done on your car. No shiny 18" wheels. All gone!

That is where vehicle tracking systems come in. There are about 5 well known systems here. There are 10 others less known systems as well. When choosing a tracking system, you need to highly research every system feature by feature and get people's opinions about these companies not to forget their track record. Sure Company 1 has caught so many vehicles but how many did they not catch. I can guarantee you these companies over exaggerate with their statistics!

Tracking systems have advanced alot recently with them now having features including no-go zones (i.e. townships) and stopping your engine remotely. In my opinion if you have a system like this, you need to either have it done properly (I've heard of cars simply refusing to start or stopping in the middle of an abandoned road for no reason), or you need to find other solutions.

Let's look at some features of the different tracking systems and issues regarding them.

Internet Tracking - Here you can track your family members and your car runtime over the Internet by simply logging onto the Tracking company's website. This to us is one of the most important features a tracking company can provide. It is a must. Let's say you have not taken this option into consideration and your car get's stolen. Things go bad. Things go wrong. An IC can blow on the tracking chip. Some wiring can be shorted. It's always better to go onto the Internet and check this for yourself. Yes you can get the company to test it out for you but 1. you pay, and no. 2. you can't just phone every few days. Another reason to get this option is to be able to track your car and recover it yourself with some third party security company or the police. We've seen that even the top tracking companies in the country are sometimes too bloody well slow and / or are too busy at the moment. Yes it's true!

Cellphone assisted tracking - Cellphone tracking should be used together with GPS to track your car. Reason being under car parkings and other places where GPS cannot track your car properly. That is where a cellphone signal comes in most useful.

Constant signal tracking - Your tracker should keep sending GPS co-ordinates every few minutes! Yes. Sometimes if your car gets stolen, you first need to get to a phone etc or hold on the line for a few minutes. By that time, the car could of been in a few different places including the GPS disabled. The criminals can simply get a GPS signal blocker as well as a GSM Blocker. What do you do then?

No-Go Zones - These are useless if the GPS has been disabled or the signal is being blocked! It takes a good car thief 5-15 minutes to disable the tracker and a few seconds to block the signal. Fortunately only very few criminals have access to these devices.

Ignition / Battery tamper alarms - These are useful if your car is standing still at your premises or parking lot and somebody tries to steal your car. Even a decent car level 3-4 alarm system can do this and be 99% safe. There is no 100%. That is why there is something called insurance.

There are many more features as GPS tracking gets more and more advanced.

The bottom line is that prevention is better than cure. But if you have done everything to prevent being hijacked... having a tracking system is your best option along with insurance.

THE BEST SOLUTION - Get an aftermarket tracking system and fit it yourself. It is shocking to know that 20% of highjackings are inside-jobs! Yes the fitment center's test their staff members. But it obviously is not working. Some systems were even disabled 2 minutes later. There are even incidents where the staff members of the tracking company track the cars themselves and this leads to house robberies, murders and alot more. Scary stuff ain't it!

An aftermarket system that nobody knows of installed yourself is still the best solution. It is also a more cost effective solution. These can be sourced for $1200 for a decent system that works world-wide. These systems also work with a transponder whereby if they don't get any signal from it, they shut down the car and render it useless after 45 seconds. Similar to very decent immobilizer systems. You also don't have to pay a monthly rate!

But beware - Some aftermarket systems work for 5 days then they stop working so keep testing them from time to time! A reputable system has 99.99% uptime! Even better than our tracking companies.

My buddy has one of those aftermarket systems source from the UK and was hijacked a few months back. They took him with them and then told him to fuck off out of the car after a while. Meantime the transponder was hidden in his back pocket. The car stopped as it got no signal. Then the 2 criminals got out trying to escape. They had to break the window since the doors didn't open. They were later on shot dead by shooting at the cops who made chase to them. Now if they had searched my buddy for the transponder, that would be a different story all in all. After 15 minutes if the car didn't hear my buddies voice, it would be rendered useless! So 2 situations here: The first one being the criminals will keep the driver in the car and drive somewhere else. Therefore in a few minutes the cops will be chasing them! Second scenario is if they took the transponder and chucked him outta the car. Then the car would shutdown and they would go nowhere. Even with a GSM / GPS blocker.... the car will be shut down.

My buddy could also SMS the car from any phone to tell it to stop going and shutdown completely. Some of these systems require fingerprints on the steering wheel biometric reader in order to function.... I don't agree with this as people will just cut off your finger and drive with it!

There are some many scenarios that can happen. Remember criminals in South Africa are not that clever! Even if they were... your car is 99.99% safe with a good aftermarket tracking system. And that's safer than using one of our top tracking companies!'

So think very carefully when choosing a tracking company in South Africa. Make sure they are reputable, have Internet Access to your car's location, and the added cellphone technology. Keep testing your car from time to time!

And remember - GET YOUR CAR INSURED. SOME INSURANCE COMPANIES ALLOW YOU INSURE AN EXTRA VALUE FOR YOUR CAR FOR AFTERMARKET PARTS INCLUDING TURBOCHARGERS, AFTERMARKET STEERING WHEELS, CARBON FIBER HOODS ETC.

Insurance is 100% vital and will also cover your car in an accident! It is best used in combination with a tracking system.

 

Specials of the month

Ultra comfortable small racing steering wheel with advanced horn switch. Beautifully chromed. One of our best sellers. R160 (Price includes VAT) This and most aftermarket steering wheels require a custom boss kit / hub to fit onto the steering wheel. These are available by us and at most aftermarket accessory stores. Usually goes for R260.             The most beautiful Golf MK2 Lexus style tailights in our opinion from JDM Tuning. Usually go for R1200 at most shops if you can get them! They are yours for only R900 a set and only while stocks last. This special is strictly for our newsletter readers. 1 per reader. If you are not a reader yet, you may subscribe on our website at http://www.snailsonsteroids.co.za