Random thoughts: Are car alarms just useless now?

[SaltBoy]

How often do you hear a car alarm going off? How often do you even think about it when it is going off?

Personally, I think car alarms are just annoying; I end-up ignoring them. Who cares if somebody is stealing the car? The thing has "cried wolf" long enough for me to even care.

Just my $.02

 

[DaiShan]

Well in theory they aren't useless I mean some guy driving down the road with the alarm going off and the window busted in will surely arouse suspiscion, but I know this one guy who has had his ALARM stolen twice, not his car just the alarm. So I guess in that respect they are quite useless..

 

[malbojah]

I look at it this way, when I hear an alarm go off..from the same car...for the fifth time... in the last six minutes, I think to myself , 'okay you stupid sh!t, you've proven that you have small genitalia by have an alarm on your 92 metro, NOW SHUT IT OFF!'

 

[StageLeft]

There was one that went off a few nights ago in the middle of the night and when I woke up I thought "Damn, that must have been a break-in" - it was at my complex but I'm not sure. My point was it was some ungodly hour in the middle of the night and although this thing was INSANELY Loud. I mean the loudest thing ever, I couldn't be bothered to get up. That time of night you'd need to break in with a shotgun to rouse me because otherwise it can wait.

The only alarms worth having I think are the ones with the pager so that when your alarm goes off you can go see what's up.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

The only alarms worth having I think are the ones with the pager so that when your alarm goes off you can go see what's up.

yes, the rest of us don't care, go check on your own car

 

[eplebnista]

Are car alarms just useless now?

No.

 

[Evadman]

yes.

Next Question.

 

[911paramedic]

The only thing I hear is when people have that fvckin chirp when they lock/ulock the doors. YOU CAN DISABLE THAT PEOPLE...

Argh.

chirp.
chirp-chirp.
bweeep.
chirp.
honk.
chirp-chirp.
bweeeeeep.
honk-honk.
chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp.
bweep-bweep.
honk.
AAAaooooooggggggaaaaa!

(these are all on metros or yugos of course)

:|

 

[virusag11]

Yes, they are annoying. Solution, get rid of the alarm and park next to a nicer car than yours.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: 911paramedic
The only thing I hear is when people have that fvckin chirp when they lock/ulock the doors. YOU CAN DISABLE THAT PEOPLE...

Argh.

chirp.
chirp-chirp.
bweeep.
chirp.
honk.
chirp-chirp.
bweeeeeep.
honk-honk.
chirp-chirp-chirp-chirp.
bweep-bweep.
honk.
AAAaooooooggggggaaaaa!

(these are all on metros or yugos of course)

:|

Yep. That makes me homicidal. I like having the lights flash maybe ONCE so that you can tell (BTW I don't have a car alarm on my 93 sentra haha), but those cars that bleep and blip for 20 minutes are fuggin anoying.

 

[dpm]

I've seen a couple of cars drive down the street with their alarms blaring out, and no one turned a hair. Mind you, this was in a bad part of town..
Still, you've got to hope that seeing one may put off a wouldbe thief a little bit....

 

[Thegonagle]

I especially dislike the horn honking door lock thingy, especially on cars with particularly loud horns, like Cadillacs. I'm pretty sure you can turn that off in most cars. I often tap my own horn in reply . I wish the manufacturers would ship them with the noise pollution default to off.

 

[NutBucket]

I like having my alarm chirp to tell me that I have indeed locked the doors and such. And no, alarms are not useless. I had mine installed more for the starter disable then anything. I had at attempted break-in while my car was in the driveway. My dad's truck has been broken into twice, and it is stripped to the bone and old at that, 89. I figure, I'll hear the alarm if it goes off in the driveway, where we've had the most problems. If I go park somewhere I know other cars will set it off, I usually just disable the shock sensor.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my alarm b/c it hardly ever has a false alarm. Furthermore, it will sound for 20 seconds the first time is set off, 40 seconds the next time and 60 seconds the third time. After that the shock sensor disables itself. For me it was money well spent. These idiots who set their alarms super sensitive are just that, idiots. Properly installed and used they are still useful items to have.

 

[Passions]

Yes, car alarms do work. I don't know how effective they are, but they do still have some effect in preventing stolen cars.

 

[pyonir]

i have an alarm on my new car. the first time i have had an alarm, or a car worth having an alarm. i got it for the starter disable more than anything. my horn beeps once when i arm it and twice when i disarm. i used to hate that too...but now i do it in hopes that i am pissing someone off.

 

[IGBT]

No body pays any attention to them. Every time a low flying plane flies over the whole neighborhood turns into a chorus of false alarms.

 

[vi edit]

Bah. Screw car alarms. Next decent vehicle I buy will have the onstar system on it.

I walk out to find my car missing, I just call up onstar service. Conversation goes as follows:

Me: *dials onstar number*
On* Operator: welcome to onstar, can I have you vin and pin numbers please
Me: *gives pin and vin*
On* Operator: Thank you for calling Mr. Dunne, how can I assist you?
Me: My car has been stolen!
On* Op: Ok, we've tracked the car, and it is located at 1234, South Main Street, Blah Blah City, Iowa. We are disabling the engine and calling the proper authorities. The police will be contacting you shortly.
Me: Thanks!

Built in GPS and remote control capabilities are cool!

 

[SaltBoy]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Bah. Screw car alarms. Next decent vehicle I buy will have the onstar system on it.

I walk out to find my car missing, I just call up onstar service. Conversation goes as follows:

Me: *dials onstar number*
On* Operator: welcome to onstar, can I have you vin and pin numbers please
Me: *gives pin and vin*
On* Operator: Thank you for calling Mr. Dunne, how can I assist you?
Me: My car has been stolen!
On* Op: Ok, we've tracked the car, and it is located at 1234, South Main Street, Blah Blah City, Iowa. We are disabling the engine and calling the proper authorities. The police will be contacting you shortly.
Me: Thanks!

Built in GPS and remote control capabilities are cool!

My car has a lo-jack on it. Probably not as nice, but still, it's good enough!

 

[vi edit]

Lo-jack is pretty much what Onstar does, just that onstar does a lot more things along with it

Maybe I was "wowed" by the techno gizmos that it can do, but it seemed very handy none the less.

Some things onstar does -
- can unlock doors with a phone call to onstar
- can track car via gps if stolen
- has built in satellite telephone service
- has an onstar emergency rep call to the car to check on driver/passenger if airbags are deployed, if no response, onstar calls 911 of local area
- can diagnose basic engine problems on the fly

Pretty cool if you ask me

 

[SaltBoy]

Some things onstar does -
- can unlock doors with a phone call to onstar
- can diagnose basic engine problems on the fly

Dang -- those are some NICE features! How much does it cost to install?

 

[GSOYF]

even if they do not prevent the car from being stolen....they are worth it just for the fact that it lowers your insurance.

 

[vi edit]

I don't really remember. A lot of uper level GM cars are coming from the factor with Onstar already installed. You have to sign up for a subscription service from there though.

I think the basic "security" package, which consisted of the door unlocking, car tracking, and emergency assistance was around $250 a year.

The satellite phone service was outrageously expensive, and probably not worth it.

 

[silent tone]

My alarm has saved or slowed down theft at least 3 times. Unfortunately the last time, I actually heard the siren but didn't think it was mine(it almost never falses). I learned later on that somebody wanted my cd player.

 

[StageLeft]

Why aren't more people using the remote pager alarms? Those things are sweet! Alarm goes off you get paged as long as you're relatively near it. If you hear that beep beep at 2:30 it's time to wake martha and ask for your shotgun!

 

[Hammer]

My alarms doesn't make a sound when its activated other than a small red light goes on inside the car. Also, my car won't power on unless it receives a code from the key first.