Car Alarms & immobilisers

[commited]

Hey,

After a few cars have been broken into around me, and the fact that I love my car, I want to fit an alarm/immobiliser.

Ideally, I'd like to do it myself (it's a Mini, it's not too complicated ), so are there any good deals about the place? What brands are decent?

I've seen no name car alarms on the bay for £20 incl postage, but surely they're going to be complete tosh?

Ideally it'd come with a provision for remote central locking, as I want to fit central locking in a few weeks.

I can get a laserline alarm/immobiliser & have it fitted for about £140 (what my mate got in his), but I've heard lots of bad things about them - another friend had one fitted and armed when his car got stolen...

All help/advice is greatly appreciated!
Mark

 

[commited]

I'm kinda scared of the laserline, because my mates car was taken whilst having their alarm/immobiliser system fitted.
My mate has an old cobra alarm he said I could have - are installation instruction manuals easy enough to get on the net?

Agw - how long did you take to fit the system and how easy was it?

 

[commited]

get it fitted then its certified for your insurance you might get a discount

I asked for a quote with/without an alarm and there was no difference with my insurer.

next time buy a car with one a standard so much less hassle

Quite frankly, that is a bit of a ridiculous statement with regards the choice of car - I put condition of car and engine far higher than optional extras, and a Mini in the same nick as mine is very very hard to find

commited, errr, it took me about 6 hours in total to fit. That was over a couple of days though. The first day I simply connected up power/earth, the siren and the internal sensors. That was the easy part, took about 2 hours to get it all nice and tidy.

Having to trace wires from behind the fusebox for the indicators and door switches was the hard part. If you have a Haynes manual for your car and can read wiring diagrams, it'll be much easier though.

I was a total car n00b back then and I didn't find it too hard. I even went on and fitted a system in a friends' Punto That took me about 4 hours.

I've said if I can get the cobra to work, I'll throw some money at him, and if I dont, I wont! I might try it as the risk free but time consuming option!

It should be more straight forward on the Mini - I have haynes and can read wiring diagrams to a reasonable level!

I should avoid cheap no-name systems I assume though?