Quote:
Originally Posted by gr8000
With all due respect, I sincerely think alarms are useless.
I had alarms in all of my cars to the date. Not any more - my M3 didn't get one (and it is the most valuable car I owned).
What does the alarm not do:
1. Protect against junkies smashing windows to steal things from the cabin. I had windows of 2 of my cars smashed in the past with the CD player gone in no time, no one noticed, "no one saw anything".
2. Protect against vandalism.
3. Discourage professionals to steal the car as a whole. Like it was said above, the car can go in no time. There are many many ways, cars even get lifted without thiefs bothering to break in! They do this in peace at a remote place. And if you ask how can this be, well it has happened several times when people using crane trucks that looked like police trucks removing cars due to "illegal parking"!!
What does the alarm do:
1. At best case give some warning for the car being vandalised / broken into. Even then usually there is no time for you to react (you aren't close by, you don't hear the alarm etc). Even if there is time to react, would you want to be confronted with the guys doing this? What will you achieve with this, go kick their ass? So what, damage is done anyways plus you run the risk of being injured! Just claim under the insurance (which is what you would do anyways) and get over it!
2. Breaks the balls of the neighbours when alarms sound until the battery is drained!
My conclusion (could be wrong): All issues mentioned above are solved by parking the car in a safe place, by full insurance cover, and by not leaving belongings in the cabin. I want to assume that everybody takes these basic precautions for their M3s anyways, so why have an alarm?
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an alarm is a deterent. sure, it is not going to prevent your car from getting stolen, but if someone is looking to steal a car, wouldn't they prefer to steal one without an alarm? also, if they are stealing it in a highly populated area, an alarm is going to draw attention, which a criminal doesn't want or need. yes, a true professional could probably defeat a BMW pretty easily. but not all car thieves are true professionals.
my main motivator in getting an alarm is to have audible confirmation that the car is locked or unlocked. there is something about having that chirp that gives reassurance.
i think your conclusions are wrong.