Car Alarms, Necessary?

[JohnsD90]

Too much gray area to say the are necessary or unnecessary. If you drive a relatively stock 4Runner and park in a good area every night then it probably isn't necessary. I have had my 4Runner broken into twice where I live. It's not that it's necessarily a bad area but its kind of dark and I have a nice cd player. As long as I don't forget to take off the faceplate, then it's fine but if I leave it on it seems there is a bout a 50% chance I'm going to wake up to a broken window.

i didnt put a gray area cause i know everyone would choose it.

 

[CSL]

I want to remove mine

it all ready had a fancy one installed, with remote start, all the bells and whistles and a key fob complete with a picture of a car to tell you what's going on.

I hate it. The batteries die in the fob, followed by flashing lights and an inablility to turn the alarm off to open the door with the key. OR- it will start beeping...followed by me running across downtown expecting to see it driving away...of course it's not. When I am packing the rear cargo area I have to leave the drivers door open so it won't automatically arm and then start ringing (of course my drive is on a hill so the door closes it's self, thus pissing me off). I could go on and on.

My biggest fear is that it is going to malfunction and drain my battery or kill my ignition while I am deep in the Rocky mountains camping. For my rig (not a daily driver, but a mountain toy) I am just waiting to take an afternoon to completely remove it. I will post if for free when I do.

I guess that about sums up my opinion, for my particular situation.

 

[JohnsD90]

it all ready had a fancy one installed, with remote start, all the bells and whistles and a key fob complete with a picture of a car to tell you what's going on.

I hate it. The batteries die in the fob, followed by flashing lights and an inablility to turn the alarm off to open the door with the key. OR- it will start beeping...followed by me running across downtown expecting to see it driving away...of course it's not. When I am packing the rear cargo area I have to leave the drivers door open so it won't automatically arm and then start ringing (of course my drive is on a hill so the door closes it's self, thus pissing me off). I could go on and on.

My biggest fear is that it is going to malfunction and drain my battery or kill my ignition while I am deep in the Rocky mountains camping. For my rig (not a daily driver, but a mountain toy) I am just waiting to take an afternoon to completely remove it. I will post if for free when I do.

I guess that about sums up my opinion, for my particular situation.

I feel that car alarms are like the boy who cried wolf, when i hear a car alarm i dont think a car is getting stolen i think oh sh*t my panic button was pressed while moving around in my pocket.

 

[juiceboxer]

CSL- Depending on the model of your alarm it is very possible that you can turn off the auto arm feature. But if it isn't a daily driver I don't really see a need to have an alarm.