paulk

Jza,

what respected regular did I call a prat? As for being a new boy, if you have a sneaky peak at my registered date you will see I've been around for a bit, just lost my other username and passwork in the recent upgrade. Oh and by the way you'd lose the bet!!!!!!!

Anyway I was asked for my opinion and gave it, I dealt with replies in balance. You come on have a go and contribute nothing to the topic. No wonder so many of the original guys have walked away from this board.

NBW,

Yes, still following the thread with interest, was looking to see if a reasoned debate would develop, seems HIGHLY unlikely - odds on your a stirrer

BTW you still haven't told us which post code Planet Falula is in to warrant a £250 saving on a premium because a tracker has been fitted

Paul



[Edited by paulk - 12/3/2001 11:51:14 PM]

Obelix

OK, so it seems that trackers win over the gap insurance argument, but how worthwhile are trackers anyway? At the risk of sounding stupid/ niave/ irresponsible etc + a good deal of the devil's advocacy:

1. Isnt the standard CAT1 al/immob + a disklok enough deterrence/ prevention?
2. A tracker has no prevention value.
3. Given the reasons Imprezas are stolen for, are they worth recovering?
4. Insurance companies would have to pay out anyway.
5. How much of a target is a standard bug- eyed WRX after all?

It seems that a tracker is the right thing to do, I suppose I just need convincing...

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Okey Dokey - like a challenge

1) Deterence is visible signs of defence, such as Diskloks, wheel clamps & armed guards

Prevention is taking sensible precautions such as locked/alarmed garage, Barrier Deadlock & decent alarm.

2) You're right

3) Depends if it's stolen for a rag/burn or for a "job". Rag/burn then no, but for a "job" then it'll have been driven sensibly (to avoid drawing attention), parked up & used only for the dirty deed, just in case they have to escape. For the second scenario, the car may be stolen, but you'd have got it back before the job.

Also, with the GPS trackers available, they log all speeds, directions & positions for a couple of weeks prior to the present time. You can download this info & come to your own (informed) conclusion.

4) Indeed true, but there is more chance of them not having to, thereby not increasing your next premium & everyone else's in general. You will also get a discount on your insurance premium to boot.

5) If I were you, then my attitude would be "That's my property & I'm buggered if I'll see some ****** drive off in my hard earned cash without having done something about it".

At the end of the day, the choice is yours but the potential benefits outway the negatives & you might get the chance to actually have some ****** banged up, which would stop a fellow bbs'er having his P&J nicked the next day. Crime costs honest citizens, as someone has to pay - so help stop it.

So, you'll be wanting to know the options next post then???

NBW

Do the sums.

A tracking device has got to be worth it - a few hundred quid for peace of mind and to give you access to a wider range of insurers.

I changed my insurance this year, saved over £250 on the premium by having a tracking device fitted, which cost me around £600.

Over 3 years the tracking device shouldn't cost very much in real terms, and certainly very little as a proportion of the overall cost of running your car.

paulk

There appears to be a current craze on Scoobynet to protect your car to the hilt. My attitude is I'll do the minimal for the insurance (unfortuntely that meant having to install a Cat1 alarm) after all that is what they are vastly overpaid to cover,IMO.

With regards to a tracker, its only use, AFAIK, is to locate your car after it has been stolen, in which case I'd rather not have it back but exercise the new for old cover on my insurance policy. The more people that put these systems voluntarily the more likely insurance companies will enforce it upon us as it gives them added protection and us bugger all. So you could say I am from the anti-tracker lobby. I believe there is one preinstalled on the UK Sti7 -the sign of things to come.

If somebody wants to steal the car they will irrespective of the amount of protection afforded.

I don't have a barrier deadlock
I don't have a disklok
I don't have a tracker
I don't put the car in the garage (far too much useful stuff in there)
I don't make my mother in law sleep in the car at night

I don't how some of the guys on this bulletin board sleep given the amount of concern they show over their cars. Remember it is only a piece of metal which can be replaced.


[Edited by paulk - 11/29/2001 12:21:40 AM]

paulk

NBW

You saved £250 on an insurance policy because you had a tracker fitted. Must have been one hell of a quote, what post code is Planet Falula in.

Paul

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

A people like paulk who don't worry, have their car nicked, swop new/old & stick up the premiums for the rest of us

Not a dig paul, but think about it.

NBW

paulk,

I fitted a tracking device due to a spate of car and house break-ins in the area, which is Herts (medium risk). Sleep better now, not listening for every single noise outside.

I took the opportunity to re-insure at the same time, as I could go from AA to Tesco (£850 to £600), a TD being a mandatory requirement for Tesco.

You seem to have a lot of faith in insurers actually paying out...

It is just a bit of tin, but it's MY bit of tin...

Tim

paulk

Puff

What a load of utter nonsense. The coverage for vehicle theft is only a partial element of a premium and if that element is significantly high (I personally don't know as I am not an insurance actuary) it is due to the social problems that exist in this country, which is not down to you or I as individuals to resolve - that is why we pay tax and NI.

Anyway this doesn't help the chap who has a dilema, he has just got to ask himself what will it do for him, if he is happy with it go for it. I am just against the principle of the need for extra security and protection, it shouldn't be required.

BTW, Puff are you in favour of private police forces to protect homeowners

I do like a good argument


Paul








Paul

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Paul,
If you want to be and want to keep on being an easy target for criminals then keep the attitude you have now.
What it will eventually mean for you is that the only car that you will be able to afford to insure will be a 1ltr fiat nasty
If you dont wish to protect your property then you may as well just leave your front door open, your car unlocked with the keys in the ignition and let those low lifes come and go, taking all that you have paid for for nothing, basically thats what PTMW and the rest of us are getting at, if you dont make it hard for them they will just come and go, and as for tracking systems, it keeps your insurance down due to one thing, they get the car back very quickly (P1 stolen in manchester was recovered in 4 mins!!)
Now, the fact that you will be left out of pocket and with no car has a down side, 1, you have to hire a car as until the 30days are up and your car hasnt been recovered your going to have to fork out the 30quid a day to pay for one (900 quid later.....)
Your insurance wont pay nothing until the 30 days are up, also you will only get the value of the car that they think its worth, not what you quoted them....
And for the 900 quid you just spent on hire cars, you could have had a decent ammount of security, disclok, tracking system, cat1 alarm/immob...
Work it out yourself....
(also knows of a couple of scoobs with tracking systems that have been stolen and recovered in 20mins, do you think that one ragging is going to totally ruin your car? we do it every day dont we? a quick blast here and there...)

Tony

scooby555

Having been getting zillions of qoutes before getting a scoob I have found that a tracker would only make £50 difference

Stitch

A tracking device has got to be worthwhile. Any insurance pay out is unlikely to cover the cost of a replacement car. The insurance savings are not huge but having a device fitted will give you some peace of mind.

Max the Clifford dealer

Hey Stitchy, is it you? Stitchy who now has the £150 Volvo runaround while the Scoob is in storage? You should be in a good position to comment on vehicle security seeing as how your Clifford foiled that rather nasty attempt at relieving you of your Scoob a few weeks back.

Jerome

Paulk

I assume you've never had a car stolen before. If, as you say, you don't want the car back, how long will your insurance company take to pay out? If the car is never seen again, for the first 28 days the Police class the car as missing. After that they class it as stolen. Insurance companies often don't process the claim until after 6 weeks. Unless things have been improved in the last few years, having a car stolen is a major inconvenience at the very least.

Jza

PaulK - Great start to your Scoobynet life. Call a respected regular a prat!!!!

Dont get one then!!

But i bet you'd be on here (if your still around - with your attitude to life i doubt you will do) posting "my car got damaged blah blah blah how sorry are you for me" if your car got buggered by some scumbag. Tends to only really hit home when its your ££££'s that paying to get it fixed and a good alarm / disklok / tracker makes you sleep a lot easier when you know its (relatively) safe.....

......and thats worth way more to me than the poxy £250 it costs to get i sorted

Jza


Jza

NBW

paulk, you still following this thread?

Obelix, convinced yet?

shunty

originall posted by paulk:

/ "I don't how some of the guys on this bulletin board sleep given the amount of concern they show over their cars. Remember it is only a piece of metal which can be replaced." /

Dont let my wife hear you saying things like that paulk. Your motor should be your life mate
question - lose the house or lose the car mate....
answer - you can't drive a house, but you can sleep in a car

shunty

NBW

paulk, the time/date of your last post confirms that you are living in the past mate!

BTW, I did say above that I saved £250 moving from AA to Tesco, but Tesco insisted on a tracking device, and Planet Falula is somewhere in Hertfordshire.

Reasoned debate? Nah, you're right, just stirring. Off to the TT forum to ask about hair gel next. Ta ta.

Bexlee

Bizarre I know, but I am Obelix (just lost my password!) You might be interested to know that I did go for the Tracker- seemed to make sense overall.

Day 4 of Scooby ownership- dream come true. Does the buzz EVER wear off?

NBW

If you mean the buzz from the gear stick at 4500rpm, then no !

Here's hoping your Tracker is never needed !

Bexlee

Lol, Cheers NBW.

I'll drive to that.

Chris L

I've come let to this thread, but for what's it's worth:

Last year I believe there were 9 P1's stolen - as you know, these come with the RAC Trackstar device. All cars were recovered, the most time to recovery was 40 minutes.

Insurance is a fact of life and we all hate paying bigger premiums, but the fact is insurance companies are losing money. If you don't believe me, speak to Dave T-S or Rum, both guys are heavily involved in insurance.

The more cars fitted with Tracker, the more that are recovered - I believe the overall recovery rate is in excess of 98% - that means less (or lower) insurance claims and you never know the police might catch a few more of the toerags in the process.

I think it is more of a case of 'Convince me that trackers are NOT worthwhile'

Chris

Huge

Also worth bearing in mind that with the number of vehicles stolen every day the police simply don't have the resources to actively search for them all.

One of our vans was stolen whilst parked up delivering tyres to a customer in West Yorks a couple of months ago. Using the Minor Planet tracking system that we have installed we were able to locate the vehicle. The police were unable to spare anyone to go & secure it - or to arrest the perpetrators - so a couple of our larger employees went to where MP told us it was parked & recovered it complete with load.

If we hadn't been able to locate the vehicle it would have been goodbye to £18ks of vehicle & stock, plenty of inconvenience, pi$$ed-off customers etc.

It's obviously up to the individual to decide whether or not to get a tracking device fitted, but just bear in mind your renewal premium should you end up costing the insurance company >£10k.

Hugh

AlanS

Paulk

Mate, a couple of youths were suspiciously admiring my beloved motor today. I think they wanted more than a New Year test drive. As it's the season of good will, can you let me have your postcode so I can send them round to you?

TBMeech

I would agree with the majority, as most comments have stated, tracking devices are an excellent security deterrant in themselves, there is no way i would like to loose my vehicle, then wait 2 - 6 months whilst the insurance companies decide how much my car is worth then pay me less than it actually is worth, have no vehicle mean time, then cant re-insure one and loose all my ncd, you have to be mental to do think i will do the minimum as it's hassle, its a fact of life that scums will damage / nick anything they can get their hands on, it's a matter of principle that the things we all buy are for ourselves not for some punk bitch to steal it from under our noses, at least with a tracker as has been said before within an hour the car is usually found, plus they stand a better chance of catching the scum that nicked it in the first place, at least we all then stand a small chance of premiums actually not rising for once.

AlanS

TBMeech has hit the nail on the head. My philosophy when I had my tracker installed was how do I find the bast..ds who nicked my car in the first place.
If you don't have a tracker there's not much chance of them getting caught in the act. If you do have a tracker device then not only do you stand a good chance of getting the vehicle back but also who nicked it in the first place.

I can then send the boys round...

NickB2

Hi Everyone - I'm a new comer, but a cool site.

I've followed this thread with interest and there are many good points made. I tend to fall into the 'do as much as you <<reasonably>> can' camp (but then isn't that were the majority of people disagree i.e. their own individual judgement of what is reasonable and what is OTT [Mother in law sleeping in it etc ;-) ].

The point is wanted to make was some people justify it on the basis of economics - saving on insurance, but do these really pay-off? I suspect not.

I've never owned a tracker and don't know much but imagine it costs you £400. Navstar quote £10 per month subsription = £120 per annum. Even if you save £200 per year on insurance, that's only £80 pa saving when you account for the subscription, so the payback on the device is +5yrs.

Hope my sums are correct! I know we can all argue over the figures, but they are in the right ball-park aren't they?!?!

MATTeL

Right ball park, but getting the car you have invested time and effort on is IMHO worth.

Getting the slime that stole it... priceless!

I red the Top Gear mag article about the road test in Skye. The EVO they had was on a ferry and the RAC tracker went off as a result of motion on the ferry. The reporter was quite worried when they (RAC) told exactly where he was and that there was a Clio and BMW with him!

munch

my car had cat 1 plus immob still stolen get tracker there is no worse feeling insured or not