Customer Ratings & Reviews

Theft deterence and prevention on older cars

OK. I purchased a viper alarm with vehicle starting built in. I was pretty happy, but I was not sure my car would not get stolen AGAIN (2 times with 2 cars in 10 months in front of my house)
I decided to order and install the DSM-250 unit. I decided the $6-7 per month was reasonable to enable always knowing where my car was and to warn me if it was being stolen
The features I cared about were
1. smart fence
2. Low battery warning
3. current location of car
4. Lockdown
I could not find adequate descriptions of these, so I took a chance. I am pretty satisfied with them and how they work.
I will describe how they work now.
1. Smart Fence allows you to setup a 1 mile perimiter around the location of the car. If it moves outside that 1 mile radius, it will e-mail and/or SMS to you.
2. Low Battery warning. It will notify you if your car battery, or the backup battery is going low. That means the alarm will soon not be working and you need to fix whatever is draining your battery.
3. Current location shows the GPS location using google maps. This is usefull at times. I had my car painted and I could check the location during the day and see it moved into and out from the paint booth, as well as into the building for the prep work. I knew prescisly where my car was and when it was parked outside (after spending the night in the paint booth being baked). I knew it was done. Usefull.
4. Lockdown. this alerts you that the car is being touched, or messed with or stolen at any time. It also includes a schedule so it can be turned on at night and off in the morning before you go to work. That makes is less of a chore to remember to turn it on and off
The only weak spot is if the thieves have a cellular transmitter that can overload the cell system in the car, they could keep it running while they steal the car, and remove the system
I am planing to work around that weakspot by trying to get a system that will query the car every few minutes, then if it doesn't repond it can alert me. That may or may not work....

In any event, I installed this myself and found a way to activate it myself (google was my friend in this case). It gives you trunk unlock, arm/disarm smart start, and panic. I don't need the smart start, but by hooking it up, it enables the starter cut relay, so I went ahead and hooked it up.

It also includes a status request button that will query the alarm system and report on the phone app the current status of remote starter, ignition, door open/closed, security system state, trunk, panic, hood, and valet features.

last but not least,this app includes a roadside assistance for free. You can touch it and be connected to a roadside assistance operator that will help you in any case. This will be great for my wife when she gets this car back.

oh, the viper alarm (that I bought) has 2 more channels that I am not using. I could hook those up to anything and they can be added to the smart start screen. I think I will hook one channel up to a relay that when activated, will remove power from the fuel pump. In the event of a car jacking, I can pull my phone out of my pocket, and once the thieves are a block or two away, I can kill the car by shutting down the fuel pump. I have allready tested this and it works exactly like running out of gas.

The app allows you to connect to multiple cars and I plan to purchase another one for my car. (this is for my wifes)
one final thing? when the car is on the road, I can see where it is (on what road and tell the direction of travel. If she is coming to get me at the airport, (or I am going to get her) either of us can tell where the other's car is at at any time. Location, speed, if it's running or not. Very reassureing if you are waiting for someone and don't know if they are on their way or where they are...