Always wondered about this 'without the keys' bit. Is it done with some sort of add on transponder thing (like the Ford keys have) or is it just the ignition?

Would hotwiring (assuming alarm/immob was defeated) mean the system triggered an alert or not...?

 

Hello,
What happens if your car gets stolen, and it has a tracker fitted?
I mean do you have to actually "do" anything?

 

Depends if you have a passive or active system. If passive you have to report the theft (fairly useless if you've just come back from a 3 week holiday and it's missing from the airport car park).

My active system arms automatically every time you turn the ignition off, if it is moved without being disarmed (and I think it is now down to as little as 30 feet movement), the GPS positioner and transmitter alert the monitoring centre, they contact me to see if it is an unauthorised movement, and the car is tracked on line.

It's all down to how much you want to pay.....

 

Just expanding on that, whilst you mentioned RAC Trackstar specifically, which I believe is active, there are four recognised systems on the market that vary in price and functionality...

 

If your car is moved without the keys being used they call you (they called me within 3 minutes when my car was moved on a transporter). It's then up to you to contact the police and report the crime and obtain a crime reference, you give that reference to the tracker people and they liase with them to retrieve it - or that is my understanding of the process anyway.

 

Earlier in the week when the daily star reported about scoobs and evo's being used by theives for ram raids etc they said about P1's that were stolen, it also reported that all were recovered within 1 hour, undamaged!! These are fitted with an active system and its well worth the money for it!

Tony

 

Kryten
For obvious reasons, I personally do not want to go into too much technical detail of how a tracker works....but because it has a GPS positioner/transmitter it's the physical movement of the vehicle - driven or not - that triggers it.

 

Dave, I understand about not giving too much away and I know how they actually work on the GPS/GSM side but ....

Some seem to work on 'if the car is moved' which means there must be some sort of trigger to tell the system that its an authorised movement, rather than an unauthorised one. Its how this works I'm wondering about.

EG The Clifford BlackJax needs you to put in a 4 digit code EVERY time you start the car, otherwise all hell breaks loose....

I know some systems have a 'key' of their own that needs to be present to authorise the movement....

For holidays, can you phone them up and say: if it moves then its nicked?

From the demo on the NavTrak site, it appears that they send you a message saying its been stolen, and wait for you to phone back (!). When you do you have to then phone the police (local station or 999?) and get a crime number (how long does that take when they're busy?) and they will then track the vehicle and liase with the police.

What happens if you cannot get to a phone, or are away and out of contact? How long after they try to contact you do they assume its stolen and alert the police themselves (goes for ALL tracking systems...)

Also, does anyone know the percentage of vehicles recovered? What I mean is that out of 1000 vehicles stolen that had tracking system X fitted - how many were recovered and how many were not. Strangely enough, none of the companies seem keen to give out this sort of data. Now if they were 100% I'm sure they would be shouting about it.......

 

NavTrak pro-active arms itself every time you turn the ignition off. When you start the car, you have a gizmo to disarm it and tell it it is an authorised movement. If you don't disarm it, and the car is moved, it notifies the control room and it is treated as an unauthorised movement. They will then telephone you to check - you have a password and other ID checks to pass to ensure you are the owner.

So, unless the owner disarms it, the default is that it is always treated as an unauthorised movement.

 

I have tracker monitor and it is a must, leaning on the car the other day while waiting for mate ( car was locked ) it uplinked to tracker and they called me to see if it was secure. Again though i would like to know what hapens if the car was hot wired! - Pretty hard with good immobiliser though.

 

Has anyone got the contact phone number for RAC Trackstar?

 

Anyone know the difference between trackstar and tracker except they are made by different companies?

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by STI-Man:
<B>Has anyone got the contact phone number for RAC Trackstar?[/quote]

Best place to start is here :

 

Trackers recovery rate isnt as high as 99%, maybe for the active system but there have been people who post on here who have had the passive system and aint got their cars back and the only failure to recover from trackstar ive ever heard of is one in leeds, and tracker is just soooooooo out dated in its standard form, thus the reason they now incorporate gps in their systems now, (and they never had full coverage of the uk either)

Tony

 

I telephoned Trackstar to see if it would work on my P1 when I went to Le Mans. They said it would but the French plod wouldn't do anything about it.
I asked the how I could tell if the thing was actually working, they put me through to the control centre and they ran a check. They told me where the car was at the time I phoned, which was outside my house. They told me the last time I had used it, which was 4 days previous, the time I had parked it, down to the minute, which route I had taken home and exactly where my house is in the road.
Which I thought was pretty impresive. Aparently they don't mind you phoning occasionally to check the system.
My cousin had a Tracker fitted to his Cossie, he notified them within minutes but never saw it again.

 

PhilH

I understand that new installations of Trackstar do not have the additional fob. It works (somehow ) with the standard alarm/imobiliser. Therefore, their are no additional fobs/dongles whatever. Idea probably is that if someone lifts the keys with extra fob/dongle, then they might know there is a Trackstar in there & go look. Hey, I don't know but it's always about keeping one step ahead of the toe-rags...

 

kryten

The Trackstar system with the 'Guard' option activated requires it to be disarmed using a remote fob control before the car is moved. There is no need to enter a code. If the car is moved by any means without disarming the unit then Trackstar will call the designated tel for confirmation. And it works! If you get your keys nicked from under your nose or are hijacked then simply call Trackstar to activate. No need to take on the villains yourself!

As for holiday's, you provide Trackstar with details and they will do the rest. You may have to leave a relation/friend tel no. for completeness. From my experience their customer service is excellent.

Give them a call or call round to a dealer who fits the system to see one.

What I can't work out is, since it is an advertised fact that P1's come fitted with Trackstar, why these idiots attempt to steal them without knowing how to beat the system??

Phil

 

I have to make one point before anyone buys anything.

Ask trackstar what their recovery rate is.

Trackers is around the 99% mark.

I read the blurb in trackstar brochure which is the "more advanced type" of gps system.

The sentence that shocked me was the , fit our system and you could be one of the lucky one in two people who get their cars back .

Sod that!

Old fashioned tracker 24 hr monitor for me thanks.

And if you have to have the best of all words, then tracker horizon contains radio and gps. I didnt go for it for two reasons, 1 price, 2, it doesnt have a higher recovery rate.

 

I've been looking into the RAC TrackStar system recently.

I was very confused by the TrackStar 24hr Guardian and TrackStar Protector options in the price list.

Go to

 

Oh, my question...

RAC TrackStar Protector seems to do pretty much the same job as the NavTrak ProActive.

Why the big difference in price (especially when you look at the deal arranged by Puff)?

Is it just NavTrak being aggressive with the pricing?

ChrisB.

 

Biggest differences I can see is a) with Navtrak you don't own the equipment so when you come to sell the car I think you have to pay to have it removed, and b) Navtrak cannot sense the car being moved unless the engine is started i.e. if it is towed you won't be alerted, whereas with the RAC one you are.

I can't decide which tracker to get, but I think RAC trakstar is my favourite at the moment

Graham

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>I can't decide which tracker to get, but I think RAC trakstar is my favourite at the moment<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Similar position myself - should pick my Scooby up next week and I want a Tracker type jobbie for piece of mind.

ChrisB.

 

Hi PTMW

I didn't know that, but it sounds sensible. I'll check out to see if they can upgrade existing units.

Phil