Car Alarms - do they serve any other purpose other than to annoy everyone in the neighborhood?

[LynneSin]

I see no purpose of a car alarm. Some of these alarms seem to trip at a moments notice and clearly the owners don't give a rat's ass about it. I woke up to a car alarm that went off for 30 minutes. I highly doubt the police care - they here random car alarm go off all the time. And as for deterring criminals I am not even sure if it will manage that. A criminal hears the alarm and it just reminds them to grab what they want quickly and get out of there.

It's like the fable of the Boy who cried wolf. The boy fake cried wolf so many times that when he was really being devoured by a wolf everyone ignored his cries thinking it was fake.

[BobUp]

1. I agree,

I disabled my Prestige model after experiencing problems with it. If people want, they can come and steal my rust bucket, it's not worth much anyway.

Please start a thread about cars with bass boosters now, in the summertime they rattle the windows on my apartment.

[raccoon]

2. Agree--everyone ignores them. nt

[klook]

3. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

You might also enjoy a bit Michael Moore did on his show "TV Nation" -- starting at about 8:30:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Ohr3zK5tbRU#t=507

[hlthe2b]

4. My neighbor parked his car outside adjacent to my home & alarm started at 10 pm one night

and went off every 10 minutes throughout the night. I didn't know him at the time, nor which house was his, so I could do nothing.

I finally fell asleep (fitfully), but it was still going when I woke up.

Aaargh...

No, they serve no purpose except to annoy.

[orleans]

19. you're such a nice person.

i'm bitch on wheels at times and would have given someone a few minutes before i called the police

[hlthe2b]

22. Not really... I guess I assumed a neighbor would call and since I was new to the neighborhood....

Nothing worse than a neighbor who holds a grudge, so I'm a bit conflict-averse... Plus I have a dog and it is really important to me that the neighbors like her. I did leave a "nice" note on his car and he did come over to apologize. He's a good guy, I think.

[Chan790]

5. No and as an expense...

they're no cheaper than a GPS locator such as LoJack which has a much higher apprehension rate. Sure, the LoJack isn't going to stop your car from being stolen but it is going to get it back 4/5 of the time.

[Locut0s]

8. Or get the shell of the car back anyway ;) :P nt.

[hobbit709]

6. Over half the vehicles stolen have alarms

[Locut0s]

7. They can make good panic alarms if you are being mugged or raped etc...

Most key fobs have an alarm button to set off the alarm in an emergency. I agree they seem more an annoyance than anything and one wonders if they do any good. But I'd have to see actual numbers to know for sure.

[In_The_Wind]

9. Excellent point.

[ConcernedCanuk]

12. I agree, and I'll add one to that.

.
.
.

Forget where I read this, but it is now a habit of mine.

Keep your keys on your bed stand at night.

Although my vehicle is almost 100 feet away, with 3 walls in between;

it works just fine.

Nice to know.



CC

[Sanity Claws]

10. A good alarm will keep cats off the hood.

That noise will keep any hearing creature away from the hood of your car.

[LynneSin]

11. I'd rather have a cat enjoy sleeping on the hood of my car

than to annoy the neighbors with a useless alarm.

[Earth_First]

13. I believe Skrillex and Avicii use them as music samples...

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

14. I thought it was a vehicle locator ...

... push the red button on the key fob, and you can hear your car in the parking lot.



the downside: sit on your key fob the wrong way, and the engine will start, the doors unlock, and the trunk lid opens. Probably not what you intended.

[LynneSin]

15. My car will beep when I use the FOB to unlock the door

but it's not a car alarm. One-Beep car is locked, Two-Beeps means the car is unlocked.

That is handy for finding my car in the parking lot.

[orleans]

20. handy for you but it can scare the crap out of someone sitting in their car

just mellowing out, relaxing after a stressfilled day, maybe waiting to pick up spouse/child and appreciating a few moments of down time and quiet, whatever

i believe people should find their cars the old fashioned way: by identifying them by the shape and color! not by an obnoxious honk/beep sound.

unless they walk out of the store and think: "my god! i have NO FUCKING IDEA where i parked the car! maybe in aisle 2 or maybe on the other side of the building in aisle 25. hell, i might have parked over in the movie theater lot down the road! i'd better use my obnoxious car location sound. i may be a total space cadet but THANK GOD I'M NOT DEAF or i'd never find my fucking car!"

oh, and the cars that people can't seem to lock without setting off the obnoxious beep sound are just as bad. if someone is too tired to be bothered to lock the door manually they should be too tired to press a button that BEEPS and locks the door.

and if their attention span is so low they don't know if they locked the door (and need that reassuring BEEP) maybe they shouldn't be driving.

rant rant rant
cheers! (vodka and tonic for all!)

[UTUSN]

16. I had a 6-months' battle with tenants, and the cops were stunned

These tenants were the second house away from me, which is how loud the blasted things can be. They had two vehicles they actually used, then the old pick-up that was not a true Classic, was not restored, was just beat up and barely ran and was just parked, with, of course, the car alarm. They were at the corner of the very heavily trafficked street over there, meaning that whenever any loud truck or bike went by, the danged alarm went off. We're talking, around the clock, and they would let it run the fully cycle, the beep-beep/wah-wah/London-Bobby-siren, the works, like 45 full seconds?

The first six months they were there, I didn't know what to make of it. Then I started keeping a log -- date, time, cause -- of every time I was around. It was a single-spaced ledger that went on for 3 or 4 pages.

Then I called the cops. A total of 4 or 5 times over the next couple of months. Here's the rub: Patrol cops are usually fairly young and like loud noises such as sirens and appreciate crime-prevention measures (alarms). At first they were flummoxed about my complaint. I myself didn't know what category to label it with, just that it was some kind of nuisance, well to me since the neighbors didn't want to rock any boats. They said that noise complaints were always about loud parties or loud nightclubs, not about a crime prevention gimmick like a car alarm.

So with the first cop visits, they were sympathetic to me at first contact, but then would go talk to the dude and hear him out and he would win them over, and they would come back to me and say he was a nice dude and wanted to talk to me and had had past bad experiences with vehicles stolen from him, hence his alarm. I said there was nothing to talk about, either he was going to lower the sensitivity of the set-off or just turn it off since there was NO threat or else he wasn't, nothing to talk about.

So they told me just to keep calling until there was a history, and they were VERY impressed with my log. Finally, headquarters ran it by the D.A.'s office and the D.A. agreed that this was a Disturbing the Peace thing and that they would proceed with prosecution. Well, it never happened because the year's lease expired and they moved away.

Years after, now, I've thought that one solution might be to call the cops when the alarm goes off and do a Shirley TEMPLE dimple thing and say, "I'm SO sorry officer, but the alarm went off and I called because there MUST have been a CRIME going on!!!!!!!!!1"

[loli phabay]

17. yes they scare bears away when they try to break in.

[UTUSN]

18. Bottom line: They're VANITY trips n/t

[orleans]

21. i think you're absolutely right. n/t