Morning of June 8th, walked out to get the newspaper, and noticed that someone cut through the back window, cut through the top, broke the drivers window, pried through the drivers door handle and lock, disconnected the battery and tore apart the inside of my car.

My goal is to NOT HAVE THIS HAPPEN AGAIN!

Any suggestions to what type of alarm to purchase..? Something not too elaborate, but effective. Thanks for your time.

 

From what I have seen the choices tend to be Alpine, Clifford (DEI) and Viper (DEI).

I believe all can be fitted with a dual proximity sensor. I have a Viper and if you get too close it chirps and if you break thru the first sensor area the full siren goes off.

I have not had any false alarms and over the weekend I witnessed a funny scene. My wife and I went to the groc. store and parked away from other cars. There was a guy collecting carts in the lot and he went over to a Sebring (top down) and took a long look at it. He then went to my car and it must have chirped at him because as he starts to lean he lurches straight up and takes off.

 

Sorry to hear about your misfortune... A couple things to consider:
1) being a convertible, your car will always be easy to get into so you might want to consider leaving it unlocked all together...
2) get a alarm that has the basics with a proximity and shock sensor. If you have the top down and you don't want people to screw with jumping in, it will deter certain folks.... plus there are alarms and sensors out there that give a warning chirp to keep people away...
3) decent alarm systems are only as good as the installation - good makes include DEI, Clifford, Alpine... among others... do some research on reputable shops with lifetime warranties on labor and product.

.... when the search function is up and working again, look it up and you'll see a lot more good info out there

good luck

 

theft and breakin threads.......scare the hell outta me have had my s2000 for almost two months........have not been to the mall in two months.....get the picture

 

Sorry to hear about your car. Things like this will always happen to people who have nice things that other people want or are jealous about. Luckily my S2K is a weekend/autox car but I also don't like going to the mall. When my S4 was only 1 month old and the day before my birthday, coming out of the mall, my gf said something is missing from the back of your car. Some piece of crap stole the S emblem. Now I have a nice 1mm chip where the S use to be. I knew something like this would happen and was planning on debadging before this happened. Anyways be careful where you park and if someone wants something bad enough, they will figure out a way to get it. I was doing some research on alarms and both the Alpine and Clifford are ones I would consider. One of my favorites (too bad they are gone now) was Derringer by VSE. Remember them? They had the really thin remotes. It was installed in my old Prelude and worked really well.

 

eimea, @#%*!.

It pisses me off, too. Really sorry about that. I hope your insurance will cover the damage. A friend of mine who owns a Porsche Carrera has the Viper installed. He seems to like it. May want to check it out.

Always hurts to hear that one of "ours" has been broken into...

 

I would just get clifford, if money isn't a big issue.
If it is just get viper or another line of dei stuff.

I have heard alpine's have had problems.

 

I'm going to differ from most here and say just don't waste your money and learn to live with one of the downsides of owning a convertible.

I used to regularly set off the alarm on my Jeep Wrangler when I forgot something in the vehicle and even crawled around under the dash to hit the valet switch and never got a second look from anyone walking by or, for that matter, even the security guards in the parking lot.

Having an alarm will do nothing but annoy others - trust me, no one will do anything if it goes off and it won't stop anyone from doing anything to your car unless they're perhaps eight years old...

 

These days Clifford is owned by DEi (which owns viper/sidewinder/etc) so I'm not sure how different they really are.

Alpine has a couple new alarms which I'm curious about. Does anyone have any experience with these?

 

"Having an alarm will do nothing but annoy others - trust me, no one will do anything if it goes off and it won't stop anyone from doing anything to your car unless they're perhaps eight years old..."

I tottally disagree, most of the alarms mentioned Clifford, Alpine, with a good installation will not prevent vandalism, but could prevent your whole ride from disappearing since they have ignition kill.

Personally if I see someone rummaging in a car with the alarm going off for more than just a few seconds I'm calling the cops. I've called mall security on a dude spying in cars during Xmas so don't discount someone being a good samaritan.