Car Alarm Advice
 
1.Get a good Alarm Clifford / DEI installed by a professional shop who knows how to hide components to make it harder to snip. Have at least two sirens one in the engine compartment and another in the cabin. This makes it harder to quickly silence the alarm sounding. Most alarms have ignition kill built in. Set your alarm so it autoarms after you leave the car so you don’t forget to arm it.

2.Locking Club. One that goes from the wheel to the brake pedal. Even a steering wheel club will help the thief pick an easier target.

3.Removable stereo face plate – bring it with you and don’t just throw it in the glove box.

4.Try to park in well lit areas around other cars, don’t let your car stand out so much if possible.

5.Don’t keep CD cases, phones, purses, etc in plain view on the seats, etc.

6.Have good theft insurance with not too high of deductible if you can afford it go for $250 or lower on theft deductible.

7.Realize that if the thief really wants your car then they won’t waste time disabling all of the above security measures as they will load it on a flatbed tow truck and disable them later in a quiet old warehouse somewhere.

08/08/2002

Update – My alarm already saved my car! My car was broken into in my driveway at my house about a week ago while I was gone overnight. The thieves pried open the passenger window and got the door open. Thankfully my Clifford alarm started sounding and scared them off. I noticed it had been broken into as my alarm alerted me that there had been an entry in via the door. I love my Clifford alarm!

05/31/2002

My alarm was installed last week :-) ! I would much rather have spent $384 on something else for my car but I figured I better get it in before I add any more “goodies” or make any more “mods” to my car.

For security reason’s I won’t post pictures on this one ;oP. I’ll give enough details to give you guys some ideas when getting alarms and having them installed but not enough details to hand lead a thief to steal my car ;oP

Here’s what I purchased (Thanks goes out to Albert and others for advice).

1.  DEI / Clifford - Matrix II Alarm http://www.clifford.com/products/cp_matrix.htm
2.  Retail on the basic alarm is around $170 + installation which is from $60 to $300 or more depending on what you want installed and how many add-ons you buy.
3.  My total for add-ons and Installation was $384.00 not cheap but not too high either.
4.  The alarm comes with the following:
a)  Lifetime hardware and installation warranty. This part I really like considering all the wiring and electronics that can go bad over time!
b)  Two - 4 button remotes.
c)  Dual Zone adjustable Shock Sensor (This hears anyone hitting the car, etc.)
d)  Red LED light to mount on dash
e)  Siren
f)   Ignition Kill
g)  Parking light flashing
h)  Door opening switches (any door opens and alarm goes off.)   
i)   Valet and bypass switch (in case you loose your remote or want to program the alarm differently.)
j)   Very good User Manual and very scant installation guide. (Don’t expect to install this alarm with this simple installation guide as Clifford expects you to have it professionally installed so they don’t provide a detailed installation guide. However some more in depth install guides are available on the internet and on cd from Clifford.
k)  Extended range antenna (I had the installer hide this under the dash and I still get great range on arming and disarming the alarm.)
l)  Two Clifford stickers (Which I didn’t mount.)
5.  I bought the following add-ons: (included in the $384.00 total price)
a)  Tilt Sensor – I wanted to protect my rims and tires from somebody trying to take them. This sensor is cool! It detects beyond one degree of tilt and self adjusts to hills and such. I tried it by very slowly and quickly jacking up any point of the car and it set the alarm off every time! :-) Having locking lug nuts is a good idea too (at least to slow the thief down a bit.)
b)  Hood and Trunk Pins – Goes off if hood or trunk are opened as little as one inch. (There prolly was a way to tap into lead for the light on the dash that shows when the trunk lid is open but the installer didn’t know how to do that so they just put in a trunk pin.
c)  Door switch wiring install. The Matrix II has the relay built in for sending the signal to unlock and lock the doors but the install was an additional $45 (include in the $384 total) This is one nice to have option that I had to have :-) You can unlock / lock doors and disarm / arm you alarm all with a touch of a button! Plus the doors automatically “smart lock/unlock” when I turn off the ignition and lock when I turn on the ignition. (I can also program it to not “smart lock/unlock” if I want.)
d)  For another $150 to $200 I could have had the “smart windows” installed which will roll up all 4 of my windows and my power moon roof for me. (Since I’m somewhat on a budget I thought that option wouldn’t be totally necessary to security but rather a “nice to have.”
e)  For another $150 or so I could have had the “remote starter” installed. Again I thought this would be nice to have but not necessary for security. Plus I thought what if my young kids got a hold of my remote and started my car in the garage of something bad like that ;oP
f)  I also could have purchased the glass sensors - which detect glass breaking, but I thought this would have been redundant considering I have a “dual zone shock sensor already.”
g)  There are several other options available on the alarm (battery back ups, etc.)
6.  The alarm brain is very smart! (Get it? brain, smart! LOL) There are so many combinations of ways you can program it yourself – examples: Active or Passive, delays, anti car jacking, it can shut off zones in case you are parked at an air port, etc and plane sounds keep setting it off it will automatically shut off that zone for an hour or more.
7.  About the installation.
A)  Make sure you use a good professional alarm installation shop! Unless you really know Honda wiring you prolly want to have this professionally installed as there are a boat load of wiring taps on this one! It took my installer from 9am until 6pm to finish the installation. ( He was slow but very thorough!)
B)  Remove all your paperwork from your glove box showing any of your addresses (Wayward installers can still look up your license plate to get your address but at least not make it easy for them to know where your ride lives!)
C)  Don’t give them your address. Give them your work or po box or some other address for an address.
D)  Tell them how you want it installed! (I typed out my list of wants and my installer did everything I asked including hiding very well the brain and the valet bypass switch. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell him where to mount the siren and his assistant mounted the siren right next to the radiator! ACKKK!!! No biggie as it just took me 15 minutes to re-mount the siren to the back of the firewall as there’s a perfect spot for it there and it’s better protected from the heat and elements. Prolly a more secure place for the siren would be under the engine parts somewhere where it would take lifting the car to reach it.
E)  The first thing I did after the installation was too look at how he wired everything. He could have been somewhat neater in his wiring but overall it looked pretty good. And talk about a ton of wires! Yikes! I’m glad I didn’t try to do this installation myself!
8.  Things I added myself to enhance security:
A)  Taking Albert’s advice, I bought a cheapo $20 alarm off ebay and mounted that brain and it’s wiring under the dash (exact location I won’t give) in plain view where a thief would see it and think he/she had gotten a lucky break. :-) LOL!!! This will slow them down enough to think twice about bypassing the real alarm (hopefully) as it looks like it is a hooked up working alarm brain.
B)  The cheapo alarm came with a small round “peizo” siren so I just mounted that way up under the dash by splicing it into the Clifford’s siren wire. This basically adds a further annoyance to the would be thief in my car cabin trying to bypass things as he/she would be deaf if they stayed too long.
8.   If you’re thinking about getting an alarm you should check into the Clifford products as in my opinion they are well made and have a lifetime warranty! Depending on what options you want installed you might be able to just purchase a Matrix III or Matrix RS or Avantguard, etc., as some of the higher models already come with the relays and modules without having to pay for them separately.
Anyway, that’s about all I can say about the alarm. I will probably still use my club when my car is parked anywhere for very long just to add one more “steal someone else’s car” to the thief’s mind when he sees my car ;oP