Car Anti Theft Devices And Services

Car crime is a growing problem in the UK and sadly any car is a vulnerable target to those who want to steal it. No matter what you do, it's impossible to guarantee that your car won't be stolen, but what you can do is look at the devices available on the market to make your car as secure as possible.

First of all you need to decide what kind of protection you want for your car and how much your budget is.

Most modern cars come with factory-fitted security systems, but these can be easy to disable, and aren't always particularly effective against crime, although it's important to remember that any security system is better than none at all.

All vehicle anti-theft devices can be useful in the fight against criminals. Also, as thefts from vehicles are double the rate of actual vehicle theft, security devices can help protect your car from vandalism and opportunist thieves too.

So let's take a look at the best options out there:

Alarm Systems:

First of all and probably the most obvious: - Install a decent alarm. It's important to be aware that if a thief wants to stop your alarm from going off they can just unhook your battery and the alarm will be useless. Install locks on your car if it has an external bonnet release as this should prevent your battery from being tampered with and should protect your alarm from thieves.

Your insurance company may be so impressed if you get an alarm that arms itself, known as a passive system, that they might just drop your premium costs a bit.

Whichever alarm you go for make sure it makes a lot of noise. Noise is one of the biggest and quickest deterrents for a car thief and there are a wide range of options available including motion, door-open and impact sensors.

Remote Keyless Entry System:

Another good investment is a car with a remote keyless entry system - as you'd probably guess from the name, it's a system designed to remotely lock or unlock access to cars. It duplicates all the features of standard car keys with the added convenience of operating the power door locks, taking away the need to put a key into the lock and also allows the driver to lock or unlock the car from a distance. The system works by sending pulses of radio frequency energy on a particular frequency. These pulses are interpreted by the receiver in the car, which, in turn, will perform the appropriate function.

Newer versions of this system use encryption to prevent car thieves from getting in and spoofing the signal and will become more advanced and commonplace as time goes on.

Steering Wheel Locks:

Steering wheel locks are great anti-theft devices for deterring joy riders and amateur thieves. They fit snugly across your steering wheel and will usually deter the car thief along to the next vehicle, which hopefully doesn't belong to you.

Immobilisers:

An immobiliser (sometimes also known as a kill-switch) is always a good idea. By cutting the fuel or the ignition, it stops the car from being started, but it needs to be hidden, or else a thief can spot it straight away and render it useless.

An immobiliser won't stop a car from being broken into, but it may well stop it from being stolen.

VIN Etching:

Take your car in for VIN etching. VIN stands for vehicle identification number and the idea is that your VIN is etched onto the window as well as other parts of the car. This should discourage thieves from stealing your vehicle to sell as parts, as chop shops (a place where people take stolen cars and strip them to sell their individual parts) are generally less interested in easily identifiable cars, and by having the VIN visible on important parts of the car, you make identification easy.

Trackers:

If your car is stolen, it has a better chance of being recovered if you have fitted a tracker device. Trackers are also a great way to get a good deal on cheap car insurance. If your car is in the UK, the police can recover it by following the tracker signal back to its source.