Well? Are they? They beep, howl, buzz, and basically annoy the hell out of everyone. That is, until you just get too desensitized and starts humming along to it.
No one I know pays attention to them. Please tell me that someone, somewhere has actually gotten some use out of these things to justify their continued existance.
I have never seen ANYONE run out to their car in response to its alarm.
Except for the ONCE, one was going off every 10 minutes late at night, for over an hour and a half, waking up everyone on that side of the building. Finally a guy came out, stood next to the big, black SUV with a baseball bat and bellowed “Come out and turn this f**king ting off or I’ll take out your headlights!!”
Then and ONLY THEN did a woman with pristine, white running shoes and her hair in a tight, blond pony tail come trotting out, Starbucks cup in hand, to turn off her alarm.
By the time anyone actually comes to the window to see if anything is actually wrong, the car would be emptied of its entire contents!
I had a neighbor who had his set too sensitive and it woke me and the entire side of the building up every fifteen minutes one night.
The ironic thing? The owner of the car was on the other side of the building and couldn’t hear it anyway. I think he disconnected it that morning after repeated complaints and threats.
i think they have outlived their usefulness.
I like having an alarm on my truck- but only for the ability to lock/unlock my doors without having to use my keys. I’ve never locked my keys in my truck.
Of course, I have no delusions of the alarm protecting my truck OR my stereo.
They are very useful. There’s a car with one parked right outside my dorm window. I use it to wake me up at four o’clockl every morning. 
An alarm only does any good if it disables the car in addition to making noise. The alarm [factory equipped] on my Grand Cherokee cuts the fuel to the engine if it goes off.
But in the end if someone really wants your car, they’re going to get it.
This dumbass in the apartment complex I used to live in had his set so sensitive that during a thunderstorm, thunder would set it off. After it would squeal for 10 minutes, he’d go out into the thunderstorm and RESET it. Next peal of thunder, repeat.
And, naturally, it was on a crappy car that no one would steal anyway.
A car alarm is Nature’s way of saying: “You own too much automobile there, fella”.
A kill switch, like a fuel kill switch, is better. One car was stolen with the alarm. Another car was almost stolen despite the alarm, but the kill switch saved it.
As an aside: I wonder how the car alarm would react to his vehicle being pellted by high powered rifle fire?
I note that although lots of people think the alarm is useless, noone has ever seen anyone breaking in to a car with the alarm going off.
Or maybe no one cares if someone is breaking into someone else’s vehicle!
Well supposedly alarms work on the fact that even though everyone ignores them the car thief is supposedly afraid of the idea he might just alert that one in a million person with a cell phone dialing 911
Now this was in some car magazine that I read years ago so take it as ya will
Well supposedly alarms work on the fact that even though everyone ignores them the car thief is supposedly afraid of the idea he might just alert that one in a million person with a cell phone dialing 911
Now this was in some car magazine that I read years ago so take it as ya will
The lady who used to live next door to me bought herself a brand new 4runner with an obnoxious, too-sensitive alarm. It went off all the time.
One day she woke up to find the thing gone. Sure, the alarm had gone off during the night – but it went off every night, so neither she nor anyone else noticed. Likewise, her two German shepherds barked their heads off – but they were neglected, hyperactive beasts who barked their heads off all night, so nobody noticed. End result: a stolen SUV.
If I had a dime for every fantasy I’ve had about a car alarm seeking missle with launcher I’d be a very rich man. Although I only get that far once I’ve had my “Man, I hope this car thief is quick about it” fantasy and it’s apparant there’s no car thief. There’s a car in a lot nearby who’s alarm goes off when car’s with loud engines pass by and reverberate off the cement walls. Lousy closed circuit TV cameras.
The last time I know of that the owner checked his car every time the alarm went off was when I was a junior in highschool 10 years ago. It is my belief that he did it just to get out of class and catch a quick smoke, even though it only happened about 3 times all year.
I vaguely recall reading an article (maybe in the Washington Post) in which the reporter pretended to be breaking into a car with a car alarm in a busy supermarket parking lot. They said the only person who noticed started laughing.
I have seen a policeman around the corner from a car with the alarm going off, and he didn’t even walk and check it out.
Definitely not useful.
I had a downstairs neighbor (both of us facing the parking lot right below our bedrooms) who had a tricked out lowrider surburban. Massive kit and bonus alarm that went off everytime the tommcats ran past. One Saturday A.M. I woke up with him talking to the cops about a break-in where the thieves had stripped this vehicle (insurance claim). Never heard a peep.
Most people wouldn’t look twice if a stationary car had a car alarm going off but if a car drove past you with the car alarm going most people would take notice.