I think it’s about time, especially now that I can afford one. I just don’t know anything about them.
What should I look for? How much does installation generally cost? Which ones completely suck and should be avoided like the plague? Where did you get yours installed, and what did you think of the service?
There’s no place for me to plug in my car where I live now. If we get a really cold snap and I need to start my car during the night once or twice, can I turn the car off with the remote as well?
I can’t tell you prices or anything for down here. When I lived in Yellowknife (and also in other parts of Canada during the winter), I found our Command Start to be indispensible. You can set it for ‘low-temperature’ which will start it and let it run for about 20 minutes or so at times when the temperature of the car hits a certain number - I believe mine was set at -20c. It was less expensive than having the car’s block heater plugged in all night.
I can’t recall for sure if my car could be turned off by remote, but I know my dad’s truck, and my ex’s vehicle could be. Different models.
I loved, loved, loved getting into a warm car in the mornings, especially when it was 40 below. I very rarely had to scrape my windows.
My husband got me one about 4 years ago for our '92 Explorer. I LOVED it. He got it at Circuit City, I believe it was about $200 (I think that included installation). Circuit City installed it for us and we had no problems with that.
Mine started the car remotely and remote controlled the power locks. I could start the car with the remote but in order to put it into gear you had to put the key in the ignition and turn it (that way noone could steal the car). If you remote started it and didn’t put the key in, it turned off by itself after 20 minutes. If I started it with the remote by mistake (or one of the kids did), I could turn it off with the remote.
It was great and made me very happy…at the time I was wanting a new car and this gave me some of the things I wanted but without the expense (which made my husband happy :-). We had just had our first child so the remote lock/unlock was very helpful. And it was great to get into a warm car in the winter.
So I definitely recommend it. Within the last year I did get a new car and while it has all kinds of remote door unlocking and door opening buttons, it doesn’t have a remote start, and I do miss it. (Circuit City would have removed the unit we bought from the Explorer and put it in our new car for us for a small charge, but the Explorer died a rather sudden death and by the time we remembered that we could do the swap it was gone…ah well.)
My friend got his viper system for around 200 dollars (haggled down from 300) installed.
He can turn his car on and off using his little keychain. He does have one small problem however. He thinks the people who did the install set the starter run time too low. On cold mornings(we’re talking northern california mornings here, so 30-40 degrees at the coldest) it doesn’t always start. Also since the a/c and heater controls are analog one must have them ON else no heater or a/c will happen. I suppose if there was a digital control somewhere one could set it to turn on with the remote start.