Whats the best thief protection device available?

[rppngears]

I used to be a car stereo installer at Sound Solutions, and in my opinion alarms do work. Unless you have a $30,000 or up valued car, the theif probably isn't singling out your car to steal. Your car was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time. If you in a parking lot with say 20 other cars, the thief would probably pick the nicer car, but also one that doesn't present to much of a problem to steal. So he may come up to your car, but once he see's the blinking light, he may very possibly move onto the next car that doesn't have the alarm, just because why pick the more difficult one. Alarms, are not hard to disable, the starter kill relay is usually located right under the dash; but they do take time!!!

The key is, whatever you have, make it known somehow to the thief before he gets started, because once he breaks the window and is inside, he's already decided he wants your car and is going to be more determined to get it. Not to mention, he's broken your window and who knows what else while he's in there.

You can make your alarm much more effective than it is by relocating some parts and doing the job right. Put the starer kill relay in a concealed location in the engine compartment, use a backup battery for your alarm. Most important, replace the useless N.C. Starter Kill Relay with a N.O. Relay. Otherwise, when the thief pulls the fuse on your alarm, the car will start like the alarm isn't even there. You can choose some other wires to interupt as well as the starter wire, such as the fuel pump power. Just connect it to a relay and then tap it to an alarm output. As long as you use a N.O. relay located away from the alarm, it would be pretty difficult to figure out exactly what you've done in the 10 min the thief has to steal the car. Also, wrap your wires in loom and try to make them look as factory as possible, and adding a backup siren, or an near ultrasonic siren inside the car isn't a bad idea - but make it difficult to get to.

My recomendation for a good alarm is the VIPER by DEI. They also have a remote paging system that works fairly well.