tracking device sold by club shop

[kirk.baker]

with the rising number of classic's being stolen from across the uk. 
my parents brought me the tracking device sold by the club to fit to my toledo.

i was looking at getting the tracker just as a precautionary measure to get the car back should anything happen. but having a quick look through the booklet for it, i am abit puzzled by it.

has anyone else brought and fitted and using this tracker?
I'm after some tips and tricks for using it 

thanks.

 

[mishmosh]

Ring garth in the shop. Helpful fella

[John Bonnett]

I seriously considered getting one but when I discovered that professional car thieves have  detector and blocking devices what was the point?

[dougbgt6]

I've just been out on the drive fitting electronic ignition. A man in a white transit stuck his head out his window and started asking questions. What car is it? Age? Colour? Condition? I'm suspicious he may be back after dark!  I'm also thinking tracking device.

[Colin Lindsay]

Trackers are good up to a point, but a professional criminal will scan for it before stealing the car. Our current local trend is for theft of high-end BMWs, criminals are arriving with a low loader and towing eye  - they spray the road with diesel or engine oil, hook up the towing eye, pull the car over the oil and have it on the low loader and away in TWENTY seconds. They can then gain entry at their leisure, and using a device which fits into the OBD or diagnostic reader can recode a key fairly quickly. The car is then either sold or exported out of the UK. They can also zap trackers quite easily. I’d recommend one rather than not having any protection, but they’re not infallible. (Nor do they have a 100% recovery record as they claim; I know of one JCB that’s still outstanding despite the Tracker signal being detected over 10 miles from where it was being stored… it’s STILL outstanding.)

[s.leah]

Please don't get confused between the device known as 'Tracker' and a GPS tracker, although I'm not suggesting anyone has, but it's worth mentioning the difference.

 

'Tracker' is a pre-historic version of a tracking device. It emits a signal which is picked up by someone with a 'Tracker' receiver. Many Police vehicles were fitted with them. They had a cluster of four small aerials on the roof and a display in the car rather like a sci-fi blipper that gets louder/more frequent the closer you get, I think it may display how close you are.

The down side is that the receiver had to be within a few miles of the transmitter for it to be picked up at all, so police vehicles still have to 'hunt' for the signal, then navigate using the signal strength as guidance.

 

With a modern GPS trackign device, the device simply sends it's GPS co-ordinates via the mobile phone network to a mobile phone or website, so it's just a case of entering those co-ordinates in to a Tom-Tom, Google Maps or whatever your prefered GPS navigator weapon of choice happens to be. GPS is good to around two meters!

 

If the JCB mentioned above is fitted with 'Tracker' (as opposed to a GPS device) it would explain why it has not been found, as they can only know roughly where it is not it's exact GPS co-ordinates.

[Colin Lindsay]

Please don't get confused between the device known as 'Tracker' and a GPS tracker, although I'm not suggesting anyone has, but it's worth mentioning the difference.

 

 

Actually I was, not having looked at the Club shop device but just going by the name ‘Tracker'. Apologies for confusing the two! However, as with any theft these days, the criminals are becoming more and more sophisticated and with the influx of cheap technology from dodgy elements overseas, readily available over the Internet, you can scan / disable and thieve till your little heart’s content with very little risk. As we say over here: “A lock will only keep an honest man out…"

[Mike Crewes]

When I was in the Met we used to track 'Tracker', but gradually we stopped, not sure why.

 

A GPS tracker is completely different, as already mentioned.  Our cars are very unsophisticated compared to modern cars and may, therefore, attract as less sophictscated criminal.  Why steal a Toledo, when you have the means to steal a top flight BMW?

 

I agree that good locks are a good deterent, but if these are overcome a GPS tracker may help get the car back. It can only help!

 

Just my views.

Mike

[dougbgt6]

I went to East Berks club meeting at the Shire Horse earlier this week and in the car park was a recovery vehicle, just sitting, waiting. I moved my car to where I could see it from inside the pub and sat facing the window.  I'm getting paranoid.