Autowatch Ghost III Immobiliser

Ghost III is the latest generation of the Autowatch Ghost. The headline change is support for CAN-FD, the faster data network that newer vehicle platforms are moving to, alongside the conventional CAN networks most cars use. It runs on an all-new, faster processor that draws less power, and it can block the engine digitally over the car's CAN and LIN networks, with a traditional circuit cut added only where a particular vehicle needs one. The idea has not changed: a hidden unit, and a code only you know.

You get in and tap a sequence on buttons the car already has, usually on the steering wheel or the door, then start as normal. It takes a couple of seconds once it is habit. You choose the sequence yourself, it can be as long or short as you are comfortable with, and you can change it whenever you like without coming back to us.

Yes, if you would rather. Ghost III can be disarmed with your button sequence, an authorised key-tag, or your smartphone. We set up whichever suits you on the day, and you can stick with the buttons alone if you would rather carry nothing extra.

Yes. Autowatch designed Ghost III so that remote heating and cooling through the manufacturer's own app, such as JLR InControl or the Ford app, still works with the immobiliser fitted. Worth mentioning when you book if you use it, so we can confirm it on your car.

Because it never asks about the key. Relay theft works by carrying your key's signal out to the car, and cloning copies it outright, but both produce something that looks like a valid key, and the Ghost is not interested in that. Without the code the engine will not run, whoever is sitting in the seat. Our guide explains how the attack is carried out on a driveway in under a minute.

There is no LED, no keypad and no obvious box. It works through the car's own data networks, with a conventional circuit cut only where a particular vehicle needs one, hidden like everything else. That means there is no trail to follow and nothing recognisable to pull out. Where the unit goes is decided on your vehicle rather than from a diagram, which is why we do not publish the usual spots.

Tell us and we will set up a service mode, so the garage can move and run the vehicle without your code. Turn it back on when you collect it. It is worth thinking about before the first service rather than at the counter, and it is the question people most often ring us about afterwards.

The Ghost stays with the vehicle, and the new owner needs their own code rather than yours. Let us know and we will sort the handover properly. It is also worth mentioning in the advert, because a documented immobiliser is a genuine selling point on the kind of car that gets targeted.

Ghost III is built for both the faster CAN-FD networks on newer vehicle platforms and the conventional CAN networks in most makes from roughly the last fifteen years, because it depends on the car's data network rather than on the shape of the wiring. Coverage does change as manufacturers change their electronics, so we check your make, model and year before anything is booked and tell you plainly if yours is not supported.

Nothing useful happens for them. The Ghost is not a device that has to be powered up to hold the car; without the code the engine simply will not run when power returns. Disconnecting the battery is a tactic against alarms and sirens, and it achieves very little against an immobiliser.

TASSA is the approval scheme for the people fitting vehicle security rather than for the equipment itself. It exists because the same immobiliser fitted well and fitted badly are not the same product, and there was previously no way for a customer to tell the difference. It sits alongside the manufacturer approvals on the hardware rather than replacing them, so on a Ghost you have an accredited installer, and on something like the Smart Pro you have a Thatcham approved system fitted by one.

An alarm makes a noise after something has happened. An immobiliser stops the car being driven at all, silently. If your worry is waking up to an empty driveway, that is the Ghost's job exactly. If it is wheels, catalytic converters or things taken from inside, a Ghost will do nothing for you. We set the two side by side here.