Buying advice
Alarm, tracker or immobiliser: which do you actually need?
Three products that sound similar and do completely different jobs. A plain English comparison, including which one most people should buy first.
This is the question we get asked more than any other, and the honest answer is that these three things are not alternatives. They do different jobs at different moments, and knowing which moment worries you most tells you which to buy.
The one line version
- An immobiliser stops the car being driven away
- An alarm tells you the second something happens
- A tracker helps get the car back after it has gone
Read that again, because it is the whole article. Everything below is detail.
Immobiliser: stops it moving
An immobiliser interrupts the car’s ability to start. A modern one like the Autowatch Ghost is hidden inside the existing wiring and needs a code you chose, tapped on buttons the car already has.
What it stops: relay attacks, key cloning, and theft using your genuine stolen key. Someone can get in, sit down, and go nowhere.
What it does not do: make any noise, tell you anything, or help if the car is lifted onto a flatbed.
Buy this first if: you have a keyless car and your main fear is waking up to an empty driveway. For most people who ring us, this is the right first purchase.
Alarm: tells you now
A modern Pandora alarm is not the siren you are picturing. Sensors watch for movement, tilt and glass, and your phone buzzes the moment anything happens, wherever you are.
What it stops: wheel theft, catalytic converter theft, break ins for what is on the seat, and anyone hoping to work undisturbed.
What it does not do: physically prevent a determined thief from driving off, unless it also includes immobilisation.
Buy this first if: you are more worried about the car being interfered with than taken outright, or you park somewhere you cannot see.
Tracker: gets it back
A Thatcham approved tracker reports where the vehicle is to a monitored control room, who work with the police to recover it.
What it stops: nothing. Be clear about that.
What it does: dramatically improves the odds of getting the car back, and satisfies insurers who insist on one.
Buy this first if: your insurer requires it, or the car is valuable enough that recovery matters more than deterrence.
A tracker is a safety net, not a lock. Anyone selling it as theft prevention is not being straight with you.
What most people actually end up with
Of the jobs we do, the rough pattern is this.
One system, usually an immobiliser. Keyless car, sits on a driveway, owner wants to stop it being driven off. A Ghost does that and nothing else, which is often exactly right.
Two systems, alarm plus immobiliser. People who want to know something is happening as well as prevent it. This is the most common upgrade.
Three, on higher value cars. Usually because the insurer asked for the tracker and the owner wanted the other two anyway.
The question that actually decides it
Ask yourself: what is the moment you are frightened of?
If it is “I wake up and it is gone”, buy an immobiliser.
If it is “somebody is doing something to my car right now and I do not know”, buy an alarm.
If it is “if it goes, I need it back”, buy a tracker.
If it is all three, we will tell you the order to do them in, and it usually is not all at once.
Ask about your own car
Tell us the make, model and year and where it sits overnight. We will tell you which of the three we would fit and, just as importantly, which we would not bother with. We would rather sell you one thing that suits than three that do not.