Buying advice
Ghost immobiliser vs car alarm: what is the difference?
One makes a noise, the other stops the engine. A straight comparison of what each protects against, and when it is worth having both fitted.
People often use these two words as if they mean the same thing. They do not, and the difference decides which one is right for your car.
The core difference
An alarm is a witness. It notices something and raises the alarm about it, either with a siren, a message to your phone, or both.
An immobiliser is a lock. It does not notice anything or tell anybody. It just makes the car refuse to move.
Both are useful. They protect you at different moments.
Where the Ghost fits
The Autowatch Ghost is an immobiliser, and an unusual one. There is no keypad and no LED anywhere in the car, and no extra fob unless you want one. You enter a code using buttons the car already has, like the ones on the steering wheel or door, and only then will the engine start. The latest version, Ghost III, will also accept an authorised key-tag or your phone.
Its great strength is that a thief cannot defeat what they cannot find. There is no box to cut out, because it communicates over the car’s own network. And because it is a code rather than a signal, relaying your key gets them precisely nowhere.
Its limitation is that it is silent. If someone is taking your wheels or emptying the boot, a Ghost does not care. The car was never going to be driven away.
Where a modern alarm fits
A Pandora system covers the ground the Ghost ignores. Shock, tilt and movement sensors watch the car, and the moment anything happens your phone tells you, wherever you are.
Its great strength is awareness. You find out while it is happening rather than the next morning, and on a lot of these systems you can see where the car is at the same time.
Its limitation is that noise alone does not stop everyone. Plenty of people have slept through their own car alarm. That said, most Pandora systems include immobilisation as well, which narrows the gap considerably.
Side by side
| Ghost immobiliser | Modern alarm | |
|---|---|---|
| Stops the car being driven off | Yes | Usually, if it includes immobilisation |
| Tells you something is happening | No | Yes, straight to your phone |
| Protects wheels, catalytic converter, contents | No | Yes |
| Works if a thief has your real key | Yes | Depends on the system |
| Anything visible for a thief to find | No | Sticker and siren, if you want them |
| Subscription | No | No |
So which should you get?
Get a Ghost if your worry is the car being driven off your driveway overnight, you have a keyless car, and you want something a thief cannot see or defeat.
Get an alarm if you want to know what is happening to your car, you park where you cannot see it, or you are as worried about wheels and contents as the whole vehicle.
They are two different answers to two different worries, not two halves of one thing. Work out which of those two sentences describes you and that is your answer.
The bit most people miss
Whichever you choose, the install matters more than the box. The first thing a thief does is look for the unit. A cheap system hidden well beats an expensive one screwed somewhere obvious.
That is most of what you are actually paying an installer for, and it is why we do not post kit out to people.
Tell us what you drive and where it sits overnight, and we will tell you which of the two we would fit on it.