Car insurance and car alarms do you really get a discount?

[The PIT]

Looking round a insurance quotes noticing one that claimed having a alarm fitted can reduce your costs by fifty percent I decided to do two quotes one with factory fitted immobiliser, without alarm and one with factory fitted immobiliser and alarm (details not asked) and quote came out the same.
It sort of reminds me years ago when I was talking to insurance sales person and they were trying to get me buy a five hundred pound approved system to get a possible hundred quid off. The answer of course was bog off and I got a quote somewhere else. My car at that time had alarm fitted but it wasn't "approved".
Anyone tried getting quotes with and without alarms fitted to see if it really makes any differances?

[RedRed]

Helllo
My last quote was online with the AA. I did the same think (my Laguna has an imobiser) When I finished the form, I saved it. I redid it with a factory Alarm and again with no imobiser.

There was a difference -- about £30 Hardly worth the £400 extra the alarm would have cost!

RedRed

[The PIT]

The best one I had when doing quotes on line was a form that wouldn't let me fill in my second accident (None my fault I was stationary each time). Of course the online quote would be wrong without that so I rang them up. The sales women took my quote number updated it and said you won't believe this the cost has gone down by £15.00. Doesn't make sense.
I've also noticed on some forms if you alter your number of no claims bonus the quote stays the same.
Looks like we're being well conned.

[Chris Blake]

Looks like we're being well conned.

You don't say?

Ever tried to claim on your car insurance before?

[Paulr]

Only makes a difference if it's a 'Thatcham Approved' alarm and/or immobiliser, also makes a difference to what category it's approved too as well.

My Megane has a Thatcham Category 2 immobiliser fitted (factory standard) and that is taken into consideration with my quite.
However I was told that I got no discount for the fact that my car stays in a garage over-night and not by the side of the road! :-/

[The PIT]

So if parking off the road doesn't get you any discount why bloody ask.

Yup I've claimed of my Car insurance two rear end shunts in less than 6 months. The first one I'd just got the car stopped for a minute heard the squealing of brakes and wham. I shook that guy by the throat. Ten minutes later a women tried to do the same thing on me. The roads weren't wet and conditions clear. Just dumb !"£$ers who weren't awake.
Got the car insurance sorted out at work got a courtsey card that wasn't bad and too be honest didn't have problem.
Got the car back two others suckers had a go going into the back of it but missed ay least they said thank you for moving that extra foot or so forward.
However it wasn't long before another managed it. No problem again with the insurance, had to reject the repair due the fact that rain came into the boot which pissed the engineer off.
The funny thing about it the third parties insurance tried to blame me even though I was stationary at the time. I sent a nice little F!"£ off letter which shut them up. I told my insurance about it and the guy pissed himself laugthing.

[Snake-Eyes]

Sounds like insurance in your part of the world is interesting. My company, State Farm, just came out and told me that, NOPE, no breaks for car alarms, unless it's something like LoJack (dealer/factory installed tracking/immobilizing setup, supposedly in a spot on the car only known to the installer). According to my agent, regular car alarms simply aren't effective any more, since they tend go off with a strong gust of wind, causing them to be ignored by most people close enough to actually hear their shrilling/talking/cheeping, heh.

Heck, once six or seven years ago, I had installed an alarm system on my car. After having the transmission replaced, I started having problems where the alarm would 'forget' the code sequences and stop responding to my remote. So I still clearly recall going to a nearby McDonald's restaurant to pick up some food for the wife (who was pregnant at the time), going inside due to LONG drive-thru lines, and coming out to find that I couldn't deactivate the alarm. End result- I drove the three blocks back to my apartment with the alarm piercing the air around me. When I got home, I hurriedly grabbed my tools from the apartment, got under the hood, and disconnected the @#$&ed thing from the battery, putting it and me out of our misery. Later I found that the mechanics working on the transmission had stretched one of the leads going to the battery, causing the wire to break, and leading to shorts in the system as the car hit rough spots in the road. Even though nobody paid one lick of attention to me during that whole trip (or maybe they were afraid I really was a car thief, and didn't want to risk me attacking them?), I never used the car alarm again.

Other than systems like LoJack, most car alarms are really less effective than simply locking the doors nowadays. I've even seen kids that will intentionally bang on the fenders of parked cars with stickers advertising the alarm, just to set them off.

[The PIT]

Yep I can remember driving along with my car alarm going. Lucikly it didn't have a ignition cut out otherwise it would have caused a lovely accident.
Everyone now ignores car alarms as many come badly setup and go off if someone farts nearby. Proper regulations should have been introduced and inforced to stop this happening. Perhaps then people would take notice.
The same goes for house alarms no one takes any notice of them either for the same reasons even a policeman would walk past.

[Lizzard[MPE]]

lol..

i had a car alarm once but the thingy(cant think just woke up)broke off my keychain so i had to just carry it around with me .. tht was annoying.
then one day i had to take my granny home and she sat on it so when we were driving down the interstate (an hour long drive) everytime i hit a bump or went up or down a hill the alarm would go off.. about drove me mad!