How much does a car alarm cost?
Basically, I thought if I install a car alarm to my car, I can knock the insurance premium down a bit. Does anyone have any recommendations? I have a 2002 Renault Laguna, and I'm looking to spend as less as possible. Let's just say I get paid about £5 an hour, so I can't really afford anything major.
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Forget it.
The sort of alarms that give you a reduction in insurance premiums (usually around 5-7%, so not a lot) are Thatcham approved ones which need to be fitted by authorised dealers. It'll cost you several hundred quid to get maybe £20 knocked off your premium, so not worth it.
A car alarm will have no effect on Insurance premiums because no-one pays any attention to an alarm going off. If you want to knock your premiums down then you need to get a tracker installed, but the value of your car isn't high enough to warrant this kind of expense.
If you want to get a car alarm fitted then a cheap one will be around £200, better ones are around £400+.
Your pay is also below the legal minimum wage so I would suggest that you go and get that dealt with first.
Unless it is proffessionally installed it will not get you a reduction on your insurance if any at all. Expect to pay £400 plus for anything that would reduce the insurance The car will already have a good immobiliser built in and I would be very suprised if it does not already have an alarm too
£5 an hour is below the legal minimum - that is what you need to sort out.
You are barking up the wrong tree big style on this
One of the problems with cheap car alarms is you get what you pay for, and if you buy some cheap piece of crap that does not work, and is more trouble than its worth what do you have? I suggest if you plan to put a alarm put a good one that is worth 300 or so installed, this should come with some extra features like remote locks and remote start if the car is newer and supports this type of electronics. also a newer more expensive alarm has an immobilizer which kills power to the starter so the car can not be hot wired. Or if you want to go hillbilly redneck high tech, put a kill switch someplace that NO ONE KNOWS AND set it up so it kills power to the ignition in the steering column. that way some dummy may rip the turn signal off and try to start it but its going no where.
I don't know how effective alarms are in the UK, but in the U.S., no one pays any attention to them. Most are too sensitive and go off when the wind blows.