Installation Times: Monday - Thursday: 7:30am to 6pm | Friday: 7:30am to 3pm | Saturday & Sunday: Closed
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sales@sasmobile.co.uk
21st April 2020
With car theft showing no signs of slowing down there are numerous things you can do to help prevent you being a victim. Simple tips often suggested by local Police Forces are; to not leave valuables on display, leave your glove box open and even removing your parcel shelf, but these are not always practical measures. We feel they are a constant reminder that you could be a victim at any time and after all, it’s no way to live your life. These methods only address the theft of valuables from your vehicle and are not practical in terms of preventing the actual theft of your vehicle. In this situation an actual alarm would be the better option for you, many vehicles already have these but are incredibly easy to disable. A car tracker could offer additional peace of mind.
The fact is, all modern vehicles are vulnerable to theft due to their hacking potential via one of their many computers and even worse, the diagnostic port, and with this in mind a car tracker is always going to offer greater peace of mind than not having one.
Modern vehicles have convenience features such as keyless go, comfort access and keyless entry which while they’re very good, they provide thieves with a very easy avenue to access your vehicle. Done by way of key boosting, also known as a Relay Attack
Relay attacks work by thieves working in pairs where each thief carries an electronic device designed to pick up on the signal emitted from the vehicle key . The second theif stands next to the vehicle and once obtained the key signal is then relayed to the their device when it fools the car into thinking the key is present, allows the doors to be opened and the engine started.
The BBC covered this issue in early 2019 and you see their article on their website here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47655330
Within some vehicle user menus there is the ability to turn off keyless access meaning the vehicle will have to see the actual button of the key pressed in order to open the doors. We would certainly advise doing this, a quick visit to your vehicle dealership could assist.
If you were to suffer a theft in this way then a car tracker would certainly help recover the vehicle before thieves have chance to do much damage or move the vehicle on.
There’s other preventive measures you could look to do, some of which are more cost effective than a car tracker.
Faraday pouch: Also known as an RFID pouch, you place your key inside the pouch and it will prevent the key radio frequency transmitting. No signal then they can’t “relay” it, they could still code a key directly. A car tracker with Driver ID would alert you of this within minutes should this happen and would remove the need for you to remember to place the keys in the pouch.
Steering Wheel Lock: Again these require manual operation but form a great visual deterrent for most thieves. The keys for such locks are often kept on the vehicle keys so in the event of the keys being obtained by way of burglary then the steering wheel lock would be useless. A car tracker would offer an additional layer of security and would work well in conjunction with a steering wheel lock. You would have an overt physical deterrent and also a covert electronic means of recovery.
I’m sure with the above in mind we can all agree a car tracker has its place as part of forming your vehicle security requirements. It is not a matter of fitting a car tracker and that is it, it needs additional measures also putting in place to compliment it and build the theft barrier layers. With a car tracker costing just a few hundred pounds to install they really are worth considering. Once you car leaves your possession you are helpless, powerless and left with little chance of recovery, tracking it could well change that.
Below are some of our most cost effective car trackers, with and without the Driver ID feature mentioned above.
