I had a remote starter (with alarm) put in my wife's daily driver last summer. I bought it from a guy I've known for nearly 20 years, and he was in the business when I first met him.
I think he said there are three different companies that make name-brand alarms now, and the only real difference is the intellectual property incorporated in your specific product. Manufacturing is all pretty comparable--I think he said a Malaysian factory. I went with a Prestige alarm One of the remotes is two-way, with a readout that tells you whether the car is locked or unlocked, whether it is running, whether the alarm has been triggered and what triggered it (hood switch, door, shock, etc.) You can use the remote to program up to 8 functions, such as a second car alarm, unlock doors, roll down windows, etc., but additional hardware might be needed for some of the features. I think I paid about $150 for the basic kit. It also needed a GM-specific module to play nice with all the computer-controlled stuff on the wife's daily driver--shouldn't be necessary for the analog wiring of an SD. It would have been probably $25 cheaper for an alarm without remote start (which you probably wouldn't install in a manual transmission car anyway). Installation in my wife's car was overly complicated by compatibility issues in this particular vehicle. I opted to pay my experienced friend to install it, and he easily has 16 hours into it. All the basics were up and running in 2.5 hours, though. Keep in mind that I specifically wanted remote start. I would also consider an installation for the purpose of adding remote keyless entry or other remote control features. I don't know that I would go to the trouble to have just an alarm, though. People have become trained to tune them out, and I know quite a few people who have lost their audio equipment while the alarm blasted away. ________________________________ From: Michael Weary <[email protected]> To: Mailing List - Shelby Dodge <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, January 9, 2011 6:25:19 AM Subject: SD> Alarm system info needed Gutting the interior for floor pan repair, and while doing this going to install an alarm myself. There used to be a SDML member that had an alarm business or sold alarms... You still out there ? If not can anyone recommend a good system, and spec it out for me ? Sent from my iPhone... this thing is awesome ___________REMOVE-FOOTER-WHEN-REPLYING_________ ShelbyDodge mailing list [email protected] http://www.imagilist.com/mailman/listinfo/shelbydodge ___________REMOVE-FOOTER-WHEN-REPLYING_________ ShelbyDodge mailing list [email protected] http://www.imagilist.com/mailman/listinfo/shelbydodge
