Sammmy

Never said I was a salesman, I said I'm in the motor trade. I own a garage, & yes I spend all day finding faults with modern systems & save customers thousands on stripping & repairing control unit & programming cars to accept used control units that manufactures have deliberately locked to one chassis number. I want to fit alarms.....

Cars haven't just had one ECU for years. An average car now has at least 8 ECU, something like an S class Merc can have 60 plus. Everything is a control unit even down to rear view mirror, headlight switch, each door, abs, air suspension, active roll bars, active cruise, parking sensors, airbags, USB audio, phone, tv, radio, radio controller etc etc. You lot have in easy with alarms....... (light the blue touch paper) Anyway what alarm am I buying tomorrow?

That's not actually true. I'm in the motor trade. You try buying buying a car in parts it would cost at least double if not 3 times the price. A new small car may only be £9,000 new, the engine alone will be £4,000, gearbox £2,000 shell £4,000, panels £2,000, control units £3,000 etc etc Electronics is a competitive market, an alarm system should be £500...

If that's the case then I will go with the local company, it's partly the reason for the post. What I don't understand is why they aren't cheaper alternatives, the cost of the basic components for an alarm system will cost no more than £50, surely they should be sold for less than £500

Thanks for the reply Is there any particular Texecom model anyone would recommend or avoid ?

Hi all, just after some advice on buying a new system. Its for my work address that is located in a remote location so must have some sort of mobile alert system. I expected to to find loads of options but don't seem to able to find any. I've previously purchased panels from City Electrical Factors that look reasonable (not like a 1980 computer game) but they don't have a option to alert through GSM or link to iPhone etc. I would have thought in this day & age I would be able to buy something that links to wifi & connects to an app. I've seen options on eBay but all look very cheap & more like a children's toy than a professional alarm system. I've had a quote from a local company at £750 plus a monitoring fee which ideally is over my budget. I've also seen interfaces that link to panels with photo's of Nokia 6210 from at least 8 years ago which seems a very dated way of alerting. Any suggestions on what & where to buy would be greatly appreciated. Many Thanks