A buddy of mine runs a GPS tracking company, they mostly deal with logistics firms that want to map vehicles on the road. But their units can be used to monitor cars also. Featuring battery backup, remote immobilizer and able to map via the web or iphone/blackberry. He tells me that insurance companies INSIST on a tracker for cars over 70k, but you never know they might do a bit of a discount for our two's also.

The units are a couple of hundred + fitting (or you can fit yourself). If you're interested, reply to this thread and I will approach him to see what kind of incentive he would give for a group buy

Can you give us some more info on the units eg. what brand are they and is there a subscription cost ?

Hi Marty,

The company is Transpoco

Their 'street' prices are:

Hardware: 219 euro
Immobilization cabling 45 euro (if required)
Installation 80 euro (if required)
Yearly subscription: 239 euro

I guess if we get a bit of interest we might be able to negotiate down the hardware/subscription fee

Do they work in Sunny Oz?

I would say they would, but the roaming data charge would be a killer Is there anything on the market down there? Lojack or something? Maybe Andrew would be interested in a local reseller if not

I would be interested in one once all the goodies are on my 2, i'll keep an eye on your thread

Unfortunately that did not go anywhere, the guys I know wanted to do something for the home market but have been tied up with commercial.


Here's another option, anyone know if they're any good?
www.techstore.ie/Tracking/Car-Tracking-Systems.html

It would be interesting to see which insurance companies offer a discount and by how much if a tracker was installed. It would go some way to paying for the monthly subscription.

I asked one the other week about trackers and they said it would make no difference to the premium. I believe they do insist on them for higher value cars however.. (also at no difference to the premium)

I would definitely be interested. It's a shame your mates are tied up.

So the insurance company would rather pay out thousands of euros if a car is stolen , but don't want to reduce insurance by a few euros if it means getting the car back. Where is the logic in that ?

THEY JUST WANT TO GET AS MUCH OF OUR MONEY AS THEY CAN BECAUSE WE OBEY THE LAW AND HAVE TO PAY FOR INSURANCE.

Sorry I just have to get this out of my system.

GREEDY ROBBING FUCKING BASTARDS !

Geoff you can delete this if you think it might offend

I think you're only saying what a lot of people are thinking Marty. It's unfortunate that the government lets a blind eye at this carry on. Basically as a 'sports car' owner we're pretty much treated like a hot potato. Even a middle aged guy at my work was told by one of the big insurance companies that they would not insure his Saab (4 door 2007) model, as it was too high powered at 170bhp?? unbelievable.

Wasn't there talk about EU foreign insurance companies were going to be allowed to insure cars in other countries including Ireland ? It was supposed to open the market for fair competion and reduce policy prices. Something like that.

Marty J wrote:
Wasn't there talk about EU foreign insurance companies were going to be allowed to insure cars in other countries including Ireland ? It was supposed to open the market for fair competion and reduce policy prices. Something like that.

Yes that is what we need!!

Okay, I think this seems to work as a DIY tracking solution.

First, you need a Smartphone which you can leave in your car. Okay, at the mo, they may not be cheap enough to buy and just leave in your car - but they are getting cheaper every day.

Glympse is the software used, so at the mo, it is supported in iPhone, Android based or Balckberry - and have GPS. I am sure there are similar apps for Nokias etc

Then you just download Glympse onto your phone and you can track your phone/car online.

Obviously you need to hide the phone away in the car and leave it turned on. So, a small solar panel is a good idea to ensure it is charged.

I know on Android phones, it can track by wireless networks and GPS. Obviously GPS is more accurate than wireless Networks.

I checked it here in work and it found me no problem.

Good idea. I have an iPhone 3G, obviously the latest is the 3GS but I have heard that there is a 4G coming later in the year. I will be entitled to an upgrade by then. Might go for the 4G and leave the 3G in the car. I have a USB power source in the car, so could leave the phone constantly "charging" so long as the draw isnt enough to kill the car battery in a reasonable amount of time.

Just downloaded the Glympse app on my iphone. Really good but wont work. You cant "track" the phone. I think there are laws that prohibit this, privacy etc. You need to send a "glympse" manually from the phone to someone via phone or mail. It lasts for 15mins and then expires. The tech is there, its just the config/settings etc. You get a map and you can see where they are, what speed they are travelling at and so on, it is good but wont work as a straight forward standalone car tracker. The onus is on the holder of the phone to regularly broadcast their location.

SWAGGER wrote:
Just downloaded the Glympse app on my iphone. Really good but wont work. You cant "track" the phone. I think there are laws that prohibit this, privacy etc. You need to send a "glympse" manually from the phone to someone via phone or mail. It lasts for 15mins and then expires. The tech is there, its just the config/settings etc. You get a map and you can see where they are, what speed they are travelling at and so on, it is good but wont work as a straight forward standalone car tracker. The onus is on the holder of the phone to regularly broadcast their location.

Ah - I thought that once you send a tracker code to whatever email address, that, even after it expired, you could refresh and it would pick up the location. Pity.

There are apps out there where you send a predefined text to your phone and it will come out of sleep and ring (to find it). Surely its not too hard to develop a similar app to turn on Glympse on your phone and send you the current location.

If I was single, I'd take the time to look into the Android Developers kit. But I am not - so, when kids move out in approx 17 years, I will write my own app.

Ah id say the tech is in there already Spidey, its totally possible and very easy. Its the usage rights and laws etc that are holding it back. Its ok to do it with a dedicated black box with a sim card/GPS, specifically for car tracking, but a phone is a different thing. Its a personal object. You are essentially tracking people which is frowned upon. Cool though huh?

Geoff,
I have just seen this post.

Sorry we didn't get anything for you at the time. We still haven't launched a private car solution. However we are seing increased demand for them so I think we will in 2011.

Anyway, if a few of you guys were interested I could give you a very good deal on some reconditioned trackers. (We get a few back from time to time due to companies going out of biz and their vehicles being reposessed sign of the times I guess).

Anyway, they are all solid units(we will warranty them). They are looking for a home and we could set them up as basic text tracking units

Anyway, let me know if its of interest.

Andrew,
Transpoco