Hi guys and gals,
I didn't know where else to post this but I wanted to pass this little gem along.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...r_mts_prod_img
I bought this for lorayne skeptical of the results and was pleasantly surprised.
It does as advertised and then some. Right down to geofencing and alerting me via email or SMS when the car enters or leaves a particular area or exceeds a pre-set speed. Its basically a stripped down motorola phone with a piece of software installed that sends data to the tracking server. As a plus, you can install the software on just about any phone and add additional tracking devices.

 

So are you for real or a spammer??? Any montly service fee required??? Seems a bit odd that it would need to plug into a cig lighter socket. So if I want to put a GPS tracking device on my vehicle to track my kids, or if my ride should get stolen, do these guy not think my kids or the thief is smart enough to reach down and unplug it??? And if I'm in the car, well then I'm pretty sure I'd know where it's at, and I wouldn't be at my computer to track myself. I'd imagine one could figure out how to wire it in and hide it under a back seat or in the trunk, but would it still work in a hidden location???

 

haha no I'm not a spammer. The monthly fee is 18-25 bucks depending on your package and you get, I think 15 or 30 days free on the highest package. But, the basic package if feature rich and I think the only difference is the daily reporting. And yes it comes with a direct wire connection. Basically the female end for the cigarette lighter with a lose ground and 12v power wire. You can hard wire it into the car that way and put it anywhere. Because its also cell tower driven there is no external antenna that has to be stuck out it works just fine under the dash or front seat or in the trunk anywhere. Again, I'm no spammer and honestly have no affiliation with the company that makes these; its just rare i find a product thats cheap and actually does what I needed it to and then some. Kinda like the phenolic spacer I put on that stopped the heat soaking issue. Oh and it also has a mobile web app so you can track it from any web enabled mobile device. Plus text or email alerts.
I recently had someone try and steal Lorayne out of my garage. Thats why I went looking for something like this. I looked at the 500-700 dollar units and then saw this with the reviews and figured it was cheap and if it doesn't work im not out much. But it works. The online interfaces aren't as polished as the high end models but has all the same features.

Lastly, Ive had it installed about a week and havent had to reset/reboot or otherwise screw with it after the install. If you activate it by sending them an email there is no activation fee.

 

Cool !!! Thanks for the heads up. This does actually seem to be a pretty fair deal then. I've got a 16yo son belly aching to get his license. Now I'll just have to think, do I tell him about it so he'll act proper, or do I keep it a secret and let him hang himself? I bet I can probably have it both ways. It won't take him long to hang himself, then once he knows it's there, maybe he'll act right thereafter. I'm loving this idea. Thanks again.

 

I say tell him you'll know if he does something he's not supposed to then magically prove it.

 

Good idea.
I had my 8yo at the time, now 24yo daughter believing that dads do have eyes in the back of their head. My house is set up where the Living, dining and kitchen are one big room where a long island, and ceramic tile meets carpet is what seperates the room designations. My back to the kitchen sitting on the sofa, caught my daughter sneaking into the cookie jar. I yelled, What do you think you're doing??? What daddy with the deer in the headlights looks and fear of god. Uhhh, I was getting some cookies. I said, yeah, I know you were, don't you think you should ask? I would have but I didn't eat dinner yet so you would say NO. You're right, I would have. This whole time I'm looking forward at the TV. Then she says, Man, how did you know I was getting cookies? I reminded her, daddies have eyes in the back of their head, and she said Ohh, I thought you were lying to me when you told me that. LMAO What she didn't know, is the stereo system being glass, acted like a mirror and I could see everything going on in the kitchen from the glare in the glass. It was a couple months later, another parent was over bringing her daughter over for a sleep over with my daughter. That parent had told me, that my daughter had her daughter and a few other kids at school convinced that dads really do have eyes in the back of their head and they work too.

 

Just make sure he learns the right values of driving and understands that driving is a privelege. Show him some of Australia's ads on driving safety. If that doesn't scare the crap out of him, nothing will. If he's not a responsible kid, make him buy and insure his own car so he learns the value of what he's getting into. Lock your keys away so he can't get one till he's proved himself responsible. I'm really lucky; my son is learning to drive now and he's being very responsible about it. The value system we brought him up is paying off in dividends.

Just another thought related to this topic. GPS monitoring is not available with all new cars specifically because of privacy laws. Once your son turns 18, he can legally sue you if you continue to monitor using this device. There are numerous sites that discuss GPS tracking and privacy.

I understand why you want to do this with your own car, but if you really want to keep it safe, also look at installing a battery disconnect in an inconspicuous place. A would be thief will never get it started.

Lets say some creep does steal Lorayne and you don't notice till waay to late. It could be trashed or parted by the time you find it. That's not much consolation to find the GPS led you to something you don't want to see now. The cost of the GPS service is pretty cheap as you say, and it's one way of 'tracking' your car. But it's certainly not a theft detterent. Now if you could install a 'kill' switch or a VATS key system or similar, that would be a much better deterrent to theft.

Bottom line: I'm not disagreeing with you. Just looking at some other things that go along with the idea you presented.

 

Youre right if he learns the value of hard work to getting the freedom of driving he wont do anything stupid. Well nothing more stupid then we all did at 16 :-) If you own the car that your child drives its not illegal to track it. In some states you don't enevn need to disclose it. Similar to recording a phone call, only one party needs to know. At least in Colorado.
Oh and the tracking isn't my only deterrent, she's got a fuel shut off and battery key. With the geofencing alerts I know when she leaves my neighborhood and if they can get her to a chop shop and stripped within 5 minutes of me getting that alert they are pros and she's insured :-)

 

Sounds like you have your bases covered. You had to be here to see the smile when I read that stuff about fuel shutoff etc. Sounds like the chop shop pros have met their match. And yes, insurance is a good last resort - hoping it never comes down to that though.

Hope it all works out well with your son. Spend time with him while he learns to drive. The part I've found works well is to sit down and pre-plan or coach prior to driving. Once they're behind the wheel, they tend to not hear you or simply can't absorb all that info very fast. The thrill of the drive! I remember that well. 16 was a great year!!! Keep us posted.

 

My son is very responsible and so was my daughter, so I got her a car at age 16. Well, with a boyfriend in the picture, she became very irresponsible. Now I know my son isn't going to be influenced by a gf, but all it takes is for 1 other bad kid to be a bad influence 1 time and that's that. So we do have the "birds of a feather" and "guilty by associaton" conversations often. Thanks for the heads up on the legalities. I'd heard of some spouse stuff like that, but not your own kids as of yet.

Oh yes, fuel cut off switches, or in my case, valves are great. They may get it started if its carbed and has fuel in the bowl, but they're not getting far and can be caught red handed when it shuts down a couple blocks away. Noone ever thinks to disconnect a wire when hot wiring, so I had a ground wire to my coil on a toggle switch. With that in ON position, it grounded out the coil and wouldn't start. Just a little hidden switch underdash is a good investment.

 

That brings back memories. We used to have an old International cabover at work (the one with the battery in the step well). At least once a month some newbie would come in and say the battery was dead/truck wouldn't start. Walk over to the truck, (battery disconnect switch was right behind the cab on the outside) flip the switch and say 'Try it now". Amazingly it would start every time. We installed that switch because the truck had so many parasitic drains the bat would go dead if it sat for more than 2 days.

Funny thing was everyone who drove that truck got an orientation to it and signed off on it (special equipment use). Brain farts seemed to be the order of the day tho.....