Anyone have experience with Ravelco Anti-theft?

[libtech75]

Did a search and surprisingly not one hit...

I just bought a used A4 and have serious concerns about theft. The three guys I know who have A4s/S4s have all either had their car stolen or were attempted thefts. I live in a nice neighborhood but as most people know, it's these kinds of neighorhoods that have the most cars stolen.

Anyway, I thought about the typical Viper/Clifford type alarm systems, but really these seem to be easily disarmed by expert criminals, especially in NY.

I somehow found some information about this company Ravelco which was featured in one of the car auto magazines as top anti-theft device.

http://www.neverstolen.com/

What it appears they do is splice into some major circuitry that would prevent your car from being started such as the ignition, fuel pump, ecu, etc depending on model of your car. It's wrapped in a steel cable and connected to a female plug that has a male "key" plug. That key plug you remove and take with you when you leave your car. You have to fit that key in order for these various circuits to be active.

It looks clean and simple. Cost is $399 and includes full mobile install. They will do it anywhere you want and takes about a couple hours.

They claim no car has ever been stolen out of the thousands of installations they have.

I like the idea of these two way alarms, etc, but honestly if a guy is going to jack some pieces off your car or the interior, are you going to get out fast enough or if you do, do you want to confront him? Easy to say you are going to beat the s out of him or whatever but if he is armed or has some guys with him, you going to risk your life for a RS4 grille?

Main thing is that they can't steal your car. Of course no one can prevent them putting on a flatbed I know, but you can park your car between cars or better yet, just turn your wheels all the way to the curb to make it difficult for them to steal your car this way.

This ravelco device looks legit and very effective. I'm thinking about having it installed but wonder has anyone had this installed in their car or know someone who has?

[Rosati]

I hear nothin but good things about it, Especially around our area, it cant hurt.

400 for unit and install? Do it.

[mike-2ptzero]

Man talk about "old school". I deal with newer products that do the same thing but use a relay that has a micro board in it that allows you to use a remote with 18 million rolling codes. The trick to keeping someone from defeating any anti-theft system is making it hard to find. The system the company I do work for sells it to dealers that then sell it to their customers as they buy a new car, the system even comes with a warranty that says that if the car is stolen they will pay up to $3,000 of your deductable. The product at this time is manufactured by the largest name in the business which is DEI and the product is called "Stealth".


BTW any "PRO" theif can get any car given enough time or if he wants it enough he will tow it out.

[ActiveMonkey]

Hell, i just want an alarm with remote start. Any suggestions on a not too expensive, not to crappy system?

[mike-2ptzero]

Hell, i just want an alarm with remote start. Any suggestions on a not too expensive, not to crappy system?

If you want any "DEI" product I can get you anything they make.

[libtech75]

That's the thing - anything that uses a remote, is pretty easily susceptible to code stealing. I've seen them defeat these DEI top of the line viper alarms in seconds on a tv program few months back.

Of course, the old addage of if thief really wants to steal something he will holds true, but I can make it harder for him to do it to the point where it's maybe not worth the hassle and he moves on. As for towing, like I said, if I parallel park in between two cars with my tires turned all the way to the curb, no way he's going to be able to tow my car unless he tows the front or back cars first.

[mike-2ptzero]

That's the thing - anything that uses a remote, is pretty easily susceptible to code stealing. I've seen them defeat these DEI top of the line viper alarms in seconds on a tv program few months back.

Of course, the old addage of if thief really wants to steal something he will holds true, but I can make it harder for him to do it to the point where it's maybe not worth the hassle and he moves on. As for towing, like I said, if I parallel park in between two cars with my tires turned all the way to the curb, no way he's going to be able to tow my car unless he tows the front or back cars first.

That is wrong. Even if they use a code grabber an alarm that uses rolling codes never uses the same code twice. This is why it is always good to remove any LED's that came with the alarm because a pro is going to know exactly what alarm you have in the car just by looking at it. They also cant just throw out a ton of codes at one time because the alarms will only allow a few codes then it will shut down the receiver so it no longer reads in coming codes till the owner of the car gets in the car and resets the alarm manually. I have been doing alarm installs for well over 20 years.


Actually he can get your car if it is parallel parked between 2 cars, all he has to do is hook the frame and drag it out of the spot then hook to the rear of the car. But like I said if he has enough time the car is gone no matter what.

[ananthony]

$400 GPS? This is too expensive. A car GPS under $100 is the right thing, and there are even cheaper and high-quality things. The damage recommended by the dealer is expensive, if you open the online store, you will find that you can get them at a lower price.