Baby BMW Forum banner

tracker

8K views 27 replies 16 participants last post by  cbr600ant 
#1 ·
Hi,
Picking up my new 235I in a few weeks and I am debating whether to get a tracker fitted by the dealer, has anyone had one from bmw ? and if so do you think its worth the cash?,bit concerned about the number of beemers targeted by thieves!
 
#3 ·
I thought that only worked if you were within a certain distance (10km?) of the car?
 
#5 ·
R88 said:
There should be no inherent range limitation of the technology unless BMW intentionally code it in.
I think they do. Seem to remember looking at mine once (for the E82) and it said something to the effect that location was only provided if you were within a minimum range. Wouldn't seem a totally daft security feature - the service is meant to be about finding your car in a given town/city - presumably you're meant to remember which one you parked it in.
 
#8 ·
stever_ss said:
R88 said:
There should be no inherent range limitation of the technology unless BMW intentionally code it in.
I think they do. Seem to remember looking at mine once (for the E82) and it said something to the effect that location was only provided if you were within a minimum range. Wouldn't seem a totally daft security feature - the service is meant to be about finding your car in a given town/city - presumably you're meant to remember which one you parked it in.
Random update: Was over 30 miles away from my car the other day and the remote app still works.
 
#10 ·
pujajoshi said:
Which is the best car tracker?
Depends what you mean by 'best'. Best value, best all rounder, best overall service etc. You could have one that is the full package but you're not willing to pay the money if you see what I mean.

Personally, I feel that preventing theft is the priority, so I put my money into a Ghost immobilisor and just have the cheap TK103 tracker fitted as a backup.

I think the TK103's are certainly the best value anyway, as doesn't have any contract and bought off Amazon/Ebay or the slightly more pricier TK104.

I use with Giff Gaff SIM as I use it in my phone anyway, so the text messages are all free to and from the tracker. You control it purely by SMS though, so the limitation is if you or the tracker is in a poor signal area (affects a lot of trackers to be fair). They are hard wired though and can also be wired to text you if something like the internal light is triggered and if you really want you can remotely isolate wiring such as the fuel pump. I'd probably only use these features on an older more basic car.
 
#11 ·
Hi Guys,

I am new here. I wanted to check if you had similar issues.I wanted to fit a tracker to my car. Issue arose when I checked with the BMW warranty. They told me that I need to get a BMW tracker only and one that would be fitted by a BMW centre. I asked BMW Park Royal and they asked me a staggering 3-4 hour labour @ £180. Also the S7 tracker they do does not have the VHF signalling. I almost I purchased the warranty to avoid these costs for repairs, but I will have to dish out for my own requirements. :(. The warranty guy told me that if I install a Tracker, that is actually around £300 fitted at my house, I will void the whole warranty. As there are apparently too many cases of faults that cannot be identified and they just refuse to look when a 3rd party tracker is fitted.
Thanks for the experiences...
Also as I read above, I have the remote services subscription and also could locate the car much further than the 1.5 m they say it will only do.
 
#12 ·
An update. I had issues with another part and was advised by BMW as not all service centres fit trackers to go to third party, but told not to as it will void the warranty and let me tell you it will. If they find something in the car and it is remotely connected to the tracker, so power or wiring, they will void it.
Also I tried the BMW connected drive, I have the subscription for the remote services and I can locate the car from far away. Just FYI I left the car at Luton airport over the christmas holidays and could successfully retrieve the location from abroad I was 1000 miles away. I tried several times just for the giggles. The car was on 2nd floor of the 4 storey carpark so well covered. I was told by BMW that I need to be relatively close to the car to operate certain remote services, such as lock and unlock the car i guess, but I can confirm the location feature works across continent :)
I think that is ok for me for now...
 
#14 ·
I'm tempted to look into a tracker for my new car, as for the car position tracker that comes with most new BMW's via the connected app/website etc I've not noticed a limit, end of last year I parked in Luton Airport and flew up to Edinburgh for weekend with now ex-girlfriend and the app was fine locating my car over 600 miles away.

Only downside is, you can just go into iDrive and turn the feature off.. so anyone stealing your car would probably do that. I'm sure when I turned it off I didn't get any security code conformation so it just let me.
 
#16 ·
Any peeps know if the insurance bandits are now giving a discount in premium with the Ghost fitted yet.
I remember reading some time ago that it didn't reduce premiums even though it looks like a fantastic bit of bit to me &#x1f937-1f3fc-2642;
 
#17 ·
Not sure that they do and don't know why not
You only have to look around this forum to seen how many cars have been stolen and it prevents that
(Naysayers will bang on now about it being picked up on a trailer ( it will still be useless to the scum when they unload it at the other end)
 
#20 ·
Make sure you've properly read the terms to work out what your insurers consider a tracker - had that rigmarole with the Defender's renewal. If you've declared a tracker and the car goes walkies, the very first thing they'll do is ask for the tracker's access info. If they find out it doesn't meet their specific definition, the very second thing they'll do is bin your claim, cancel your policy and leave you with no car and and a claim refusal and policy cancellation on your record for the rest of your driving career.
 
#22 ·
Just a quick ok about the 4g inbuilt sim.. Had my 530e and Mini Cooper S stolen a few weeks ago... thieves just ripped the connected drive module out of the car before driving off... leaving the bmw system useless.

Bmw/Mini also couldn't trace either cars. A hidden tracker or Ghost is much better than relying on the cars inbuilt as they are all easily disabled.
 
#25 ·
cbr600ant said:
So as this is the case,when I go for my insurance renewal I'll be informing them that my car does come with a tracker installed from factory
Definitely don't do that, insurance understanding of tracker is very different.

In the event its stolen and they ask you to track the car via the "tracker" you've told them it has then they'll be a problem.

More specifically if a thief that knows what they're doing simply deletes the remote location function.

They'll just void your policy on the spot.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top