New owner seeking Tracker advise

[rich1234]

Hi, I have just purchased my first Elise after three years of saving! It is a 99 reg 111S. One question I would appreciate advice on is regarding Trackers. My insurrance company have told me I need one fitting in order to change my policy to the Elise. Can anyone recommend a tracker and give me some idea on costs involved (for buying, fitting and subscription). Hopefully someone can help me reduce the amount of research I need to do.

Thanks and I am loking forward to next saturday when I official become an Elise owner (just hope it's a sunny weekend) :-)

[monkeytaylor]

Hi - I had a Tracker fitted to my S2 a couple of weeks ago, and like you it was an insurance requirement.
Tracker is the name of the company (visit www.tracker.co.uk)
They manufacture 3 models from the entry level Tracker Retrieve to the Tracker Monitor and the top level Tracker Horizon.
With the first one, you contact Tracker + the police if the vehicle is stolen and the police can trace it. With the other two, if the car is illegally moved the sensor hidden in the car alerts Tracker HQ automatically (i.e. it doesn't rely on you being around to realise it has been stolen - good news if you are away on holiday for a week!).
I believe that the enntry level one is OK for insurance purposes.
I got the middle one, Tracker Monitor, and it cost £399 fitted with £109 annual subscrption to Tracker.
Don't know if I could have got this cheaper, but as my car wasn't insured for theft I rushed out to the first fitter I could!
Most towns have companies selling + fitting Trackers - I went to my local car hi fi supplier.

[apprentice]

If you haven't already, you'd be best advised to contact further insurance co's who don't make unecessary demands for trackers - most don't.

Try Elise friendly co's. online : Autotorque, elephant.co.uk, Admiral, Bell Direct to name but a few.

Only yesterday managed to save a punter over a hundred quid (elephant.co.uk) on premium plus the additional expense of £500 for a tracker.

As always with insurance - shop around!

apprentice

[EliseType25]

I too have recently purchased my first Elise, and like you my insurance company required me to have tracker fitted before they would insure me against theft. I shopped about at Tracker and NavTrack, but in the end plumped for the RAC Trackstar+. This is a GPS system (as oppposed to one emitting a radio signal) and it allows you to take the tracker with you to your next car. The tracker plus fitting was £449, with an annual subscription fee of £110.

[karll]

I shopped about at Tracker and NavTrack, but in the end plumped for the RAC Trackstar+. This is a GPS system (as oppposed to one emitting a radio signal) and it allows you to take the tracker with you to your next car. The tracker plus fitting was £449, with an annual subscription fee of £110.[/quote]
GPS is for the positioning only, Tracker use VHF to commumicate with there units were as RAC Trackstar use the GSM network (mobile phones) As Tracker use there own network ( not shared with mobile phones ) this makes for a more reliable device. There are many other differences between these two devices but if any thing specific comes to mind please ask. Karl TNUK Field Technician.

[rich1234]

Hi, Thanks for all the info. Unfortunately the option of shopping around is not available as my current company will change the remainder of my policy for only 120 and then when that expires I will have turned 25 and so can shop around more easily then. (eg Autotalk have suggested a figure of around 700 which I think is very good). If I change company now whilst still 24 I will end up paying more than the cost of fitting a tracker.

I will look into the products mentioned above and see where I can get them fitted locally (I am in the Brentwood area of Essex if anyone knows a good place). I am sure I will have some more questions after I collect the car :-)