GSM/GPS car trackers - anybody fitted one?

[NiceCupOfTea]

Have recently noticed there seem to be a lot of them on the bay around the £50 mark. Sounds like a bit of fun, has anybody fitted one to a car?

Some of them look pretty simple - a small black box with a slot for a SIM card. call it and it sends you a lat/long in a text. Others look a bit more complicated - separate GPS/GSM aerials (necessary for a car I would have thought where the box will be hidden under the dash or something), outputs to control an alarm trigger or to cut ignition, etc.

Ideally it would be good to have something that can automatically send a signal when the car is moved, and rather than just a text with long/lang, something that can be tracked in google maps on a phone/laptop.

Anybody any experience with these or are they a gigantic waste of money? If so, links to decent ones that might do the sort of thing I'm after?

Seen these so far:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Real-Time-GSM-GPRS-GPS-Track...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Realtime-Tracking-Vehicle-GS...

[Aviz]

A friend has tried soem off ebay. The old adage, you get what you pay for, seems to have been true.


Unreliable, clunky interface etc..

[wcel]

As has been said, you get what you pay for

I've got a system installed from www.trackitnow.co.uk and have to say it really is brilliant. Can set up zones etc and as soon as car moves (i.e out of the car park), it texts or emails you (you can set it up exactly how you want it).

Had it installed over a year now and only had a couple of very small issues with it (one during a lightning storm) which made me panic in the middle of the night when it texted to say car had left the car park and the other when the software locked up!

It's not really cheap for personal tracking but if you look at the yearly amount, it is relatively small to assure you peace of mind 24/7

I'll certainly be getting the same again in my next car although a cheaper monthly option with less of the 'frills' in the software would be good

[NiceCupOfTea]

Does look good, but looking to stay under £100 if possible (given that a £20 fag lighter GPS jammer will disable even the most expensive system )

[NiceCupOfTea]

Cheapo alternative that some do is just bung a phone under the dash on a charger, and sign up to one of those phonelocator sites. Seems to cost about 25p per enquiry. Not a bad solution...