I'm looking for an alarm system under $350 to equip my 97 Integra. I've gotten a ton of people asking to buy it, including someone who was prepping the car to get it painted, as well as some shady folks, to which I refused unless they were willing to spend their 401k. Maybe I am just paranoid, but I can just imagine waking up one day to see that it's gone.

As stock, it has no alarm currently, not even keyless entry. I went to Best Buy to scope out their alarms and one of the folks there suggested a Viper 771XVR at $385 installed. Is there a better buy out there? Thanks.

 

best advice for you is DO NOT get it installed at Best Buy, take it somewhere really good or do it yourself, thats the best way.

Stay away from BB.

 

Yeah I was just going there for a price quote and comparison. There's no other local shops around that have any sort of decent selection or install feature.

 

Viper is an awsome alarm and actually I would prefer having it done at best buy. Lets see they have a lifetime warrenty on install and a lifetime warrenty on viper....
hmmm what custom shop has that... NONE... once you leave ur done no coming back NO WARRENTY.... Also whos the only shop in America that requires is people to be MECP certified.... Not a custom shop thats for sure..
So you guys might want to check your fact and look into things first, not just trust one guy who had a bad experience.

Oh and as a local comparison we took two cars one got an alarm at Audio Depot and one at Best Buy.
I looked at both alarms.. The one from audio depot was hanging on a bunch of wires. I could unplug it in 2 secs if that... Also it looked like a nest of wires everywhere
2nd alarm was tucked up high and the wires were wrapped in electrical tape to conceal.. So it took a minute to find the module cause I couldn't trace the wires as fast.

Your decision but I tell you what when I was there at best buy a guy came in and had them fix there alarm a custom shop did, think it was audio pro's. And bby charged 200 just to fix.... So have fun payin that much.

Both cars have a bby alarm.. 1 car is 5 years with it still working perfect
other car is about 1 year still perfect.

 

I'm kind of a newb when it comes to this stuff -- do I need to purchase additional stuff like tilt sensor and secondary battery?

 

If u want extra protection from people taking ur wheels then yea thats cool to have.. But a digital tilt sensor not a cheap one.. You have to buy that online or somewhere else best buy has the cheaper none digital one.. so yea.

Secondary batter is an option.. I chose to have the siren that has the battery in it.. So if they cut the car battery or the actual siren wire then it will still go off..

Its all optional stuff.. If you think u need it or not...

Dont get the motion sensor though... they suck.. if its hot outside it gets extra sensitive and goes off for everything even wind.... Also sucks if u have tinted windows...

 

Thanks for the help so far

How about the DEI 507M Tilt Sensor? Can be had for about $30-$40 online from a quick Google search.

Would you suggest to have the siren battery or a backup battery? Where is your siren located?

Can't you turn down the sensitivity of the motion sensor?

 

Yea I thats the right tilt sensor... I prefer the siren battery... for the other battery will work to keep ur alarm transmitting to ur key pad, but they can cut the siren so people that are walking by wont know ur alarm is going off.. So I like it in the siren so even if they cut the siren wire it will be going off outloud...

Yes you can turn down the motion sensor

 

BestBuy's installation is quite bad imo ...

You want to get a shop that'll take the time to take apart your interior to hide stuff for you. Even if you are willing to pay up at BestBuy, chances are they aren't specialized enough or have the patience to do all that for you.

I paid a little more than what these standard chain stores normally charge, but the shop changed all my wires to black (so thieves won't know which wire to cut) and hid the brain, etc in places that are hard to get to within 2 to 3 mins.

Also another thing that is quite useful is to NOT install the LED light. The LED light is one of the biggest hint as to where your brain is hidden. If you really want an LED light? Either have the LED as a dummy light (i.e. not connected to your alarm, and is just running off of the normal power and connected to a switch), or run the wire around the car so that it'll take a while for the thief to trace your alarm brain using LED wire.

We all know that no alarm is invincible. But the alarm unit is only as good as the install.