I am very close to purchasing Lojack WITH the Early Warning Detection system feature (txt, email and phone call if your car moves), but did some research and learned about the Viper SmartStart alarm. Seems like it offers similar functionality but with more control. Does anyone have any feedback on this system?

I really only care about the GPS tracking, and don't care for remote start, window/trunk control, or even the alarm system in general. I just want to be able to set the geo fence in my garage, and track my car at will. All the youtube videos I find don't really touch on the GPS notification feature.

Anyone have some first hand experience with this?

 

Hmm...the more i read about the Viper VSM250, which can be installed as a stand alone, the more I think I will get it instead of LoJack.

 

....remote start? If I get this will I have to leave it in neutral when I park? Was considering a similar purchase down the road...

 

I guess a few people do. I have absolutely no need for that. I email Viper on their Facebook page with some questions..hoping they can get me some answers. Can't find a phone number for them anywhere.

 

I once had a remote start on a manual car and I had to let the car in neutral yes.

 

I have the pager service. I think I bought the 3 year plan. When you park the car, you can use the iPhone app to lock the car and it will note where you parked it. I've had the alarm get triggered a couple of times by the mechanic shop and I would get the text message sent to my phone. I've yet to experience the usefulness of the GPS capability to locate my missing car...and I hope I won't need to but it would work when it does happen.

 

So you have the actual vsm250 module?

So the txt is an actual sms, not a message to the application, right? Do you use the lockdown feature at all? Supposedly if the car moves once put in lockdown you will be alerted.

The notifications are pretty much instant though?

 

I don't remember the exact module. I bought it a year ago. The trigger sends both a SMS and an alert within the app. The alert for the app can be set for push notification so it will play a custom sound. For the SMS, I haven't been able to make it play custom sound. Once you lock the car, whether from your physical viper car remote or the app and the alarm is triggered, you will be alerted.

It's pretty close to instant...give time for cellular activity.

You can buy the module for the basic car alarm and then this ability to send alerts without smart start and all the bell and whistles. I actually bought mine from BestBuy and the install was pretty good.