Okay, what *should* it cost me for an alarm system?
 

I want alarm, keyless entry, that's about it. A good alarm, not cheap, but also without bells and whistles that I don't need.

I hear the actuators in the doors are a PITA on the FD.

What should I expect to dish out?

-E

p.s. Move me mods if this goes in some other sections (Interior?)

I paid my local alarm shop 500 to install everything...it's a clifford alarm with keyless entry.

Don't need alarm. All they do is tell you that your car was stolen. Just get remote entry. :D

my brother just installed a Clifford alarm. He bought the model second from the top as far as being the best Clifford alarms has to offer. It cost him just over $400. The top of the line model runs about $600. I would stay far away from Viper alarms since they are kind of out dated. The one my brother bought is really cool. It has keyless entry, the ususal ignition switch cut-off, but it also has some thing where if the person that was stealing it tried to pust-start the car seeing that it was a stick the alarm doesn't allow them to do so. It also has a special chip inside where the system cannot be short-circuited, and if the head unit was disabled it would cut out the entire system all together unlike most older alarms where it the thief was to find the brain of the alarm all he had to do is rip it out and the alarm would not work after that. Another really cool feature is that they mount two small sensors (little microphones) to the windshield. Since some theifs are getting high tech when it comes to stealing cars, the sensors will pick up even the highest frequency sounds. Some thiefs will use a glass cutter and then tap out the loose glass using the special plastic stuff inside of a spark plug to punch out the loose glass. Supposedly it makes absolutely no sound when they use that. But the sensor will pick up the high frequency sound of the glass being cut. The alarm will also go off if any windows, or doors were to be opened, or if there was any sudden impact or movement to the car. I think this is probably one of the best out right now. I want to install the same system on my car. You should be able to find it at Al & Ed's stereo if you have them in you state. If not probably any high quality car audio place should have them. My brother also has the club on his car and the autolock thing (that thing that goes over the brake pedal) so someone would really have to spend alot of time on his car and want it really bad to try and steal it. Hope this helped. good luck!

I put in a Viper 800 with most of the "bells and whistles." When getting the alarm, I suggest that you worry more about how the install is done, rather than the type of alarm you get. I had all the parts that I bought from a friend brand new, and I went around getting prices for the install. The quotes ranged from about $200 to about $700 for the install alone. The $200 install pretty much wired everything and stuck the brain by the underside of the steering column (pretty much makes the alarm useless). The $700 quote was from Al & Ed's and they actually remove the dash and place the brain behind the gauge cluster. I ended up going to privately owned stereo shops and they did a very high quality install (same quaility if not better than what A&E would have done) for about $450. The price was so high because I included the trunk popper, windows up/down, sunroof open/close, backup batt, piezo siren, and prox sensor. I was going to get remote start, but too many liability issues for the shop---it would have been pretty cool to auto start that thing though.