Do Car Trackers Come With An App?
Applications are one of those software items that we never knew we needed until we discovered we could not do without them. More familiarly known as ‘apps’ they run on any electronic gadget but are mostly used for mobile applications. Today our smartphones are littered with them; some great, some helpful and some absolutely pointless.
Automotive apps are popular and many car owners now use them to find parking spaces, petrol and electric vehicle services. Vehicle tracking devices are also increasingly used by car owners these days in the fight against car theft, so do car trackers come with an app?
Types Of Car Crime
Car theft has been big business for the criminal fraternity, almost it seems since the dawn of the automobile. Car manufacturers and insurance companies have been at the forefront of vehicle security measures in an effort to combat car crime and every year improvements are made, from the more straightforward steering wheel lock to cars with keyless entry.
Although the taking of cars for joyriding seems to have faded, crooks still target cars for their contents, their parts and, of course, for stealing the car as a whole.
Prestige cars are especially popular and are often stolen to order and shipped abroad, hidden in containers. That’s why, increasingly, GPS car trackers are required for insurance purposes. In today’s modern world, given the value of cars, it’s clear that professionally fitting a vehicle tracking device to locate and retrieve in the event of theft makes absolute sense to protect the investment. Fitting one may also help mitigate the pain of insurance premiums.
GPS car trackers are amazingly small and discreet. Properly installed by an approved technician, they can be hardwired into the vehicle electrics. They are almost invisible and hard to spot, even by experienced car thieves.
Do Car Trackers Come With An App?
Almost all car trackers come with an app these days. It just makes sense as owners can keep an electronic eye on their property at all times. This is useful as owners can see where their vehicle is at any given moment (and in some instances, what speed it is doing!), especially if it is loaned out to another, shall we say, younger, family member.
For example, the good value ScorpionTrack S7 ALS offers GPS tracking down to the nearest ten metres, has tow-away and tamper alerts, is approved by insurance companies and crucially has an app available in both IOS and Android; an important distinction for all users. This is also the ideal device to protect caravans and even agricultural machinery, which are also vulnerable to attack.
As well as the ability to track and trace a stolen vehicle in real time, a car tracker app may well have other features which, for instance in the case of business or fleet users, can show route history, mileage travelled and instances of speeding. A car tracking app will even help find your vehicle in a busy car park. Can you imagine? No more dragging tired children around searching for your car in a gigantic multi-storey car park. There’s a thought. A car tracker app also allows tracker account management and direct contact with the device’s security operations centre.
Does A Car Tracker Need A Subscription?
Most do come with an annual subscription, the payment of which funds a 24/7 monitoring service which means that if a car is stolen it can be tracked from the outset and the police informed. This means that there’s a much better chance of recovering the vehicle in a timely fashion.
For Jaguar owners an ideal car tracker might be the Trackstar S5 Advance (indeed the legendary brand recommends them). This unit offers the additional security of an ID tag system whereby even if the keys are physically stolen, without the ID tag the car still will not start and is monitored night and day by a security operations centre. With such benefits, a subscription based option is probably the best idea.
It is possible to buy a car tracker that does not require a subscription but it becomes the owner’s sole responsibility in the case of vehicle theft, monitoring the vehicle via an app. The issue here is that if the car is stolen while you sleep it could be many hours before the theft is discovered in which time professional thieves may have already stripped the car.
That’s why it’s a good idea to use a tracker that comes with an app like the Meta Trak Pulsar unit. It comes with a built-in three year subscription in the price so it’s one upfront payment and the car is watched over for three years which, typically, is when owners change their vehicles. It’s battery-operated too which means no hard-wiring into the car’s electrics.
Seek Advice
There’s a whole host of car tracking devices on the market right now and the list grows all the time. From small budget units to high-powered high-technology Thatcham certified GPS trackers, there’s sure to be the right model to suit. So the first port of call needs to be a trusted supplier who can advise owners on the best car tracker for their vehicle and whether or not an annual subscription is required and of course the need for an app. Free fitting is also a bonus.
With the advent of smartphones and them now being an integral part of our lives in the same way that we would never leave our home without our keys, wallets and purses, applications have become such a big part of our lives. A car tracking app just makes life easier when it comes to vehicle ownership. From a simple AirTag to find lost keys to a tracking device with global coverage that can locate a stolen car even if it is in a metal container seemingly blocking GPS signals, there will be, as the cliché says, an app for that.
