Hey guys, I didn't realized that the Clubman did not come with an alarm system and you have to option for it. This is stupid. While I was at the dealership I asked them the cost.. 790 bucks. 250 for the alarm, the rest is work. The service guy that was there tells me a tale of 4-5 hours of work, opening numerous compartments to have things wired. So, if I do the math correctly, 790-250=540. He is charging me about 110 dollar and hour of work. WTF. I don't think doctors even make that much. Now is this true that this is a really time consuming process?

Fast forward to me going in to talk to my sales guy about this. The sales guy next to him says, OMG don't do that crap, go third party! It will save you so much money. Good tip. But now I'm currious. Will a third party alarm system work just as well? Can it be integrated with my keyfob or do I have to carry another key chain thingie? And lastly, which brand do you guys recommend?

Thanks,
- Cow

 

The labor rate at my dealership is 112/hr pretty standard with all of the overhead a dealership/service bay has to run and equipment it has to own and still pay its trained people. I thought after 2009 the cars were not even prewired anymore to add the alarm at the dealership.

A 3rd party alarm in a MINI is a pain and IMO not worth it. This has been discussed a few times and the general consensus is it is a tone of work and you still need a 2nd fob. Can I ask why you want an alarm?

 

Just for protection for my mini. That and I think you do save on car insurance.

Are you saying we don't really need the car alarm??

 

I was told by me MA that all an alarm does is warn that you window was smashed and they got in your car. They can't start it to drive off due to the engine immobilizer built in. So you really don't need one. Save your money for extra rims and don't leave stuff in the open. Add a blinking red LED to the dash it usually helps!

 

I am not really a huge fan of alarms. I had one on my last truck and it as great to have 2-way paging and 1 mile ranger as well as remote start. Unfortunatly the key chip repeater to start the truck took a crap and wackled my truck out. I removed the alarm and rewired it back up to stock and the truck still did not want to start, it went into theft protect mode and I had to do a long sequence just to start the truck. I had the alarm totally removed at this point but the issues that happened took out one of the body control modules on my truck. I traded it in within a week of the incident as it was no longer reliable and too costly to diagnose and fix on my own.

While a rare occurrence I am sure I will never have another 3rd part alarm or remote start on my cars, ever. With the complexity of a MINI over my Ford truck I would never imagine the cost and pain to install an alarm.

 

Wow I'm so sorry to hear that. I will never have a remote start car. As for the alarm thing. I'm not getting it due to the presence of immobilizer.