[Marty McFly]

i was thinking about this today...

when i bought my truck and i was sitting with the finance manager, he asked me if i wanted the factory alarm. he said that all the trucks that come onto the lot alredy have them on and activated. he said that they have a engine kill switch type of thing on it and it prevents the from being stolen.

he said if i wanted it on, it would "only" raise my payment by $5 a month. i laughed and said NO THANKS! he looked suprised, and asked why. i said that comes out to be about $500 for a alarm.. i can get lo-jack for that, which im not going to do either... if someone takes it, i dont want it back!

he said ok, we will deactivate it.

well, i was thinking about this today, and after i left the managers office, i got my keys and left. he didnt tell anyone shit about the alarm.

so that either means 1) he wanted to screw me, and it never had a alarm in the 1st place, 2), the alarm is there and i didnt pay for it, or 3) they dont activate them untill you agree to buy it.

another think i was thinking about is, there is a chip in the key.. so if you dont have the key, you cant start it anyway.. right?

so, do any of you have a factoy alarm? i have a blinking light on the dash, but when i lock the doors, my horn doesnt honk, or nothing beeps.

 

[Oldone]

What's the name of your dealer,want to be sure i never stop there!! The factory antitheft comes on almost all the Tcomas as standard and they can,t be turned on or off.

 

[cdaniel76]

All you have is Keyless Entry if it does not beep when u lock and unlock. And it really sounds like he was trying to pull one over on you. The alarms don't have to be "Activated". An alarm is either instaled or not installed. There is no deactivating an alarm.

Hope you at least got a good deal.

i was thinking about this today...

when i bought my truck and i was sitting with the finance manager, he asked me if i wanted the factory alarm. he said that all the trucks that come onto the lot alredy have them on and activated. he said that they have a engine kill switch type of thing on it and it prevents the from being stolen.

he said if i wanted it on, it would "only" raise my payment by $5 a month. i laughed and said NO THANKS! he looked suprised, and asked why. i said that comes out to be about $500 for a alarm.. i can get lo-jack for that, which im not going to do either... if someone takes it, i dont want it back!

he said ok, we will deactivate it.

well, i was thinking about this today, and after i left the managers office, i got my keys and left. he didnt tell anyone shit about the alarm.

so that either means 1) he wanted to screw me, and it never had a alarm in the 1st place, 2), the alarm is there and i didnt pay for it, or 3) they dont activate them untill you agree to buy it.

another think i was thinking about is, there is a chip in the key.. so if you dont have the key, you cant start it anyway.. right?

so, do any of you have a factoy alarm? i have a blinking light on the dash, but when i lock the doors, my horn doesnt honk, or nothing beeps.

 

[Marty McFly]

i got it at edmonds toyota in westminster CA.

overall, they were cool, i delt with the fleet manager on the price of the truck, and he cut me a better deal than any of the other 12-13 dealerships i went to.

it was the finance guy that i thought was shady... no wonder he looked upset when i said no..LOL

 

[Count]

Marty, he was feeding you a line of shit! Those stealership guys didn't earn their shitty reputations for nothing!

Good thing you said no to his offer; otherwise you'd be shelling out more money for something your truck already has.

 

[roatan4us]

The filnance lady at Baker Toy. San Diego did the same thing to me. They are lieing. The truck has a chip in the key, won't start wilthout it. That is the Anti- Theft, I just laughed at her and said to please hurry up, I'm not buying that!. She calls some guy in and tells him to remove the alarm, and gives me this weird look, like I just stole some little kids sucker. Its just the way they get tons of money from people besides what they are making on the truck itself. If you want an alarm, you can have one installed, myself I never like those things going off all the time anyway.
Carl

 

[malikkah]

anyone know how to deactivate an alarm on a 1999 Camry with only the key? I have done it before years ago and forget how. I think it is something about using the key to lock and unlock the car...

thanks- Malikkah

 

[Pb]

Usually you turn the key from Off to RUN 5 times, real fast. Don't start the engine just turn it to RUN 5 times in 10 seconds. This is how a lot of aftermarket alarms work, but I'm not sure about the factory alarm.

 

[BlkDCabTaco]

Theres no Edmond Toyota in Westminster... Do you mean Elmore Toyota cause that dealership sucks. They make up fake things and charge 2k extra and stuff.

 

[boopie]

Yeah, they ran that same thing to me when i was in financing. It was at el cajon toy. Its a good thing I knew the alarm installer working at the dealership and when they called that guy in the finance office to take of the alarm, I had already talked to him and told him to leave it on and just tell the dealer that he already removed it. So I got a free alarm. He told me those alarms is how they rip alot of people off. Some people pay as much as 7-800 dollars on a cheap $50 alarm. Seriously he said this. He goes from dealer to dealer installing factory car alarms in the new cars that come in. He has shit loads of them lying around his house from people that didn't want the alarm.

 

[BlkDCabTaco]

Ask your friend to hook it up :clap:

 

[Marc M]

If you are actually talking about the "factory alarm", there is no way they can just pull it out.

I purchased and installed a factory alarm for my '06, and I can tell you it takes a while. The installation manual is 22 pages long, and 14 of them are actual install instructions. There is a harness that goes from one front door to the other and is snaked all through the dash. There are several chassis wire harness plugs that have to have terminals removed and other terminals installed in the molex plugs.

Unless this alarm installer at the dealership is just unplugging something to make it defunct, it was either never there or you still have it and they unplugged it.

If you want to know if you have the alarm, pull the glovebox. There should be a bracket bolted behind it with 2 black boxes. One is the alarm module, and the other is the glass break sensor with an adjustment pot on it.

There is also a monitor light to the left of the steering wheel. They may remove this and put the blank back in the dash to "remove" the alarm.

Marc

 

[Grizzly05]

I believe the alarm he was refering to as the toyota factory alarm is the VS-3200. It usually retails for 300-400 bucks, depending on the dealer. Its a system that activates when the doors or the hood are opened, and if any glass is broken. It also has its own LED light that is located in one of the spare toggle switches next to the fog light switch, which is also the location of the "microphone" in case one of windows are broken. My Taco has it. This is an option toyota offers on their website when "building" a vehicle, in case you want to look at it online.

All toyota's come with a seperate anti-theft device in the ignition that works with the chip in the key. No alarm will go off if the someone breaks in.

:locked:


I don't think I'd want my truck back after someone took it either!

But if I catch them in the act........

 

[Marc M]

I believe the alarm he was refering to as the toyota factory alarm is the VS-3200. It usually retails for 300-400 bucks, depending on the dealer. Its a system that activates when the doors or the hood are opened, and if any glass is broken. It also has its own LED light that is located in one of the spare toggle switches next to the fog light switch, which is also the location of the "microphone" in case one of windows are broken.


All toyota's come with a seperate anti-theft device in the ignition that works with the chip in the key. No alarm will go off if the someone breaks in.

Yes, I installed the VIP RS3200, but it has no hood protection....

Marc M

 

[timtsb]

my finance guy was shady too. the salesperson was very nice, very professional, went out of her way to help me. but when i went to the finance dude he kept tryin to sell me anything and everything he could. the biggest was the extended warranty. he went through the whole pitch. then when he asked if i wanted it and i said no he looked all surprised and was like "why?"...he refused to take no for an answer. he must've reminded me about everything that came with it about 3 times.

 

[cyclotron]

You know, this is similar to what the finance person did to me. It was laser etched windows with a serial number. I said no thank you to the "protection" package and she said she would have to get approval to proceed. I was very baffled what she would need approval for since it is my money and I said "no". Well, I don't know if it is standard, and this thread makes me wonder but my windows do have laser etched serial numbers on them.

Is this some sort of new tactic to get more money these days? My other two vehicles (Chevy and a Honda) I did not go through this.

--russ

 

[boopie]

I don't know what light you are guys are talking about in the blanks. I have a bright blue led light thats velcroed on the bottom side of my steering wheel. I don't remember seeing the alarm brain behind the glove box but I'll try looking again. I've been looking for the brain. I don't know bout the hood thingy but I do know my alarm has shock sensors that are set on low, cause I made it go off kicking a tire.

 

[msibille]

You know, this is similar to what the finance person did to me. It was laser etched windows with a serial number. I said no thank you to the "protection" package and she said she would have to get approval to proceed. I was very baffled what she would need approval for since it is my money and I said "no". Well, I don't know if it is standard, and this thread makes me wonder but my windows do have laser etched serial numbers on them.

Is this some sort of new tactic to get more money these days? My other two vehicles (Chevy and a Honda) I did not go through this.

--russ

If it's the same as what they were selling w/ my wife's new Honda Ody, its a "window etch registration" that they sell. And I agree with you, it's way overpriced.
In this scheme, a "registration number" (not your VIN) but which is only x-referenced to your vehicle by this "registration" is etched into the bottom corner of each pc of glass.

Years ago, you could have the VIN etched in each window. The theory being that once the glass is removed, the police could still identify them as coming from your vehicle. I had even bought and used the "kit" for about $10 back in 1994.

However, as brought up before- either my vehicle is recovered soon, before any significant damage from joy riding or slicing it up, or I don't really care if a window they find is from my vehicle. OTOH, some insurance companies do provide a discount if you have window etching.

It was already etched on the windows, with the little stickers applied to each when we bought the vehicle, but I did not pay for the registration. Since the number is not the VIN, it doesn't provide much value if the SafeGuard (or whatever company) doesn't maintain the listing.
I gave some thought to copying down the numbers into my file I keep at home.

I'd say, if your ins. co. gives you a discount for it, search to find a company that makes the kits and DIY. It was very easy if you carefully followed the instructions. You order the kit by sending in your VIN and payment. When you receive it you clean the lower corner of each glass, apply a stick on masks that are a little smaller than your VIN plate on your dash. Then you apply a hydrofluoric acid gel to each. After some time, you peel off the masks and toss, clean the glass, and you're done.

 

[redtoytaco]

The factory alarm RS-3200 is not a quick removal or install. They need to gain access deep in the dash cavity to remove it. What the dealer has been selling at least the dealer I got my truck is a aftermarket alarm. It is a KARR brand alarm http://www.karrsecurity.com/auto.htm. When the dealer install this alarm when they receive the car/truck their liability insurance goes down alot. When I took delivery of my truck I declined the alarm they where selling since my truck already comes with the factory alarm. They remove the brain, shock and valet/light from the truck but my factory alarm still works. I still have the instructions for the aftermarket alarm.

 

[Marc M]

I don't know what light you are guys are talking about in the blanks. I have a bright blue led light thats velcroed on the bottom side of my steering wheel. I don't remember seeing the alarm brain behind the glove box but I'll try looking again. I've been looking for the brain. I don't know bout the hood thingy but I do know my alarm has shock sensors that are set on low, cause I made it go off kicking a tire.

This is not a factory alarm system, but a dealer installed aftermarket option.

Marc M