good afternoon everybody,

so i am in the market to purchase an alarm system for my '09 wrx. i've been doing a little bit of research and it seems that the consensus is that Viper/Clifford is the benchmark for alarm systems and just about every shop that i've spoken to only deals with that company. Having said that, their alarm systems are a bit out of my price range.

i'm looking into getting a system that has both an alarm system as well as a remote start (not really a necessity, though) with a 2 way system. the viper 5701 seems to match my needs but costs $480.

for just a 2 way security system, without remote start, i'm looking at $300 for the viper responder 350. price is reasonable, but on the viper website, reviewers have only given it 2 out of 5 stars (from 27 reviews). anybody have any feed back on this system?

Another company that is really intriguing me, but i can't seem to find much info on them, is zenesis. their zn-502as system sounds/looks awesome and import image is currently selling them for $320. it's basically got everything i could want: 2 way system, remote start, keyless entry, built in turbo timer, dual shock sensor, and the list goes on...

they seem to be a fairly new company and from reading off their website, they claim "Every product from ZEC under goes a rigid 5-point quality assurance inspection before it is ever put into a box. ZEC believes that higher quality with innovative technologies and modern design is key to its success. Quality is never sacrificed, while product value is always prioritized."

sounds too good to be true right?

i did a quick search on the company and found a review from isti.com, but the review was actually removed because the company had such great customer service and that he had actually received a faulty unit. however, the initial review didn't seem to be a positive one lol.

further more, there don't seem to be any licensed dealers for zenesis in the area, so i would most likely have to purchase a unit and have it installed somewhere. does anybody have any shops that they could refer me to? i spoke with aaron from audio image in belmont (a very knowledgable guy) and he told me that subarus (or possibly just my 3g) has very complicated wiring and would probably take 5 hours to install the system. (5 hours @ $85/hr labor = more than i would be spending on the actual system lol)

anyways, thanks for taking the time to read this novella that i just wrote out. here are the links to all of the models that i wrote about:

viper 5701: http://www.viper.com/P-5202V/Viper-5...e-Start-System

viper responder 350: http://www.viper.com/P-3305V/Viper-R...ecurity-System

zenesis zn-502as: http://www.zenesisalarms.com/zn502.htm

 

Spend the extra cash on a good insurance policy instead.

 

from what I've heard, viper and clifford is the same thing, owned by the same company. for me, I use the clifford matrix 50.5 alarm w/ autostart and it works great. saves me the money of buying turbo timer too. I bought my alarm for about $200 and installation was $90, but because I wanted autostart and it required a bypass system, so it totaled at $200 for install, so $400 total for my alarm setup, but I think it was worth it because I'm not paranoid anymore about people robbing my car since it happened to my friend of mine. and to be honest, you don't need a $400 alarm because the $200 does basically the same thing, it's just a older model but detects just as good, but it's your preference.

but what cyyeo says is true too, spend money on good insurance policy just in case.

 

I use the Clifford matrix, no complaints from me.

 

Check out Compustar alarms.

 

http://www.hookedontronics.com/show_...18&brandtype=0

 

http://www.autopageusa.com/t_inside....6-415b69298e0d

got this on my suby( with hella supertones ) and a good insurance policy also protected by a .45

 

I got mine from here too except I got the 50.5x, 50.7 was too expensive