I've installed a GPS tracking system

[Herbie]

I've always believed that prevention is better than cure, which is why I use a big, bright yellow, Stoplock Pro Elite steering lock on my car. Hopefully the scrotes of the world will take one look and be persuaded that they don't need the extra hassle and will move on to an easier target.

Up to now I've not bothered with a tracker for three reasons:

• Initial cost of the unit
• Ongoing cost of monitoring
• It only comes into play after the event

Although the third reason still stands and I still place more importance in prevention and deterrence, I recently heard of something that makes the first two irrelevant (for me anyway).

The Rewire Security DB2 - a real-time GPS tracking device that's an absolute doddle to fit and costs under £45 available here.

It comes with a SIM card already installed and once activated you get a short trial period, after which it costs £5/month. Unfortunately, 'buying in bulk' doesn't result in a discount, with pricing being £15 for 3 months, £30 for 6 months, £45 for 9 months or £60 for 12 months.

Given the low cost of the unit and the SIM you won't be surprised to learn that there is no central monitoring station or police interaction with this system, but it does give real-time tracking on your smartphone with apps for Android and also apple, and there's also website monitoring too. All the screendumps below have been taken from the website rather than my phone, just for the sake of clarity.

You can set various alerts, such as a virtual ring fence, so that if the car moves out of a predefined zone your phone will start going crazy. Other alerts can be set, such as when the ignition is switched on, when there's movement, when the car Battery gets low, when the device backup Battery gets low and a few others too.

If you have the misfortune to have your car stolen you can watch on the map in real time and call the police to tell them where it is, where it's heading, what speed it's doing and so on.

It's very, very easy to install with just two wires, a positive and a negative. The company advocate just sticking it to the top of the Battery but if you feel you want to hide it somewhere more secure then you can, just as long as you give it a permanent 12V supply and you must mount it horizontally with the labels facing upwards. This is so that the GPS antenna can get a good signal. It has an internal 3A fuse for safety, which I didn't know about, so I installed a fuse carrier on the positive wire and put a 5A fuse in but you can learn from my ignorance and you don't have to do that.

Ironically, since installing it I haven't used the car much so I haven't got lots of data to show you but the screendumps below will give you an idea. I have to say that I know there are much better tracking systems out there but, given the price of this unit and the monthly cost of the SIM, I am well impressed with it.

N.B. If anyone does get one of these there's one thing to beware of and that is receiving alerts by text message or SMS. You can set the system to send you email alerts and you get an allowance of 150/month free of charge. The system will also send 'Push Notifications' to your phone, again free of charge. However, you have to pay for SMS messages and if you don't set up your alerts correctly you can use them at one hell of a rate of knots and they're not cheap.