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True story, I live in the DC slums. Well all of DC is a slum but I live in the slummiest part of the DC slums.Up until recently, I drove a beat up car that looked crappy but ran great. When I moved to the DC slums (secure parking spot FTW!), I really didn't believe anyone would actually break into my car thinking I had anything of value in there. Alas, they did.
Lucky for me, around the same time hoodrats plundered my hooptie ride, the factory alarm on said hooptie ride had long since crapped out and one morning, was stuck in armed mode. I had to tow my car to a mechanic to disable the alarm (which killed the engine, meaning I couldn't start my car and it howled the entire way to the mechanic from the back of the tow truck) and there happened to be a guy who specializes in these alarms in the same strip as the mechanic. I set up an appointment to have the alarm installed within days.
I knew I wanted the "pager Viper" as I'd read about it somewhere but the alarm guy specifically ordered this one and I'm glad he did. He is familiar with hoodrats so he knew exactly which model I needed. I did not get remote start installed at that time but have since bought a new car the system was easy for him to remove from my old car but will be SUPER complicated for him to install in my new one (a 2011) so PLEASE go to someone who is familiar with Viper alarms to install yours and will be getting it put in that one. You can also wire this thing to open the trunk (I never go in mine so that's not a feature I require) apparently.
As others have said, I sleep well at night seeing this system's soothing blue light blinking from inside my car in the parking lot from my apartment window. A few times, I've been in the store and the pager has alerted me to some kind of nonsense going on near my car. It also alerted me to the fact that this trashy chick who always parks next to me was hitting my car with her door every time she opened it; I didn't mind as much on the old car but now that I have a new one with a fat car note, I'm not about to sit here and let trashy broads hit my car with theirs. The Viper 5901 scares the crap out of reckless hoodrats and helps me feel better about my decision to live in the worst part of one of America's worst cities. That kind of confidence is priceless. Plus it looks cool and I feel like a bad mofo sliding out to the parking lot getting chirped at by my vehicle. Come on, it's sexy.
Highly recommended.
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this security system has given me a lot of restful nights. I dont have to worry about my vehicle getting broken into anymore. I highly recommend this system and amazon has the best price anywhere.Honest reviews on Viper 5901 Full Feature Car Alarm With Remote Start And 2-Way Pager
You can't go wrong with viper. I got this put in after they stole my rims off of my car. I purchased the 5901 along with the 508d(proximity sensor), tilt sensor, and the back up rechargeable siren. It works excellent.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Viper 5901 Full Feature Car Alarm With Remote Start And 2-Way Pager
This product has the potential to be a great unit. There is however several factors that pre-dispose this product to be a consumer nightmare!The manufacturer of this product "Directed" is a huge company and probably one of the most well known for car security systems and remote starters. This should bode well for their products and support. There is one big problem, The company Directed wants NOTHING to do with actually supporting their product and expects you to seek assistance from your local authorized reseller/dealer.
This can be a problem if and when you happen to have a vehicle that the authorized reseller/dealer does not have much experience with.
I own a 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee and went to my local reseller/installer. I picked out this unit and had them install it. The job, as I was initially told would take 3 hours. Six hours into the install, they drove me home and said the car would be there all day. I got the call to pick up the call 8 hours after I dropped it off. They told me they had to get special wiring diagrams, but were finally finished and I could take it home. Not 2 days later the unit completely died. The car starter would not work. I took the car back, which the dealer said was odd but infact the unit was dead. They replaced the unit and returned my car after about 4 hours. The car worked well for 2 days, with the exception of my wife notificing that the car's cruise control no longer worked. The shop said that the problem had to be independant of their install because they do not tap into the cars cruise control wires. I had a hard time believing this, but told them I would pay attention and if it keeps up the problem I was going to bring it back in. I did not have to wait long because the next day the whole unit stopped working, exactly the same as the first unit. Dropped the car off again, and again the technician said the unit was dead. They installed the third unit and were confident my streak of bad luck has ended. They also said they tested the cruise control and it was working. I picked up the unit and tested it out. I realized the problem with the cruise control was infact not fixed, but was able to determine that whenever the vehicle was started with the remote start the cruise control did not work. When the car was started with the key, then the cruise control works fine. I tested this out three times each (key starts, and remote starts) on my way home from the shop. When I got home I called the shop again, to tell him that the cruise control was not fixed but I had narrowed it down to only not working when the car was started with remote start. The technician was stumped and said he would look into it, and call around to other shops to see if anyone knew why this was happening.
Well today the remote start unit DIED AGAIN! I called the Jeep dealership and they offered to take the car in and fix the wiring problem (they believed from the explination of the problems, that the units were never the problem, that the technician just had wired them into the car's control units incorrectly). They however wanted $99 for diagnostics, and then estimated 2hrs of work to fix. I explained this to the authorized Directed shop and they wanted to put yet a 4th unit in the car, and said their technician has over 15 yrs of installation, and it could not be his fault. Luckily I purchsed the 5yr warrantee on the unit, and the shop offers lifetime installation warrantee. The only problem is that if I keep going back, I will inevitably be in there every few days getting a new unit installed because they refuse to believe their technicians are at fault for a bad wiring job.
The product itself seems high quality. The actual manufacturer refuses to even address this issue, and refers me back to the authorized reseller. For a company to outright refuse to assist a consumer of their product is horrible. There is obviously a problem with their "authorized resellers" and thus I need to go above them to get my money back (which they refuse to give back any of the installation labor costs).
If you get a good shop that knows what their doing, then I feel comfortable the actual product will be solid. Just cross your fingers and hope, because the manufacturer will NOT SUPPORT YOU.
*UPDATE 02/27/2012 2 years+ with the unit*
I just wanted to update the review to let everyone know how the unit has been holding up.
After the authorized dealer called in their general manager, who correctly diagnosed the previous installation jobs as the problem; he personally installed a new system. The issue is that the 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee does not utilize their standard wiring harnesses, and requires special wiring. Most importantly the wiring needs to have a series of resistors which mimic the cars natural system (this is what was causing the cruise control to fail the car resistance was off, and thought the break pedal was depressed; thus cruise didnt work). So after the install, and now in our car for quite awhile, the system has been working great.
The system is solid, you can trust that. The authorized installers would be my biggest concern buying this product again. I've since had to take the Jeep into the dealership to fix a bad ignition system (which the authorized installed refuse to believe is their fault). The Jeep dealership took me back into the shop, to show me the wiring of the remote starter. I cannot express in words how horrible the job looked. They had wires everywhere, and the connections were only taped closed. I ended up paying Jeep to re-wire the whole unit. I got a chance to see the before & after wiring job, and most definately can say the Dealership has much more workmanship. I also have not had a single issue with the unit since.
