Hi I have recently got a new car and one of the pre-requisite for insurance cover is a Cat5 or S5 tracker being installed and subscription is on. The car already has an old Cat 5 installed however when I called to activate was advised it would be £300 per year. Was told that this was because it was an old model and if I wanted to reduce the cost I would have to install a new tracker which has a cheap subscription. As I hate the notion of regular subscription, I have looked for one off payment style as I intend the keep the car for at least 3-4 years. Hence I have come across tracker called SmarTrack s% which supplied, fit and lifetime of ownership is about £1k i.e. equivalent to old 3 year cost with the added advantage of being able to use on mobile device. So questions are 1. thoughts on the tracker or suggestions of others 2. other trackers that offer lifetime style tracker 3. recommended installer in the East London / Essex catchment area with older style ferrari i.e. 2007 Thanks
I had the same when I first purchased my 360 recently. I already had a tracker fitted to my Range Rover sport with MetaTrak. I added another tracker on my 360 too on my same account. The MetaTrak I opted for was cat 6 so more than was required and cost £360 fitted including first years subscription. Thereafter it’s just over £100 a year so not too bad at all. Nice app on the phone too to give you lots of info .
I have just been sticking with the factory installed navtrak but it's very expensive, this option of £360 then £100 per year sounds great and I'll install on future cars
Just a quick update. For insurance purposes I needed a Cat 5/S5 tracker and as I intend to keep the car for at least 4-5 years I went for Smartrack S5 tracker. Reason was installation was £500 and lifetime sub was £499 vs £300 per year for Navtrak vs Metatrak (£700 including 3 year sub but another £400 for 3 years at renewal).Hence I went for the overall cheapest cost of ownership i.e. £1k. Obviously if I don't keep the car for 4 years then Metatrak would be the better cost option but rather plan for the worse case scenario. On a side note, from my research Metatrak seems to have the best app support if you are interested in knowing more about details of the car.
I have looked at alternatives for the NavTrak ADR10 fitted to my 2020 Portofino. The NavTrak is an ‘old’ product (NavTrak was bought by Cobra in 2007 and Cobra was bought by Vodafone in 2014) and Vodafone charge a premium of more than £100 p.a. compared to other monitoring services associated with more advanced trackers. Although the Vodafone monitoring service works reasonably well (a few ‘false alarms’ but at least that demonstrates the system is being monitored), I have had no success in contacting Vodafone customer service by telephone. There are many Thatcham S5 approved alternatives and, if I had a choice, I would choose one that added VHF location monitoring to the GMS (mobile telephone) technology. Some, such as the Tracker S5 Plus, also offer a ‘mesh’ network but that relies on other Tracker users being in the vicinity. These newer alternatives also charge a lot less than Vodafone for their monitoring services. They also have mobile phone and/or web based interfaces that the ADR10 lacks. Unfortunately, my Ferrari dealer has informed me that the warranty on the electrical system of my car would be invalidated if I change the tracker because someone would have to connect it to the wiring loom. Has anyone referred Vodafone’s control over this market to the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority)? Unfortunately, I don’t think the CMA would have much sympathy with Ferrari owners so we shall probably just have to ‘suck it up’ if we want to preserve a warranty.
Not sure where you are but I have never had a problem contacting NavTrack / Cobra / Vodaphone Automotive over the last 20 years. If you are in the UK try 0870 011 0224
