warrantys and stuff

njdawg · Jul 4th, 2003, 09:44 AM

I am a newbie but love the board already. Great info everywhere.

Quick scenario for you all.

As a new owner of an Altima I wish to add a security system to my financed car. I was thinking of going to a "professional" place like Best Buy or Circuit City, where they do many, many installs a week (just like I did with my last car and what most of my friends did with no problem). The sales manager says the dealer service center should be the only place I buy one (anybody heard of "Auto-mate" brand for $275) and pay for installation!

The salesman says the basic "warranties don't cover that" spiel. (Has anybody heard of an epidemic of cars freaking out because of an alarm installation done by somebody other than a dealer? I know getting "uncle walter" or the mailman's neighbor to hook it up is risky but some of these alarm places do dozens a week! They have their technique down pat.)

And tells me that since the key has a chip, there is no real chance of theft and I should not even worry. When I ask him about the evil people who load cars on flatbeds when you are in a movie, ballpark or mall, he mentions Lo-Jack over and over.

To be totally honest, it is my car. I will be financing the thing for 5 years and an noisy obnoxious alarm will make me feel just a tad bit better when I park it in a public place . The fact they make noise if you tap them slightly might cause a good samaratin to take down a license plate from some careless driver who bumped my car or perhaps somebody has a handle on the chip key situation and the alarm is just loud and slow things down enough to give a bad guy pause. I don't know but I think I would like it more guarded.

When I brought up the idea of buying an aftermarket original Nissan Fog light kit and installing it myself (not a professional), the manager guy was cool with it, yet he gives me crap about going elsewhere for my alarm. Yet his boss wants their dealership to install an Automate (non-original Nissan parts) alarm in my car and says nothing detrimental about the warranty in regards to it. Who is full of sh*t here?

Anybody have any takes on this?
Anybody recommend a decent alarm which has a good compatibility with a 2003 Altima?

altima25s · Jul 22nd, 2003, 09:28 AM

I have the 2002 altima25s and soon as i got the car(which is financed) i went and for 3 things done to it, 1-had an alarm installed, 2- had my amp installed and 3-had the box hooked up to alarm and all done at a local car and radio place that installs hundreds a week as well as ya local best buy or circuit city. I wouldn't advise going to those places(dept store) where as kids are always hired with this "knowledge" of electrical wiring, which take it from me, isn't a good thing when u get electrical problems due to the fact that it is very costly. I take my car to the dealership from which i bought it and have yet to hear any bad news regarding my warrenty and the non-nissan installed extras. Hell i even took it to nissan and had them install a non factory spoiler on my car with brake light hook up. They had no problems with it and it didnt alter my warrenty. Dealers just want more & more $$$ and will sell water to a well if they could. It's your car. Do as you please, after all, if god forbid it got repossesed, do you think they wouldn't take it back with all modifications and jack up the price due to?