Alarm scam from dealer: Is this normal?

[NewVersaDriver]

Hi all:

I just picked up a 2009 Versa 4-door manual hatchback, and experienced a rather interesting sales gimmic at the close of the deal. After a final price had been agreed to, and after I showed up to pick up the vehicle with a completed cashier's check, I was told that the dealer had installed a special additional alarm in the car. This was said to be above and beyond the factory alarm, adding such features as engine and fuel cutoff, and vehicle contact alarms. I was told that if I wanted the alarm to be functional, I had to pay an additional $750. I balked, and the salesman made a change of some sort beneath the dash to disable the alarm. They said that if I wanted to pay at a later date that they could enable it then. This sounds like blatent bullshit to me. Has anyone heard of this before? Does anyone know if that alarm would have come from the factory? I'm guessing it shouldn't be to hard to figure out a hack to enable it. Thanks for taking the time to respond. Ron

[Ferrari TR]

At a real NISSAN dealer?
Some brokers do this sort of thing.
i'd talk to my local tv stations consumer reporter about this BS. I'd think about getting a car that wasn't tampered with.

[nissandoc]

in my area these were called prolocks and they are total bullshit. no its not factory installed. in fact i would demand that the dealer remove this because they are junk and will eventually cause the car not to start.

[Flashfox]

Originally Posted by NewVersaDriver

Hi all:

I just picked up a 2009 Versa 4-door manual hatchback, and experienced a rather interesting sales gimmic at the close of the deal. After a final price had been agreed to, and after I showed up to pick up the vehicle with a completed cashier's check, I was told that the dealer had installed a special additional alarm in the car. This was said to be above and beyond the factory alarm, adding such features as engine and fuel cutoff, and vehicle contact alarms. I was told that if I wanted the alarm to be functional, I had to pay an additional $750. I balked, and the salesman made a change of some sort beneath the dash to disable the alarm. They said that if I wanted to pay at a later date that they could enable it then. This sounds like blatent bullshit to me. Has anyone heard of this before? Does anyone know if that alarm would have come from the factory? I'm guessing it shouldn't be to hard to figure out a hack to enable it. Thanks for taking the time to respond. Ron

I just bought a 2009 Versa SL for my wife and we did take the alarm. Talking to Geico (our insurance company), they told me that it did qualify for a discount. As for the alarm itself (by "KARR ALARM"), the main reason behind our decision is that if our car was stolen and they can't recover it within 30 days, then we will be reimbursed the difference between what the GAP Insurance covers (I hope you took that!) and the replacement value of the car. This was a better deal that Lo Jack. I checked around and it is legit. Back in 2007, I bought my Altima and opted for Lo Jack in place. This time, I did my homework and chose the alarm in place.

By the way, you are right in that if you decide not to take the alarm then they do disable it. That process is imple... they key is that at that time you can't register it so you don't have the coverage in case the car is stolen.

They install it in their cars and push the sale at the right time. It's up to us consumers to understand what this is all about. As you know, they push many other options at signing time... like "lifetime polish", "Scotch guard coating", extended maintenance, extended warranty, etc. You do know that they make money off this. But it's not new. It's been around for quite a while. CAVEAT EMPTOR