I was just wondering people's opinion on the factory car alarm. Is it worth the 200+ odd dollars or should I just decline the option and buy a custom alarm system?

 

I happen to like it.
I do not have a lot of exposure to after market systems, but I think for the 200 smackers it seems to be more than adequate.

 

I happen to ditch parts of mine and added a Clifford alarm. I'm satisfied with what i got now.

 

I've had aftermarket alarms in the past. For $200.00 this is a pretty good system since it has the motion detection. I paid over $800.00 for a similar system, however, the nice thing with that is it had a pager system to let me know when and what was happening to my car. I don't plan on swapping out the system. If I did I would never had planned on paying for it in the first place.

 

I have found aftermarket alarms to be a pain (IMHO), so I opted for factory. And first of all, if I'm paying for insurance, what do I realy need with an alarm that no one pays attention to away.

 

This might be in the manual - just discovered this weekend it is 'smarter' that I thought.
If the trunk lid is down but not latched, when you set the alarm the lights will NOT flash and it will beep twice quickly to let you know.

Also - was washing the car - so I put the windows up before I started by using the windows feature (key in lock, turn hold to right - windows cycle up. But this ALSO sets the alarm).

So I was finishing washing and needed my absorber out of the trunk, popped it, eased the lid down but didn't latch it. Ended up going into the house and 15 minutes later or so, the alarm starts sounding. I'm figuring it goes off after a while if the system is set and the trunk isn't latched again in a certain amount of time.

 

I can't tell if my alarm even does anything. Once I saw someone checking out my car and when they looked in the windows, the lights flashed. But the alarm never went off or anything like that.

 

I used a floor jack to lift mine and as I did the alarm sounded. I realized I still had it on. Good alarm for the price.

 

For the dollars involved, it's gunna be pretty hard for aftermarket to compete with the alarm offered on the Mustang. I've had several aftermarket alarms and when they got a few years old, they were a PITA.