Car Alarm

Our 2001 Chrysler Sebring Sedan has a factory alarm that is nothing but a pain. No one ever bothers the car, but the alarm goes off at least once a year. It used to go off more often until we learned to walk like an Egyptian, which seems to keep the alarm gods pacified, at least most of the time. But boy, don't ever forget or they will make you regret it.

You know, if there were car thieves on the prowl, and cars were getting stolen left right and center, and there were some reason for the car alarm to go off, then maybe having car alarms would be justified. But the way it is, they are just one more reason to hate modern life. They contribute nothing but aggravation and cost a bunch of time and money.

The worst part is you can't disable them. An aftermarket alarm you can remove, but a modern factory alarm is integrated into the computer that runs the car. Pull it and nothing works. I am thinking the only way to deal with this is to:

1. Disconnect the horn, which hardly ever gets used, or
2. Run a separate, parallel horn circuit, which would be a big pain.

I think it is still possible to splice into the wiring harness and take control of the horn. Cars are still wired with separate wires for each light and switch. Time is not far off though when every electronic device in the car will have its' own microcontroller and control signals will be transmitted digitally to and from the central computer. Then you are going to be toast as far as doing any electrical work on your car unless you are willing to spend the big bucks to get the specialized test equipment necessary for this kind of work.

This kind of problem is only going to get worse in the future. Car manufacturers need to provide a method for permanent disabling non-essential features that no longer function properly. They want to be careful, because they don't want car thieves to find out how to disable the car alarm. Or so they say. I wonder if insurance companies even care if you have a car alarm or not?

I know some people are very attached to their cars and really want an alarm system protecting their precious baby. Maybe if we attached a $10K aggravation tax to car alarms, it would dissuade them from installing one. And if they installed one anyway, the $10K could be used to pay for an emergency foam truck that would be dispatched to dump a mound of sound deadening foam on the offending vehicle and protect it from theft and/or damage. Boy, what a good idea. Sometimes I even impress myself.