DirectStart Opinions

Does anyone have any experience with DirectStart products from Trilogix? I have been using their bypass kits for a while now and I was wondering about the quality of their alarms & Remote starters. I seem willing to sell to someone with a part time business like myself, unlike some of the other companies. Most of my stuff is currently coming from Ebay, the prices aren't that bad but I think I could get better deals if I were buying direct from the company. Since this is currently a part-time thing ,companies like Code-Alarm, Omega & Crimestopper won't even answer my inquiries. If you know of any other companies that have a good product and are willing to deal with a low volume dealer please let me know. After doing alarms & remote starters for the past few years (mostly family ,friends & referrals) with minimal problems and no vehicle damage, I am considering taking on a larger volume of work, if I do I would look into liabilty insurance, just in case. Could anyone let me know what I may expect to pay for that coverage?

-------------
Ed

Stay away from the directstart units. Bypasskit.com bypass modules are fine but the starters are crap. I installed a bunch of them and thought I was having good success with them and then all of a sudden I had half of them come back with a max operating range of 20 feet. There is nothing worse than range problems.

I found a local dealer for Ultrastart units and thought they were good, but now I have a few units that just stopped working and i am having warranty issues since the units are no longer in production. I will likely still install Ultrastart units since I can get them cheap, but I would prefer to only install Astrostart units. I have never had a problem with Astrostart units and only one transmitter warranty issue (I had one button go bad on a 2205).

Insurance is not too exspensive, but it only covers the vehicle while the car is in the shop.

Good Luck

Thanks for the advise. I never heard anything good or bad about DirectStart and was just curious. I have installed Ultrastart units before and have had good luck with them. I usually use them for manual transmission vehicles.

As for the insurance, well i've been lucky and never had a problem, but if I do take on  a larger volume of work, well........ you just never know. There's always that one time.

-------------
Ed

I ordered 2 of the Directstart units about a year and a half ago. I don't know if they have changed since then. I installed one in a buddy's car that I work with. Still works fine to this day. He gets about 500-700 feet of range. The other system I put in another friend's mother 's car. She said she liked it when I first put it in. I never heard any complaints since then. I have no idea on what kind of range she is receiving.

The remotes feel durable and seem to give decent range. The programming of the units is very awkward. The units seem to also lack a lot of options that are needed on more recent cars. Overall, they aren't bad for the cheap price. Would I want to use them everyday...no. For cheaper units try to find a way to get Ultrastart or maybe even ArcticStart. ArcticStart are very similar to Compustar units which I have had good success with.