What brands to stay away from?

I know everyone will say something different but what brand of alarms and remote starters just plain suck? DEI stuff has always worked well from me. Id say stay away from the off brand things sold on ebay bt what other brands? Aftermarket Generation stuff is ok IMO.

Pretty much what you said. If you buy some no-name thing on eBay or at a flea market, and you run into a problem, people on the forums aren't going to be familiar enough with the unit to help you. Also, you'll have a hard time when you go to buy a spare remote. Pretty much all the brand-name, popular stuff seems to be good these days. I'm not a big fan of DEI, mainly because of their pricing, and the outboard relay pack for the remote starters. (But some installers prefer outboard relays.) I like Audiovox for their good pricing, and reasonably installer-friendly product. The installation manual is terrible and full of errors, though. I would also avoid the stuff you get at discount stores----Bulldog and Designtech. They aren't "junk" as some people say----that's unfair. But you generally get only one remote, limited range, and limited extra inputs/outputs, and the brand-name product only costs slightly more.

Ive found DEI is almost cheaper than any other brand, at least for me. DesignTech is made by DEI too IIRC.

DEI is imo the most exspensive option out there. And as Chris said the outboard relays are not will liked by most including me. I also second the notion on the bulldog/designtach stuff although owned by dei I doubt the quality margins have changed, just the marketing....

Anyone in here carry both DEI and Astrostart(sp?) products? If so, how are they compare w/ each other?Houston,TX

"The two most common elements in the universe are H+ and stupidity" (Ellison).

Name brand is the only way to go.. E bay and a lot of online stuff really isn't what it's cracked up to be. In all reality you get what you pay for. If you spent 30k on your vehicle, why put a 89.00 remote starter in it. I prefer Astro to DEI stuff, but DEI I havn't had much trouble with in the past. Stay away from the stuff a walmart and sams club. Anything that has a big sticker that says REMOTE CAR STARTER on it.   And yeah, even though DEI owns everyone now, some of the design tech and other stuff isn't manufactured by DEI [as far as I know] and their quality is still down in the pits, as far as I'm concerned...Tire Proz Stillwater Mn

High End Restyling and Comlete Repair

too bad, astroflex is being acquired by DEI now. hopefully, astroflex will be well-known product.Houston,TX

"The two most common elements in the universe are H+ and stupidity" (Ellison).

profuse007 wrote: too bad, astroflex is being acquired by DEI now. hopefully, astroflex will be well-known product.

I saw that, DEI seems to be taking over the alarm and RS world.