installers, your fav. alarm? for 97BMW M3

i'm in the market for a new alarm and something tells me that there are better alarms than the viper791xv which is reccomended to me everywhere i go.. which alarm do you prefer and why? remote start and 2-way prefered
i'd also

forgot to type the rest, here goes:)
any pointers for the installation? i notices a boat load of wires and connectors in the viper manual and i didnt like that:)

I have always been impressed with Clifford alarms. I have owned several and always impressed with the features and thought that goes into the features. Not extremely familiar with Viper so cant give a personal comparison. As far as the wires and connectors go.....more wires = more features. BMW has a lot of wires inside too but that didnt bother you did it?  =)

its my first time installing an alarm, its not that i'm not handy with wiring stuff but damn, its a lot of wiring

a newb question: when the manual says connect this to that, do i just tap into that wire or do i cut it and plug it streight to the alarm?

I would do the 791xv if I were you. The only way to learn is by doing, but I would never recommend that anyone do their first alarm install on a BMW. For example the ones I've done required certain diodes that we had to special order to get the door triggers working properly. Plus, if something is hooked up wrong, it's not cheap to fix a Beemer. Have someone with lots of experience give you a hand, or suck it up and pay someplace to professionally install it for you. That's the only way to keep the lifetime warranty on that system anyway. If you put it in yourself, you void the warranty for good. I don't know if you knew that or not. Oh, and don't let all the wires scare you, if you properly bench prep it (pre-wire), the number of wires you need to hook up get fewer. Let me know if I can be of any help if you do decide to go ahead and do it.

-------------

I would definately have to agree with Wherm on the not installing it yourself. I think its great for anyone to want to learn more about installing and installing on your own car but not if your car is a BMW. There is some crazy german wiring in those BMW's but if you want to try installing try something like an older GM. The wiring is generally pretty simple on those. Anyways to answer your original question I would recomend the audiovox 996c. I have been pro. installing for over 4 years (12 non pro.) and havent found an alarm I like better. It is very expandable, has the 2 way paging feature, is able to connect to a telematics device (tracks your car via satelite and you can control your car via computer and/or cell phone, very handy if you lock your keys in your car), easy to use, the remotes are nice looking, and the antenna is very non-obtrusive unlike the viper one that looks like it belongs on top of a TV. The only complaint I have about it is that it is a bit of a pain to program if you havent programed one before but thats not too big of a deal because you usually only do that once....when it gets installed. Hope that helps

-------------
Money is just paper
Power is fleeting
But your word is everything,
If your word means nothing,
You are nothing...think about it

if you want just an alarm go with the Clifford RS 2.5   if you want RS and Security the 3.5.......

-------------
Kevin Gerry
Certified Electronics Technician
MECP First Class Installer

Owner/Installer
Classic Car Audio
since 1979