[cbsteh]

How would you rank, from the most to least important, the following car security features:

1. Car alarm (open any door, car horn blares)

2. Steering wheel lock (difficult to steer the car)

3. Gear lock (cannot engage gear)

4. Brake/clutch lock (cannot use brake)

5. Motion/pressure change sensor (detects movement inside car or when car window is smashed)

6. Tilt alarm (tow the car, car horn blares)

7. Tyre wheel clamp (like those clamps at malls when you park your car illegally)

8. Tyre lug lock (prevent your sports rim from being stolen)

9. GPS tracking device (gives out your car position, so it easier to track and recover your stolen car)

10. Security window tint (difficult to break window)

11. Car hood/bonnet lock (cannot open hood/bonnet without key)

12. Steering column lock (prevents the car ignition from being yanked out)

13. Car immobilizer (cannot start car without the proper signal from key)

14. Kill switch (car engine cannot start without turning on the hidden switch)

15. Keyless doors (car doors open only electronically; no keys, nothing to lock pick)

16. Keyless ignition (no keys to start car engine. Start engine by entering code or by fingerprint)

17. Deadlock (doors only open on the side they were closed: for example, door is locked from the outside, so door can only be opened from outside. This prevents a thief smashing the car window and unlocking the car door from the inside. The thief has to climb through the window to get in and climb out the same way to get out.)

18. Detachable steering wheels (steering wheels can be removed easily by owner, so thief must have spare steering wheel at hand to drive away your car)

19. Unplugging car relay/fuel fuse (no fuse, car cannot start)

That's all I can think of at the moment. Considering your budget and practicality of a car security feature, please rank the above list from the most important (a feature you must have) to the least important (either not very important to you or not practical for everyday use).

For me, the list of importance is as follows:

1. Car alarm (although people generally ignore car alarms nowadays, I still think thieves do not like the attention or the loud noise while they work to compromise your car security)
2. GPS tracking device (better chance to recover stolen car)
3. Kill switch (cheap, yet effective, but must hide switch but yet keep it accessible for everyday use)
4. Gear lock (I heard little about gear locks being compromised, not as much as steering wheel and brake/clutch locks)
5. Car bonnet/hood lock (lock out the car internals from thieves)
6. Steering column lock (50% private cars are stolen in Malaysia via hot-wiring. Unfortunately, steering column locks are unavailable in Malaysia and, even if they are, they must be customised to type of car model -- no one size fits all)
7. Keyless ignition
8. Car immobilizer
9. Tilt alarm (10% of private cars stolen in Malaysia are via towing)
10. Deadlock (unfortunately, AFAIK not available as a generic installation for any car)
11. Security window tint (only to prevent hijacking and smash-and-grab, or to reduce injury in nasty accidents)
12. Steering wheel lock (only as a visual deterrent -- pick the car next to mine that doesn't have a steering lock, ok?)

The following are features I would like to use only when I am planning to leave my car parked for a long time.
13. Pulling out relay/fuel fuse
14. Tyre wheel clamp

The following are features that are nice to have but I would not lose sleep if I don't have it:
15. Motion/pressure change sensor
16. Brake/clutch lock
17. Tyre lock lug

The following I do not find practical:
18. Detachable steering wheel
19. Keyless doors

So, this is my list of preference, what's yours?

P.S.
Please add security features which you think is essential but it is not listed here, but please keep it serious. Don't give like "put fierce dog in car" or "hire security guard to sit inside car 24/7/365".

Yes, I am also aware for a particular security feature (like steering wheel lock), there can be huge differences between the quality of Brand X vs. Brand Y. But this list is about your preference between the various security features, such as which is more important to you: steering wheel lock vs. brake/clutch lock, and so on.

Chris