Im looking for a gps traker like zoombak.com that i can either wire into the car, has good battery life (say a week) that doesn't have on going contract (PAYG sim is what im looking at for communication) that includes live vehicle tracking.

Ive seen some on ebay, but most are a case of you take the device out of trhe vehicle,charge it and download the data when really you cannot do that if the vehicle is nicked.

There are GSM car alarm pagers (which work on mobile phone technology) and are therefore constantly wired to the car.

There's the Toad Text alert which can be had for £100 on ebay. It's main use is to text you when your alarm is set off. There was a dedicated tracking service intended for these at MST Locate, Motorbike Security, Motorcycle tracking via Mobile phone, text message, VTU GPS GSM Satellite remote control. Monitor, Protect & locate your bike guard position online throughout Europe. Anti theft, anti tamper improve safety. Easy fit. but their site says they are no longer accepting new customers. It is possible there is another mobile phone tracking system that can be used in conjunction with such devices - but the only problem is it is probably not possible to send a text message from that sim as I think it is sealed inside the unit so you'd need a service which does not need a reply from the phone to be tracked. I think that some of these devices do forward incoming texts to the number it is set to alert.

Spotted this also on ebay which claims to do the same as toad text for £80 delivered GSM PAGER CAR ALARM TEXT ALERT TEXTS+CALLS, BRAND NEW on eBay, also Car Alarms Immobilisers, Security Electrical, Car Accessories, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 16-Aug-08 09:07:19 BST) but it looks like they themselves make it and there's no branding so unclear how well it would work.

Also spotted this GSM Security Alarm SMS Pager Home/House/Car/Boat/Moto on eBay, also Other, Car Alarms Security, Car Electronics, Electronics (end time 04-Sep-08 13:25:08 BST) which looks quite good but again looks like it's a device knocked together by the seller not sold elsewhere and can't find any reviews of it. Looks like the sim is user-changeable.

Data tarrifs and payg sim cards dont go together to well, especially if you want to do live tracking. The GPRS data charges for the tracking will be large, aroung £5 per MB of data transfered.

Battery life will also be an issue, because when connected to GPRS its just like making a voice call, and to this day no mobile phone has a talk time of several days.

Welcome to Child Locate website doesn't look bad. Quite poor accuracy quoted but I guess it's the same for all mobile phone tracking systems. Also needs a message sent from the tracked phone it seems.

ive seen a company who can send me a device for 135 USD about 70 quid. like the original device i looked at, you ping it with a text message and it will reply back with its long and latitude for you to enter into a mapping system.

ive seen a company who can send me a device for 135 USD about 70 quid. like the original device i looked at, you ping it with a text message and it will reply back with its long and latitude for you to enter into a mapping system.

Be very cautious with these as they aren't always that reliable. We got called to assist finding a stolen digger. The guy said he was tracking it via one of these systems, where it sent him the coordinates and he put it on a map. According to the system, his digger was on the move, but when we got to the site, it was sitting in the same place he had left it. The GPS device was still sending him text messages.

i might contact zoombak and ask them if they do a free trial. then ask what they will do them for on a group buy