Blackvue, Security Tints and Alarm

[Cognosc]

A bit of background first...

My car is parked out on a street which is quite busty during certain parts of the day as our house is opposite an infant school.

My previous two cars have both been hit on this street. My PUG 306 got hit by what looked like a lorry reversing into it causing moderate damage and then I'm pretty sure my new foreign neighbours hit my Bora v5 on the rear while attempting to park causing minor scuff damage (a mark on their car seemed to match). Of course, in both cases no note was left.

Last Friday my next door neighbour was caught bumping into the rear of my 2003 Octavia vRS by my wife. She ran out an confronted him but he just looked blankly at her (unsure if he speaks English) and carried on attempting to park - which made her nervous and she couldn't watch any more. At the time she checked my car and it looked aright but when I checked it the following day, on the other side of the car is a slight scuff mark (not as bad as the Bora one).

He obviously can't seem to park. And by looking at their car (a 2003 Toyota) their is loads of scuff marks all round it - so they obviously don't give a damn about their car.

My car...

I've only had my car a little over a month. It cost me 3.2K. It has tinted windows which look more tinted than when built at Skoda.

Future thinking....

I'm thinking of installing two Backvue's (camera's with parking mode sensors) into both the front and rear of the car to catch any such damage caused in the future on video. These will cost £300 (for two non-GPS versions) or £350 (for one GPS version and one non-GPS version).

Now, call me paranoid, but leaving that in a car without an alarm (despite having the tints which will make them a bit less visible) makes me nervous of theft, so I was also considering security tinted windows to protect them, which seems they will cost me around: £250.

Finally I was thinking of an alarm to sound if the car's hit so I can check for any idiots who can't park. I was looking into this a while back and if I remember rightly, the one I was looking at was around £200.

I was going to get all this done when I got the car until my Insurance company (Admiral) refused to offer a discount for the extra security - apparently this is all classed as a "modification". But now, in hindsight, if I had it all done I would have the evidence I need to confront the neighbours with confidence (I don't like confrontation as I'm afraid I'd "lose it"!).

Opinions wanted!

Is this overboard for a 3k car?

This is the first car I have had which I truly love and am looking after it by doing work on it myself and detailing etc. I'm really spending a lot of time and money keeping her up together.

It has made me mad that the neighbours haven't even apologised so I just want to make sure next time I have the evidence - and right - to go round screaming at them (or to get the police involved).

Would appreciate your thoughts on this matter.

Thanks in advance.

[Raf_]

£200 for an alam that goes off if the car's hit?? Get a cheapo one and set the sensitivity to max, i had one of these My link and any knock would set it off as would some noisy exhausts. Was better than the £200 toad alarm i had fitted to my privious car as unless you knocked it really hard where it was fitted, it wouldn't go off

[Cognosc]

That would be perfect, thanks very much Raf.

[Cognosc]

Just been out to take some photos of the side of their car which I think hit mine to show you why his parking makes me nervous...

[Raf_]

That would be perfect, thanks very much Raf.

No probs m8 if its the rear that gets hit the most fit it underneath the boot floor that way its certain to go off when tapped. Just needs two wires to go to a permanent live

[jrw]

Can't you put the £800 towards having a driveway built?

[Cognosc]

Can't you put the £800 towards having a driveway built?

That's a good point and something I never even considered, but thinking about it, I think the car would poke out a little over the pavement.

The back would be more of a possibility if it hadn't just had a make-over using wedding present money! So that's a big no there.

Thanks for the suggestion though!