Toad Ai606 - Review
5 posts • Page 1 of 1
Toad Ai606 - Review
by lucasdemoley on Sun Jun 11, 2006 1:47 am
Toad Ai606 Cat1 alarm review
Today I had an alarm finaly installed in my car after many breakins to hopefuly scare away the little chives! I've had a clifford alarm (concept 300) in another fiesta a while back so I have something to compare my new alarm against, even if it is a dated design.
The Instaler
The company that installed the alarm is called PureSounds and I found them through ebay. I sent a few requests for fitting in Reading with duel shock sensors, duel microwave and tilt and motion to a range of companies, and this company replied way faster than the others, and came back around £50 cheaper too. A few emails went backwards and forwards, concerining the costs of different items (such as door motors at £25 a side and extra relays for £10 each) and to organise a date for fitting, which was 2 weeks after my initial enquiry.
The man who came to fit the alarm rang an hour before arival, and again on arival (student halls so I wouldnt have seen him arriving). He was a friendly chap who was 27, and we did have a bit of a banter for about an hour as he was fitting the alram, about his modified RX7 and similar things. As I was bored and due to having speaker pods on my doors, I removed these items and the door cards for him, so he could get access to the door motors as my central locking wasnt working. He did recomend replacing the motor with one from a scrapy, but I wanted a system that worked no!
I ended up giving him a hand with the removal of a few items, and as I know my way around a fiesta,I removed the door motors to show him that they could be linked to theyr replacement motors, which he didnt think they could as he though (and ive read this a few places) that the ford locks were wire controled, but that didnt prove a problem in this case. His drill also died (wasnt the battery) so I let him use mine that I have at uni for some reason.
I left him to it for a few hours, and when i came back he told me He had to replace the pasanger motor too in the end as it wouldnt comunicate with the new one he put in on the other side. No probs. I dont have a boot unlock motor, and told him that im planning to change the boot on my car, so he didnt put one in, but he laid all the cables for me ready for it to be hooked up, which was nice of him!
One problem that did happen though was that he had left the extra sensors I had requested at home, which he was really appologetic about, but as he is always up and down the m4 anyway, he said he would pop by next week to instal the other bits an pices, which would be a fairly quick job.
When he had finished the instalation of the alarm, he went through a clear runthrough of the alarms features and the usualy kinda things that they go through when you have an alarm fitted. He got me to fill out some forms, and what things I should quote to the company if I have any problems. They give a 1 year warranty.
The alarm
The alarm itself is quite cool. Although he forgot the extra sensors, the ones that come with the alarm are good enough anyway to protect the car from most attacks. I had headlight activation from the keyfob installed, although initialy I wanted this also conected to the alarm, he couldnt do it as the alarm had a + output, and the one from the fob a - so it was either or. I had the horn conected to the alram when it activated, which I would really recomend to anyone having the alarm fitted, as it makes people pay far more attention to the car when its all going off. The indicators also flash when the alarm goes off.
This alarm has the normal features of most alarms, such as anti hijack, which basicly locks the doors when your driving, panic which sets the alarm off from the keyfob, turn off the interior sensors and other "standard" alarm functions, although these functions are far easier to use than my old clifford, which required entering of codes for different modes, which can get very confusing.
One feature I like about this alarm is its auto arm feature. My old alarm didnt have this. Basicly, if you walk away from the car with the doors closed after roughtly 15 seconds ( i think) the alarm automaticaly arms itself. It doesnt lock the doors but this is a realy handy feature at say petrolstations and alike. I pretty much never lock my car at home, so I love this feature! If you say left the keys in the car it would set the alram off, but you can atleast get them from the car. It also has an imobaliser so even if you say leave your doors open for a while, the alarm wont sound when you get in the car, but the ignition wont turn on stopping people driving off. These are all easily deactivated by the key fob.
My clifford alarm had to have a big unsightly ariel thing mounted on the windscreen which this alarm doesnt have which, although makes for a tidyer instalation, I does mean that you have to be fairly close to the car to use the key fob, and this is really the only thing I dont like about the alarm. Also, Im not sure why but I feel that my car is alot better protected with this toad alarm than my old clifford, even though they are both cat1 rated alarms.
The Costs
Ok. Finding this alarm on ebay saves alot of money. Basic instalation starts at £225 which is a steal. With the sensors I had wanted the price would have risen to £310, plus the £25 for each door motor plus the extra relays for the lights and horn at £10 each. Normaly there is a charge for fitting outside of their zone of roughly £30, although I was close enough not to have to pay this.
As he had forgotten the sensors, he told me he wouldnt charge me for one of the relays as a kind of appology, so the cost came to £285. I will pay him for the other sensors when he fits them next week, which he will arange through e-mail.
Conclusion
For the price this alarm is one of the best, especialy for the piece of mind it gives. I would fully recomend having the horn attached to the alram, and when I asked him to do this, he said that he would add that feature to the alarm on his RX7 as it makes so much sence to have. The installer and the company are pretty good, and although his drill died, I'm sure he would have got around the problem.
This alarm is pee's all over my old clifford, and I would recomend it to anyone who is after an alarm.
As for instalers, have a look on ebay for people who instal these alarms and ask for a quote from a few companies. This comapny is no longer registerd with ebay, but do have a website, although instalation prices on there are £300 for a basic instalation and up, so best looking rough ebay.
As with the Insurance review I did, I hope this helps a few people out if they are undecided about what alarm to get.
I have tried to write this in a similar fasion to the other one, but its late and I'm I'll so if ive missed any features that people know this alarm has, or if there are any bits that I have done wrong, let me know and I'll edit the post. I'll do an update when the other features are instaled im my car aswell.
Today I had an alarm finaly installed in my car after many breakins to hopefuly scare away the little chives! I've had a clifford alarm (concept 300) in another fiesta a while back so I have something to compare my new alarm against, even if it is a dated design.
The Instaler
The company that installed the alarm is called PureSounds and I found them through ebay. I sent a few requests for fitting in Reading with duel shock sensors, duel microwave and tilt and motion to a range of companies, and this company replied way faster than the others, and came back around £50 cheaper too. A few emails went backwards and forwards, concerining the costs of different items (such as door motors at £25 a side and extra relays for £10 each) and to organise a date for fitting, which was 2 weeks after my initial enquiry.
The man who came to fit the alarm rang an hour before arival, and again on arival (student halls so I wouldnt have seen him arriving). He was a friendly chap who was 27, and we did have a bit of a banter for about an hour as he was fitting the alram, about his modified RX7 and similar things. As I was bored and due to having speaker pods on my doors, I removed these items and the door cards for him, so he could get access to the door motors as my central locking wasnt working. He did recomend replacing the motor with one from a scrapy, but I wanted a system that worked no!
I ended up giving him a hand with the removal of a few items, and as I know my way around a fiesta,I removed the door motors to show him that they could be linked to theyr replacement motors, which he didnt think they could as he though (and ive read this a few places) that the ford locks were wire controled, but that didnt prove a problem in this case. His drill also died (wasnt the battery) so I let him use mine that I have at uni for some reason.
I left him to it for a few hours, and when i came back he told me He had to replace the pasanger motor too in the end as it wouldnt comunicate with the new one he put in on the other side. No probs. I dont have a boot unlock motor, and told him that im planning to change the boot on my car, so he didnt put one in, but he laid all the cables for me ready for it to be hooked up, which was nice of him!
One problem that did happen though was that he had left the extra sensors I had requested at home, which he was really appologetic about, but as he is always up and down the m4 anyway, he said he would pop by next week to instal the other bits an pices, which would be a fairly quick job.
When he had finished the instalation of the alarm, he went through a clear runthrough of the alarms features and the usualy kinda things that they go through when you have an alarm fitted. He got me to fill out some forms, and what things I should quote to the company if I have any problems. They give a 1 year warranty.
The alarm
The alarm itself is quite cool. Although he forgot the extra sensors, the ones that come with the alarm are good enough anyway to protect the car from most attacks. I had headlight activation from the keyfob installed, although initialy I wanted this also conected to the alarm, he couldnt do it as the alarm had a + output, and the one from the fob a - so it was either or. I had the horn conected to the alram when it activated, which I would really recomend to anyone having the alarm fitted, as it makes people pay far more attention to the car when its all going off. The indicators also flash when the alarm goes off.
This alarm has the normal features of most alarms, such as anti hijack, which basicly locks the doors when your driving, panic which sets the alarm off from the keyfob, turn off the interior sensors and other "standard" alarm functions, although these functions are far easier to use than my old clifford, which required entering of codes for different modes, which can get very confusing.
One feature I like about this alarm is its auto arm feature. My old alarm didnt have this. Basicly, if you walk away from the car with the doors closed after roughtly 15 seconds ( i think) the alarm automaticaly arms itself. It doesnt lock the doors but this is a realy handy feature at say petrolstations and alike. I pretty much never lock my car at home, so I love this feature! If you say left the keys in the car it would set the alram off, but you can atleast get them from the car. It also has an imobaliser so even if you say leave your doors open for a while, the alarm wont sound when you get in the car, but the ignition wont turn on stopping people driving off. These are all easily deactivated by the key fob.
My clifford alarm had to have a big unsightly ariel thing mounted on the windscreen which this alarm doesnt have which, although makes for a tidyer instalation, I does mean that you have to be fairly close to the car to use the key fob, and this is really the only thing I dont like about the alarm. Also, Im not sure why but I feel that my car is alot better protected with this toad alarm than my old clifford, even though they are both cat1 rated alarms.
The Costs
Ok. Finding this alarm on ebay saves alot of money. Basic instalation starts at £225 which is a steal. With the sensors I had wanted the price would have risen to £310, plus the £25 for each door motor plus the extra relays for the lights and horn at £10 each. Normaly there is a charge for fitting outside of their zone of roughly £30, although I was close enough not to have to pay this.
As he had forgotten the sensors, he told me he wouldnt charge me for one of the relays as a kind of appology, so the cost came to £285. I will pay him for the other sensors when he fits them next week, which he will arange through e-mail.
Conclusion
For the price this alarm is one of the best, especialy for the piece of mind it gives. I would fully recomend having the horn attached to the alram, and when I asked him to do this, he said that he would add that feature to the alarm on his RX7 as it makes so much sence to have. The installer and the company are pretty good, and although his drill died, I'm sure he would have got around the problem.
This alarm is pee's all over my old clifford, and I would recomend it to anyone who is after an alarm.
As for instalers, have a look on ebay for people who instal these alarms and ask for a quote from a few companies. This comapny is no longer registerd with ebay, but do have a website, although instalation prices on there are £300 for a basic instalation and up, so best looking rough ebay.
As with the Insurance review I did, I hope this helps a few people out if they are undecided about what alarm to get.
I have tried to write this in a similar fasion to the other one, but its late and I'm I'll so if ive missed any features that people know this alarm has, or if there are any bits that I have done wrong, let me know and I'll edit the post. I'll do an update when the other features are instaled im my car aswell.
Just because I keep talking about definetly doing it doesn't mean I'm actualy going to do it.
- lucasdemoley
- Elite Post Master
- Posts: 2276
- Joined: Sat May 21, 2005 8:05 pm
- Location: Aberaeron
by Tweek on Sun Jun 11, 2006 2:20 am
I have this alarm too, very easy to change settings such as auto-arm and anti-hijack. They got a bit annoying for me but simple to change should i need them back.
As for the extra sensors, they literally just plug into the alarm like your keyboard plugs into the PC so will be a very quick job indeed
As for the extra sensors, they literally just plug into the alarm like your keyboard plugs into the PC so will be a very quick job indeed
- Tweek
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Car: 1996 Ford Fiesta Zetec Turbo
by lucasdemoley on Wed Oct 11, 2006 11:56 am
OK, slight update. The alarm is cool and i'd recoment it to anyone, it has saved my wheels with the tilt sensor!
One thing i have to say though is to get it installed by a reputable installer. MIne was installed by puresounds, bath/bristol and at first i thought it was ok, but when he returned to fit my sensors, he smashed my windscreen testing the shock sensor, not great.
Whats worse is that when i removed my dash to change it, the alarm simply fell out, it hadnt been screwed in place like you would expect. The sensors (shock etc)also hadnt been atached porperly to the car, so where free to move about, and even worse was one of them didnt have the back of its plastic cover on, so basicly the circuit board inside it could easily have been damaged or shortcircuted. Also, for some reason, the shock sensor has clifford writen on it?!
When i put my battery back in after the dash install and engine change, the alarm stopped working. It did click, but wouldnt arm, and i couldnt re-arm it. I tried contacting puresounds for information, but they didnt reply to my e-mails and i didnt get an answer on the phone. IN the end i gave up and took my car to sextons, who sorted the alarm, but said that it was a real mess and that some of its features wernt working as should (they thought i'd installed it it was that bad!) and said that it should be ripped out and re-installed. I havent done this, but it makes me now realise just how shoddy it was!
Basicly, awsome alarm, puresounds shiz!
One thing i have to say though is to get it installed by a reputable installer. MIne was installed by puresounds, bath/bristol and at first i thought it was ok, but when he returned to fit my sensors, he smashed my windscreen testing the shock sensor, not great.
Whats worse is that when i removed my dash to change it, the alarm simply fell out, it hadnt been screwed in place like you would expect. The sensors (shock etc)also hadnt been atached porperly to the car, so where free to move about, and even worse was one of them didnt have the back of its plastic cover on, so basicly the circuit board inside it could easily have been damaged or shortcircuted. Also, for some reason, the shock sensor has clifford writen on it?!
When i put my battery back in after the dash install and engine change, the alarm stopped working. It did click, but wouldnt arm, and i couldnt re-arm it. I tried contacting puresounds for information, but they didnt reply to my e-mails and i didnt get an answer on the phone. IN the end i gave up and took my car to sextons, who sorted the alarm, but said that it was a real mess and that some of its features wernt working as should (they thought i'd installed it it was that bad!) and said that it should be ripped out and re-installed. I havent done this, but it makes me now realise just how shoddy it was!
Basicly, awsome alarm, puresounds shiz!
Just because I keep talking about definetly doing it doesn't mean I'm actualy going to do it.
- lucasdemoley
- Elite Post Master
- Posts: 2276
- Joined: Sat May 21, 2005 8:05 pm
- Location: Aberaeron
by wakeboardtom on Fri Oct 13, 2006 8:34 am
Good review mate, I have a TOAD alarm aswell, not sure which one though? My fave feature about mine is trhat it does up the windows when you lock up 
- wakeboardtom
- Senior Poster
- Posts: 488
- Joined: Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:33 pm
- Location: Rhyl, N wales
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