Been tossing this around for the XLT. I would like to hear everyones opinions on both. I was thinking about getting the frod remote start only for the truck, then found out one of our christmas gifts could be the compustar with remote start and alarm. I don't know much about either, but I know someone that has had compustar on a couple of vehicles they have owned. They seem very nice, but I don't think he had the pats system in his vehicles. I saw that you might have to have another key programmed & installed in the truck somewhere, is this still the case? And if so is this a potential problem?

The one plus I can see for the ford system is that it might be included in the vehicles warranty if done at the dealer.

Any info anyone could give me would be appreciated.

 

I have the Compustar alarm, starter installed on my 2004 f150 as well as my wifes 2004 Escape. The compustar has a much longer range for sending and recieving signals. As well the new version of the Alarm has a vibrating option for the key FOB.

The only bad thing i can say about the compustars is they seem to be a little tempermental. Over the last year both vehicles have been back to the install shop for tweaking due to parts coming loose, and remote start not working. Allthough these problems could be the result of not so good installers, i doubt it.

The benifit of the ford system is that no matter what, ford will fix it and be responsible for it.

The thing that sold me on the compustars was the paging remote, and the distance that it worked, upto 5000 feet or so.

I would recommend the compustar, but get it installed by a reputable shop, the bigger the better, for warrenty issues.

Hope this helps
Trev

 

I have a compustar as well. I love it...it has the strength to penetrate through buildings, and the distance is great. They quoted mine 3000 feet though. The 2 way reciever is awesome because it will page back to you when your truck is started. I have a 2000 F-150 screw. The bad I have noticed is that yes they have to burn a key and place it under your hood. It is attached to two metal clips and if it comes loose...sometimes your truck will try to start three times and not. This is a quick fix I think. It happend to me and it just fixed itself. The only other bad thing I heard was my buddy, Knew a guy who sold one to him for cheap. And he got all the options for it. It it was going off all the time. But he didn't know how to use it really, (Is what I heard). At least go with a 2 way remote starter. Because I'm sure if you were in the movie theater and u thought your truck was warming up for 10 min and when you got there it was freezing cold...well that would suck. It cost me 700 cdn.

 

I also have the new Compustar unit. With the new ones you DO NOT need to lose a key in the process, but they do need two keys to feed the code into the CPU. The range is excellent, and I like the 2-way feature telling me the truck started.

 

I agree with the features of the compustar compared to the ford system, there is no comparison. The compustar has way more nice features. I guess what I was worried about was the extra key deal. So for the '04 as long as we would be using the newest compustar unit ths will not be a issue?

 

All they do is copy your chip to one in another key. The copied key will not fit in your ignition. They place it under the hood somewhere. The keys are expensive....I guess thats why the price for them are to.

 

So what are the cost differences between the two remote starting systems? Also, how hard is it to locate a dealer to install the compustar?

axe124