Security
Thatcham S7 trackers
£449
Vehicle security
Everyday GPS trackers
An everyday GPS tracker tells you where your car is, where it has been and when it moves. It is not a Thatcham category, so if an insurer has asked you to fit a tracker, the S7 is the one to read about instead.
Price £349
What it is, and what it is not
This is a concealed GPS unit wired into the vehicle's own supply, reporting its position to an app and a web platform you log into. It gives you live location, a history of where the car has been, alerts when it moves or the ignition is switched on, and zones you draw on a map that tell you when the car enters or leaves them.
What it is not is a Thatcham-certified product. Thatcham tests and certifies tracking equipment to named categories — S5 and S7 — and insurers who ask for a tracker almost always name one of those categories rather than a brand. This unit is not certified to either of them, and fitting it will not satisfy a policy that asks for one. We would rather say that on the page than after you have paid.
That distinction is the whole reason this product exists alongside the others. It answers a different question. The Thatcham products answer "my insurer requires a tracker"; this one answers "I want to know where my car is". Both are real questions and they have different right answers.
Who it suits
Drivers who want visibility rather than compliance. Nobody has told them to fit a tracker; they want to know where the car is, see where it has been, and be told when it moves at a time it should not be moving.
It is also the sensible starting point if you run two or three vehicles for work and want them on one screen without the per-fleet quoting that a larger operation needs. If you run more than that, our fleet tracking page is the better fit and it is priced on the fleet rather than per vehicle.
It suits people who already have an immobiliser, too. An immobiliser stops the car being driven away and a tracker tells you where it went — they solve different halves of the same problem, and plenty of cars end up with both.
If your insurer has named a category, this is not the product. Send us what they wrote and we will tell you whether the S7 or the S5 is what they mean.
How we fit it
The unit is wired into the vehicle's own loom rather than hung off a 12V socket, and it goes somewhere concealed. Where exactly is deliberately not something we publish — a tracker in the first place a thief looks is not doing very much.
Before you leave we set the app up on your phone, draw a first geofence with you, and check the unit is reporting its position properly on your own car rather than simply confirming that a box has been fitted somewhere.
The work is done by an IMI-approved technician trained by The OBD Company, on dealer-level tools rather than a generic cable.
The work happens at our own unit rather than on a driveway. Getting into a car's wiring properly is workshop work, and doing it at the kerbside is how you end up with a warning light nobody can explain three weeks later.
What's included
- GPS tracking unit, concealed and wired into the vehicle's own supply
- Live location and journey history
- Movement and ignition alerts
- Geofence zones with entry and exit alerts
- App and web platform, set up before you leave
- First year's monitoring subscription
Why us for this
We fit and support the same tracking platforms we use for the Thatcham-certified products, so this is not a cheaper unit from a different supplier bolted on to widen the range. It is the same installer, the same workshop and the same platform, without the certification you are not being asked for.
We will tell you when you do not need this. If you send a registration and a policy document and the policy names a category, we will point you at the S7 rather than sell you this and let you find out at renewal.
The monitoring subscription has to stay live for the tracking to work at all. The first year is included in the price, and you can pre-pay a second or third year when the unit is fitted — the options and what they cost are on our security page.
What you pay
£349 fitted, with the first year's monitoring included.
Remote immobilisation can be added for £150, which lets the platform stop the car being restarted once it has been switched off. Adding No Fob No Start on top of that is the fullest version of this setup, and the security page prices every combination as you pick it.
What moves the figure is the vehicle rather than the day. Some cars take longer to get into properly and a few need a different unit. If yours is one of them we will say so when you send the registration, not once it is on the ramp.
Common questions
Will this satisfy my insurer?
No, and you should assume not. Insurers that require a tracker name a Thatcham category, usually S7 or S5, and this unit is not certified to either. If you have been asked to fit a tracker, read our Thatcham S7 page instead, and check your policy for the category yours names.
What is the difference between this and the S7?
The S7 is certified by Thatcham and monitored around the clock by a centre that can support a police recovery. This is a tracker you monitor yourself through an app. The hardware is similar; the certification, the monitoring and the price are not.
Do I have to keep paying after the first year?
Yes. The tracking runs on a subscription and it has to stay live for the unit to report anything. The first year is included in the fitting price, and you can pre-pay a second or third year at the time of fitting.
Can it stop the car being stolen?
Not on its own — it tells you where the car is, it does not stop it moving. If you want the car stopped rather than found, that is an immobiliser, and remote immobilisation can be added to this for £150. Our Ghost immobiliser page covers the other approach.
Where does the tracker go?
Concealed, and wired into the car's own loom. We do not publish the locations we use, for the obvious reason.
Can you move it to my next car?
Usually yes. It is a refit and a re-registration on the platform rather than a new system, so it costs less than starting again. Tell us when you change the car.
Other services on this side
Next step
Let's get you a price
Tell us what you drive and what you want done to it. We will come back with a price for your car, not a range off a chart.