Home > Consumer Reviews > Bulldog Deluxe 500 Two-Way Remote Starter with LCD Remote

Its the first time I am installing an autostart, that too on my 1984 VW Rabbit GTI. Since there are no adaptors for such an old vehicle, I had to splice all the wires and manually install everything, but thanks to their fairly well written installation manual, it was all done successfully.

I gave it only 4 stars, because the range is nothing like what they advertise. My building is just 400 feet away and it still has difficulty, like if I face towards the direction of the car with the remote antenna pointing towards it, it works, but if I simply turn around pointing the other direction, it does not. Inside building is totally out of question. I have no tested it, but I sincerely doubt their half a mile range even if you are in an open field pointing it towards the car.

I callled tech support to ensure if I mounted the antenna right and there is no problem there. I do not also have tinted glass to cause a reduction in range.

Tech support was reached very promptly and they answered my questions.

This remote starter worked well for three weeks. Then the keychain remote went haywire. Attempts to contact tech support using the phone numbers provided repeatedly failed. There is no e-mail address for contact. The web site for ordering new remote is down for construction. Bottom line is the product is probably a good product; the company deserves thumbs down for their tech support (or lack thereof).

I received this item as an x-mas gift, and have been attempting to install for well over three weeks. The install instructions, DVD, and parts are fairly comprehensive. I had a problem where I would remote start the vehicle, then when I went to open the door to enter the vehicle, it stalls and dies. Several calls to customer service later, no one can explain the neccessity for the door trigger wire, nor can they explain it's proper function. In addition, the unit will not hold programming, and the remote start function is hit or miss. I also noticed today that the keyless entry feature is no longer functional. After several promises by tech support to have a "supervisor" call me back, I got a response from them. They issued an RMA to "inspect the unit" for me. Of course I have to pay to ship it to them, and they have no ETA on when I will receive the unit back.

One other note on "customer service". Of the six times I called, I only got one person that was willing to listen and try and help. Everyone else said "reset to factory defaults and call back if it's still not working". They would tell me this even after explaining that I had reset to defaults multiple times already.

It's an attractive product at an attractive price, but I would only purchase it if you were just wanting to gamble before dropping the $$'s on a quality unit.

UPDATE 1/11/2008:

After having this for over a year, it's held up. I did finally get the company to ship me a new unit. After installing the new unit, it's worked great. I minor design issues still, but the unit has served well the past year. I'm still not sure it was worth the pain of the installation.

We have had the worst experience with our Bulldog brand starter. Our car has been in the shop for almost 2 weeks! An adaptor was needed, it came broken, the reorder took days, it still would not work due to a broken transponder, the replacement took more days to arrive! Then to find out the printed instructions from Bulldog were wrong. We are now awaiting a needed part to replace the transponder that we found didn't need in the first place. The shop I am working with to install this nightmare product is frustrated with the lack of accuracte, contradictorary information it has received from the Bulldog people.

This was supposed to be a Christmas gift. I am now stuck with no gift for my husband. I am stuck with a "remote starter" that is 3/4 installed and still waiting and still without a car!! If I knew how much of a problem Bulldog and their products would have been, I never would have used them.

Don't attempt to install unless you have prior experience with electrical systems. After spending several hours trying to figure out the installation I gave up and went to Cry Toys. They had it installed in a couple of hours w/o any problems. Works very well in my F250 Superduty (w/Diesel). There is a defect in the design of the remote that makes it break easily away from the key ring. Mine lasted less than a month and I am having a difficult time locating a replacement at a reasonable price.