I need an alarm, but i don't know what to look for. Can you guys explain to me what are the most important things to look for when choosing an alarm. I'm not looking to spend a lot but just enough to get whatever is needed.
The single most important thing you want is reliability. You *really* don't want it going off at odd times of the night...your neibours won't love you for that !
I prefer Toad alarms to Clifford. I've found them to be more reliable, but so long as it's installed properly any alarm can be good.
I have a Viper 790 with remote start, and have been happy with it so far (although I made the mistake of getting it at Circuit City) I would shy away from them or Best Buy or whoever because in my case, they don't carry my alarm anymore and therefore won't support it as far as the "lifetime warranty" is concerned.
If I had to do it all over again, and to give you some basic advice as I have had other "just alarms" without the remote start, in the past, you do want to stay away from the $29.99 installed specials, and with anything you pretty much get what you pay for. BUT a lot of the alarm stuff has to do more with the quality of the install along with the quality of the alarm.
If you are doing it yourself then you have more options because usually the install fee is at least 1/2 of what the alarm costs or even more. I have never heard of Toad (no offense to Paranoid) but the DEI stuff is generally pretty good from my research, or Crimestopper or Audiovox for that matter, but I would stick with brands that you know will be around for a while in case something goes wrong, a lot of them do have lifetime warranty, albeit you have to be the original purchaser and sometimes they have to be installed by an "authorized dealer" to keep the lifetime warranty promise.