Aftermarket Alarms

[BigP335I]

I was wondering if anyone here has aftermarket alarms installed? I was advised by my local shop tha aftermarkets could possibly void my warranty and I got confirmation from my local dealership.....so I wanted to get some comments from personal experience, i.e. did you have issues after you got the alarm and if BMW actually did void your warranty? I'm looking to get the viper 5900 w/remote start since my car did not come with the standard oem alarm. thx in advance

[SocratesBMW]

Why waste your money on an alarm? They don't do anything and no one pays attention to them anymore. Your car has LoJack and an alarm isn't going to prevent a broken window.

[mryakan]

I wouldn't recommend it. With the fancy electronics on this car, you could be opening up a bottomless can of worms. Either get the one the dealer offers, or better yet get none. I had the dealer installed one on my old e36 and can't say I miss it (the alarm). It drained my battery couple of times while I was on long vacation, and only ever heard the siren when I intentionally hit the panic button just for no good reason.
Actually, the only thing it may have helped with, is finding the car in a busy parking lot by hitting the panic button, but granted your typical parking lots don't have tons of BMWs around, it is hardly worth the price for that reason.