The best vehicle security system on 2 x CAN bus, LIN bus and ADC bus with PIN code: no pin, no start, and the best cheap car immobiliser alternative

Every car sold here for decades has carried a factory immobiliser. It works. The trouble is what it checks: that a recognised key is present. Relay attacks, key cloning and diagnostic port programming all pass that check. The factory system is not beaten in those thefts. It is satisfied.

So a second layer has to sit outside the conversation between key and car. A PIN code immobiliser does that. It watches the vehicle’s own network for a sequence of button presses the owner chooses, and holds engine start blocked until it sees them. No key satisfies it.

Here is where most aftermarket units run into trouble. A modern vehicle is not one bus. There is a powertrain network carrying engine and transmission traffic, and a body or comfort network carrying doors, stalks, seats and steering wheel controls. A gateway module sits between them and filters what crosses. A single channel unit can only see one side of that gateway. If the buttons you want to use for the PIN live on the comfort side and the start authority lives on the powertrain side, one channel leaves you stuck.

What the fitted price actually buys

The module is the cheap part. You are paying for firmware matched to your make, model and year rather than something generic, wiring soldered and sleeved into the loom instead of crimped onto it, the unit concealed somewhere that takes trim removal to reach, and every factory function tested before we leave. Valet mode is set up and explained so you can hand the car to a garage without handing over your security.

The CAN-IMMO holds no GPS, no 4G and no camera. If you want tracking and live cameras in the same unit, that is the LockCar One Plus at £699, or something from the 4G dashcam range.

If you fit security for a living, the problem with most CAN based immobilisers is stock risk. You buy a part number, it covers one bus, and a third of the vehicles that come through the door turn out to be unsupported. The unit sits on the shelf until the firmware is outdated.

Two CAN channels, LIN and an ADC input change that arithmetic. One part number covers a much wider slice of what actually rolls in, from a keyless hatchback to a 24V tipper. The units are reprogrammable, so a job that falls through does not write off the stock. And because the interface is chosen at programming time, you are not committing to an approach before you have the vehicle in front of you.

LockCAR provides support. If you hit a gateway that will not cooperate, tell us the model and we will look at it. That is worth more on a difficult afternoon than any datasheet.

Every CAN-IMMO can be fitted where the car already is, which for most customers means a driveway, a work car park or an industrial estate. Most installations take a few hours, depending on how much trim has to come apart to route the wiring out of sight.

Our engineers are based in the West Midlands, so the shortest lead times are local. If you want fitting details and timings for the city itself, that is on the car immobiliser Birmingham page, with the same information for Sutton Coldfield and Walsall on their own pages. Elsewhere in the UK, send your postcode with the registration and we will tell you honestly what the travel looks like before you commit.

Two practical notes. Have both keys available on the day, because the unit is tested against them. And if your battery is already marginal, say so when you book, since the car sits on ignition for part of the job and we will bring a support unit.