CarLock is a real-time car tracking and alert system. After installing the small device in your car, you can track many actions from your smartphone, including when your car is moved or started, how it’s driven, and if your battery is low. You can also track where it goes via GPS. Read on for our CarLock review:
What CarLock can do:
Why do you need all this info? Let’s say you’re on a road trip with your family and your car is parked in a questionable parking lot, or outside a restaurant in an unfamiliar city. Using the CarLock app means you’ll get an instant alert in the rare case your car is stolen or someone tampers with it. I like this feature because we park our car at hotel parking lots often, sometimes in park-and-fly situations in which we’re halfway around the world while it sits there. I like the idea that I can keep tabs on it.
It can also help you avoid getting stranded while traveling due to a drained battery, and if someone does take your car, you can see your car’s location via GPS. Issues like this are unlikely, of course, but if you’ve ever parked your car in a big parking lot or on a city street then forgotten where it was, the GPS tracking could come in handy for that, too!
CarLock can also monitor driving, giving a rating for safety on each drive based on any sudden stops, quick acceleration, etc. Normally, this kind of big brother action would not be something we’d do, but we happen to have two teenage drivers in our family. It’s been useful to track their driving in order to give them feedback when we’re not with them in the car. I’m not personally a fan of tracking the GPS when a family member is driving (so far, we’ve gotten by on old-fashioned trust), but you could certainly track your teen’s GPS location (or at least the car’s) if you wanted to.
How CarLock is installed:
It’s so easy! First, you activate your account with the code that comes with your CarLock. Then you’ll be able to log into your CarLock account from the CarLock app. Next plug your CarLock device into your car. It goes in the same way a car WiFi device does: with a OBD (on-board diagnostics connector) that goes under the dashboard (near the driver’s knees under the steering wheel).
After you’ve installed the device, make sure you’re logged in to your account and take the car on a short drive to test out the GPS tracking. You should see your car’s route on your GPS map on the app. It’s that easy!
Using CarLock on a road trip:
We decided to try CarLock during a short road trip to Portland. I wanted to know how often the app would alert me (hopefully not so much that it became annoying!) and I wanted to see what driving rating I’d be given. I’d happy to say I did pretty well, though it did record a quick stop I had to make when we ran into traffic. I had the CarLock monitoring when we parked the car at night, and so far have never gotten any alerts that it’s been tampered with, as I expected I would not.
Buying your own CarLock:
The CarLock device works with any car made after 1996, and is really easy to set up. So is it worth it? I think so, if you have a need to monitor drivers OR if you take your car on lots of trips where you want to make sure it’s safe while parked. I like it mostly for the latter.
CarLock is usually $99 but on sale for $59 on Amazon. It comes with a 30 day trial subscription to the app, so you can test it for a month and return it if it’s not for you. After that, buying a monthly subscription is just over $9.
