Immobilisers5 min read
Ghost immobiliser vs CAN Phantom: which should you fit?
They do the same job in the same way, and cost the same fitted. Here is what actually separates the two, without the sales pitch.
By Kaine Carter
These are the two immobilisers we fit most, and customers almost always arrive having read that one of them is the definitive answer. In practice the gap between them is much smaller than the internet suggests.
What they have in common
Both are CAN-bus immobilisers. They connect to the network already running through your car and prevent the engine starting until a sequence is entered using buttons that are already there — the steering wheel controls, the indicator stalk, a window switch.
- No key fob and no LED, so there is nothing to find and nothing to steal.
- Nothing transmitted while you drive, so there is no signal to intercept, clone or jam. The Ghost II offers an optional app or tag on eligible vehicles; run either one on the sequence alone and there is nothing on the air at all.
- Invisible to a thief's diagnostic tools.
- Service mode, so a garage can start and move the car without knowing your sequence.
- No subscription on either — you pay once.
Where they differ
Name recognition
The Ghost is the better-known product, and occasionally that matters. If your insurer or a manufacturer-approved scheme has named a specific system, fit the one they named. Arguing the technical equivalence with an underwriter is not a fight worth having.
Self-service control
The Phantom's real difference is what you can do afterwards without ringing us. Connect your phone to the unit and you can change your own PIN or drop it into valet mode yourself, whenever you like. Changing a Ghost's sequence means calling us — we will either talk you through it or do it while you wait, but it is a call either way.
Service mode behaviour
The Phantom's service mode can be set as a single use or on a timer, which is genuinely handy if the car is going somewhere for a couple of days rather than a couple of hours. The Ghost's is simpler to explain to someone borrowing the car.
So which one?
- 1.If your insurer has named one, fit that one. The decision is already made.
- 2.If you want the most widely recognised system, fit the Ghost.
- 3.If you want to manage your own PIN and valet mode from your phone, fit the Phantom.
- 4.If you would rather not learn a sequence at all, look at the Pandora Microbot instead — it uses a Bluetooth tag in your pocket.
Send us the registration and we will tell you which we would fit to your specific vehicle and why. Sometimes a particular model suits one over the other for reasons that have nothing to do with the brochure.
