A4 alarm effectiveness? (no Q content)

[John Legelis <john.legelis@fmr.com>]

A friend of mine is considering and A4 (his Accord was just stolen) and was wondeing how decent the factory alarm is?  Does anyone have any 'real world' stories that I can relate to him?  Should he install something aftermarket, in addition to the factory unit?  I know that 'if a thief really wants your car he'll get it', but I'm just wondering if there's much the factory unit could really be improved upon, short of a Lojack type system (which wouldn't have helped my friend: in his case the car was stolen from his driveway in the middle of the night, and he didn't know it was gone until the cops rang his door the next morning).  

Feel free to email me direct if you feel this topic is inappropriate for the digest.

-John Legelis
Boston
'97A4Q