Viper Smart Start System VSS4000

by Viper

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B002WDGW4Q
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

Product Description

You can remote start or lock and unlock your car just by pushing a button on your iPhone or iPod Touch; using the exciting new Viper SmartStart app from Directed Electronics, the leader in vehicle security and remote start. The simple graphical interface gives you control over the following features of your installed Viper remote start or security/remote start system:Lock/arm, Unlock/disarm, Remote car starter, Trunk release, Panic or car finder

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New software is a huge improvement, December 23, 2009

By 

Arsenal Gunner (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Viper Smart Start System VSS4000 (Electronics)

Bought this system to warm up my car before getting in during the winter. First of all, the command to start my vehicle works MAYBE 50% of the time. Secondly, there is no confirmation on whether your vehicle received the command or not, so generally, I trudge through the snow only to be surprised to find my truck still icy and unstarted. I've had to resort to using the keychain remote starter (instead of my iPhone) which completely negates the purpose of this overpriced piece of garbage. AVOID at all costs.

Just wanted to update my review....since my initial review above, Viper has released a new version of the software which now sends a confirmation back to you if your vehicle has received the command. This is night and day difference as compared to the old software. I would not hesitate to recommend thie Viper SmartStart system to anyone and am changing my review to 4 stars. (Minus 1 star for cost).

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars sigh, November 14, 2010

By 

SteelCore - See all my reviews

This review is from: Viper Smart Start System VSS4000 (Electronics)

Bought this 3 days ago at a local Best Buy and they installed it. Toatal after activating system $586.00 not a problem at all because I was so excited about this awesome piece of technology. The installer and I tested the unit before I left and it worked as advertised and I felt happy I purchased it. Happiness quickly turned to frustration when the next morning it was 30 degrees at 5AM when I get up for work and tried to start my suv and after 15 attempts nothing. Later that day I tried again and it worked. Confused but opptomistic I tried again the next morning and again it did not work. Sorry to say this is a waste of money. Great Idea!!!! flawed system. Hopefully I will be returning system for a regular key fob system and will get my $105 back from Viper for the 3 year activation service. If money isn't refundable this might be a really big scam.....Buyers Beware!!!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What a waste of money (review updated), December 22, 2010

By 

tj2k (Issaquah, wa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Viper Smart Start System VSS4000 (Electronics)

This SOUNDED like such an awesome idea. No keyfob to carry, unlimited range...price was a bit more than a traditional remote start, and annual service fees, but that seemed ok for the benefits.

Except that it only works about 25% of the time. It's not that you think the car is started, but it's not, it's very good about telling you when the start command is received by the car or not...it's just that it fails to send the command. My experience is no amount of retrying is going to make it work either, I've spent 30+ minutes hitting the button over and over (takes about a minute to timeout) and never had success. Either it works, or it's not going to work. The installer shop suggested I add on an antenna and keyfob remote since the cellphone interface is so unreliable. So I can pay MORE, and get less functionality...awesome.

I've seen other reports of people claiming they were told they've oversold capacity and can't keep up...but last I checked, they're STILL selling units and taking money, so I can't imagine things getting any better.

EDIT 2/24/12
Wanted to update this earlier one star review because it's no longer accurate.

Viper has addressed whatever network issues they were having and now reliability is excellent for me. I still get "failure to connect" maybe 5% of the time, but a retry usually works.

One oddity, the "failure to connects" were at the 100% mark a few months ago, and when I gave up and contacted support, they sent me a link to download a special version of the app for my phone (EVO 4G) and all problems went away. Viper support has actually been pretty good.

All that being said, I'm updating my review to 4 stars. It's an excellent system when it works, and currently it's working great.

Support is non-existent. Once I was told "we've reset your system, it works now" and nothing changed. Two other requests for support went ignored.

It's a bit frustrating when you buy something like this so you won't have to scrape your windows and get into a cold car in the morning...and then you have to scrape your windows and get into a cold car. the only difference is now I've paid a lot of money for the privilege.