I used to keep Sentry activated whenever I was parked but for quite some time now, I have switched it off due to battery drain (particularly on longer trips away where I'm trying to avoid recharging away from home as the drain can reallly affect the range). As an aside, I also feel the flashing of the headlights each time Sentry is activated could attract some unwarranted attention and actually make the vehicle more at risk....I know there have been a few comments from others about this in the forum although who knows whether it really makes things worse.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, Sentry was off while I was parked for 4 days in a car park as I didn't want to come back to a low battery state. On return, I found was a deep scratch which I initially thought was malicious damage but on closer inspection, looks like it could have been from someone opening a car door (high type 4x4 or crossover's rear door) while the vehicle was parking/moving next to me. Whether that's the case of not, it doesn't really matter as it's likely to cost me £900 to fix according to a couple of body shops due to the difficulties in respraying the pearlescent finish.
It's more than likely that Sentry would have caught this if it was from another vehicle so in hindsight, my decision to leave it switched off has been somewhat of a false economy. There was no CCTV covering the area I parked in and the local Police have quite understandably closed the case due to lack of resources to investigate so I'll either need to claim on insurance (£250 excess and increased premiums for xx years) or pay out of my own pocket (any thoughts on this would be appreciated as it's a work lease car).
Plenty of "life lessons" here but I'm wondering how many people also switch off Sentry for the same reasons as me? I wish the drain could be optimised so that it didn't affect the battery as much but as you may have guessed, Sentry is going to be switched on from now onwards.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, Sentry was off while I was parked for 4 days in a car park as I didn't want to come back to a low battery state. On return, I found was a deep scratch which I initially thought was malicious damage but on closer inspection, looks like it could have been from someone opening a car door (high type 4x4 or crossover's rear door) while the vehicle was parking/moving next to me. Whether that's the case of not, it doesn't really matter as it's likely to cost me £900 to fix according to a couple of body shops due to the difficulties in respraying the pearlescent finish.
It's more than likely that Sentry would have caught this if it was from another vehicle so in hindsight, my decision to leave it switched off has been somewhat of a false economy. There was no CCTV covering the area I parked in and the local Police have quite understandably closed the case due to lack of resources to investigate so I'll either need to claim on insurance (£250 excess and increased premiums for xx years) or pay out of my own pocket (any thoughts on this would be appreciated as it's a work lease car).
Plenty of "life lessons" here but I'm wondering how many people also switch off Sentry for the same reasons as me? I wish the drain could be optimised so that it didn't affect the battery as much but as you may have guessed, Sentry is going to be switched on from now onwards.