Our series on really obvious safety tips continues courtesy of H.E.A.T (Help Eliminate Auto Thefts). The Michigan-based, insurance company-funded organization wants you to know that fall is car theft season. In fact, October is "the second-highest month for auto-related crimes" (how months get high is anyone's guess). What's more, "thieves prefer the beginning and end of the school week, Monday and Friday, as favorite days to steal vehicles [and] favor vehicles that are black, gray and white." Sorry, I know, that's new information. Let's get to the good stuff: how to protect your cherished whip from clever car thieves. H.E.A.T. recommends you close your windows all the way, keep your valuables out of sight, never leave your vehicle running and unattended (a gentle jog with a friend is OK), install an alarm with a "visible flasher" (invisible flashers are useless), etch your VIN number on your windows (dealers love this) and install a hidden kill switch (to confound those pesky valet parkers). I'll start the bidding with: never park next to a vehicle resting on breeze blocks.
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get ‘the club’. It is absolutly fool proof, just like the buddy system.
etch your VIN number on your windows (dealers love this
anyone explain this?
Oh, and if you’re a college student, do not leave your backpack or books visible in your car. I know more than one person that had their car broken into and their books stolen… thieves will sell them back to the bookstore for easy cash.
And while you’re at it, set your car alarm so that it’s so sensitive that a mouse sneezing sets it off. Especially if you work where you can’t hear your alarm going off all day long. That’ll learn ’em.
Car alarms are useless. Nobody pays attention to them. You need one that silently releases nerve gas. You’ll know someone was trying to break into your car when you see his green-faced, grotesquely distorted corpse by your driver side door.
Oh yeah, wipe teh suction-cup circles off the window from all the mounts for your gadgets – thieves will rummage through the glove box looking for these ‘hidden’ items.
get fake poo and put that on the seat.
Locking your doors to fend off thieves? Only if you have polycarbonate windows. If you really mean business, you’ll need a flamethrower.. Check it out here Car Alarm
Locking your doors to deter thieves? Only if you have polycarbonate windows. What you really need is a flamethrower. Check it out
“etch your VIN number on your windows (dealers love this)”
oneighturbo: anyone explain this?
Do you mean can anyone explain? Sure!
My 2006 Honda, which I bought new, came with VIN etching on nearly every piece of glass in the car. (I.E. The dealer acid-etched the car VIN into most of the windows on the car-except for the windshield.)
Many dealerships do this PRIOR TO SALE, in the hopes that the eventual new-car buyer will pony up the requisite dollars to “register” your VIN-etched car with whatever VIN-registration company it is that they’re in bed with doing business with.
The cost to the dealer is minimal (sign up with a given company and send a kid out into the lot to etch windows), and the profit margin is high. Really high.
My car was a “dealer swap” and came pre- VIN-etched, which annoyed me, but I elected to take delivery of the car, anyway.
The trick the dealers use is to get customers to believe that your insurance company might provide a discount if you go for the ripoff deal.
At the advice of my (well-regarded) insurance company, I did not sign up for the registration of my forever-etched windows-because they offer no discount for having VIN-etched windows.
Bottom line: Save your money–avoid this scam.
Having a third pedal sure helps — most thieves can’t drive a stick.
oneighturbo –
There is a real value to etching your VIN on all the glass – it makes it harder for professional rings to change or avoid the real VIN if a car is being retitled or used for parts.
The VIN etching or registration offered by car dealers is a rip off, typically, though.
When I was a police officer, our agency would do it for about $10 (to cover the cost of the labeler and etching paste) during designated days.
But it doesn’t scare off a lot of people who are just stealing the car to get someplace or (more commonly) using to commit an impending crime. It was more to harrass the chops shops.
If VIN etching really deters thieves does that mean the undercoating and scotchguard that are part of the “protection plan” work to?
I had no idea that lone flashing LED on my dashboard was so effective.
Seriously though, don’t leave the mount for your GPS stuck to the windshield. Thieves will assume you put the GPS itself under the front seat or in the center console (like everyone else does) and smash your window anyway.
Hey Robert,
Your prose is getting pithier by the post!
I think we all missed the one about not leaving the keys in it too.
Drive a really crappy car. Years ago I used to fearlessly park my rusty ’86 Escort hatchback in bad areas where I’d work. Unfortuately no one ever stole it.
How does etching your VIN into an easily replacable part deter anyone from steeling your car? I can’t imagine chop shops care about it either, since the car is apart they can replace them with new glass even easier.
I just don’t get how anyone thought this would work, it sounds completely stupid even in theory.
Why would anyone choose over traditional theft deterent.
Drive a really crappy car. Years ago I used to fearlessly park my rusty ‘86 Escort hatchback in bad areas where I’d work. Unfortuately no one ever stole it.
This doesn’t work. Someone stole our 1976 Ford Granada in Manhattan in the late 80s. Worst $%&# car I ever owned.
You could also serendipitously go outside for a smoke at around 2AM and see a meth addict cruising your street, stopping at your car. When he gets his tools out, you walk up to him and yell, "What the **** do you think you're doing?" When he twists around and sees your (my) 300-pound girth and 3-wood, he'll piss his pants and scurry back into his car and take off outta there.
@hansbos – did the car look like a POS, or was it just hell to own? I’d imagine that for the ideal effect, you’d need a car that looks like it won’t get ten feet without stranding the thief. Bonus points if the car can’t be started without some elaborate procedure.
Redbarchetta :
This idea is that they won’t be able to sell the parts to anyone else. The reality is those buying parts on the black market (ebay) don’t care if it has someone else’s vin on it.
One of my coworkers had her Mustang stolen early last week. She recoverd the car about a 1000 feet away in the same school parking lot where her car ran out of gas. Always drive on fumes was her answer.