Sight and Sound... preventing your car from looking like a target
May 19 '01 (Updated May 28 '01)
The Bottom Line Make it as difficult as possible for a thief to steal your car, this will usually persuade them to find an easier target.
No one wants their automobile stolen much less broken into. After living in cities that were at one point the highest rate of car thefts in the US(Newark, NJ, and Jersey City, NJ), I took multiple precautions to ensure the safety of my car... basically to insure my chances of getting home from schooling in these areas. It's been three years since I finished medical school at Newark now... but I still have to visit Jersey City quite a number of times a year.
After reading a great epinions by user kline (here is the link to his epinion)
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_1526636676
I remembered all the precautions that I had to take to make sure my car wasn't broken into and decided to write what my experiences were while in the car jacking capitals of the US during that time. Despite having some security at most of the entranceways and security cameras in the parking building, my friends and I heard of many cars being broken into and almost a good 10-15% of those cars stolen every year. A few of my friends had found their oh so precious Club on the ground of where they had parked their car next to shattered glass. No car to be found. I used a truck Club but it offered me little peace of mind. Thankfully, I also had an electronic alarm system in the car as well. Granted, the anti-theft alarm was a standard one issued by Ford, it was an alarm nonetheless.
Well, all this really afforded me (as I found out) was that my car (a Ford Explorer) was just less likely to be stolen. I had a rude awakening when I found my driver side window smashed and the change in the car stolen. All this damage just for a few bucks in change! Even with the Club on the car and the anti-theft alarm on. I realized that the best I can do is
1... make it as difficult as possible for someone to steal my car, and
2... make it known on the car with physical deterrents and stickers that the car had anti-theft devices
Car Alarms
In this review topic, you'll find a good number of reviews suggesting various alarm systems. You can go to some of the top of the line alarms like a Viper system (well, it was one of the top of the lines) to highly regarded Clifford alarm systems and yet a slew of other manufacturers (there was one with an LCD remote that ranked very highly... but alas, I don't remember the name... I read about it on apex.com I believe). My believe with a car alarm is that it should have several basic features:
1) Have a siren (yeah, that was the duh answer)
2) Have a starter/ignition kill switch
3) Come from a reputable manufacturer (otherwise, if the alarm isn't going to last... it's not going to work!)
4) Be able to sense at least damage to the car... like the breaking of the car window
Now many of the features above are in most if not all basic car alarms (except for maybe the reputable, reliable alarm manufacturer). What I'm getting at is that the electronic alarm should give out some loud signal to alert anyone in the area that something is going on. Admittedly, some people will ignore the sounds of an alarm blaring... but the sound itself may make a car thief leave your car without taking anything of real value. I am not saying that expensive car alarms are not worth the money, but many people can ill afford to plop down hundreds... even thousands of dollars for an alarm system. A professional car thief may be able to bypass even the most expensive alarms.
Lo-Jack
The nice little system where the police and authorities can track your car when it's stolen. I admit the numbers of car recovery are usually quite good for the system. Lo-Jack sounds like it could be a thief's nightmare... but there are quite a number of problems with Lo-Jack.
The good part of Lo-Jack? Well, you automatically got an electronic car alarm installed into your car with the Lo-Jack installation. You could have your car tracked with you reported it stolen. Recovery of your car was over 50% (I haven't looked at recent numbers). This all sounds good to everyone... right?
Well, what was the problem? When Lo-Jack was still new to the market, there were only a few places on a car to place the large bulky Lo-Jack unit. Any car thief worth their salt knew the few locations the unit could be placed. This allowed the thief to disarm the Lo-Jack. These days, the units are much smaller so thieves would have a more difficult time of finding the unit. However, the major problem with Lo-Jack is that the authorities in the area would have to be informed that your car was stolen before they began to track it. If you're away from your vechicle for long periods of time, the Lo-Jack was rendered into just a regular car alarm. The Lo-Jack basically was a car alarm for thieves whose objective was not the car but for finding anything valuable inside the car that they could sell.
Now, if the car were stolen and you didn't find out about it in a short period of time, connected thieves could likely bring such a car into any chop shop. It doesn't take that much time to get the parts you need from a car... coming from an engineering college, many fraternity pranks involved disassembling cars (of course, these usually involved junked cars that we would reassemble in odd areas... well, not that the reassembled car would look right or ever run). People with any experience in this stuff could get what they needed from a car with the right tools and a respectable amount of time. I still remember one of the medical students in my year bragging about his great Lo-Jack system in his Honda Accord. We had exams the whole morning and afternoon that one day... as the class all finished, we all walked over the parking lot (there were three large lots and one multilevel building). This guy couldn't find his car. He promptly told the security vechicle who was currently patroling the adjecent lot. To the police's credit, they located the car within 45 minutes after being informed. However, the car was badly stripped of many of its valuables... There was no telling how long ago the thieves had stolen the car. The exams had taken up 6 hours of our day and lunch break was an hour... so the thieves could have had up to 7 hours to have stolen the car. This event showed that Lo-Jack had certain uses, but it shouldn't be the only answer.
Physical barriers
These range from the Club (and copycat devices), to the AutoLock (and copycat devices), to the Wheel locks, and a few other devices. I have only had experiences with two devices... the Club and the AutoLock. I've seen a few others like the steering wheel cap and the front wheel lock.
As you know from reports and if you read kline's review, the Club can be rather useless. However, it is a readily seen physical deterent. If you park in a large lot, many thieves will likely not touch your car for having a Club just because it takes just a little bit more time to get through. It may not a whole lot of extra time to defeat, but if there are easier targets in the area... why bother with the car with a Club if there's a similar car without one. Since the Club (and copycats) attaches to the steering wheel, cutting the steering wheel with a bolt cutter or hacksaw will defeat the Club easily... one cut of the steering wheel and a quick jerk of the Club will do it.
Now there are items that attach to the brake and the steering wheel. Similar story to the Club. Cut the steering wheel, and you defeat the lock. Not much more to be said here.
I don't know much about the steering wheel caps... so I won't make many comments on them. They cover the steering wheel and some can be used with items like the Club. Their effectiveness... I'm not really sure.
One of the best items I've seen over the years is the wheel lock. You would typically place this large bulky lock on on of your front wheels. A thief may be able to break in but driving the car would be close to impossible because of this huge heavy lock that would either damage that panel of the car of the wheel the lock was fastened onto and prevent any significant forward motion. The lock had to go on a front wheel in a front wheel drive car and on a rear wheel with a rear wheel drive car. What's the problem with this device. This device is very expensive and worse yet extremely heavy. It was a chore to put on and take off. At least the lock was "unpickable". Any Simpsons fan might remember the their trip to NY where Homer found this huge lock on the driver's side front wheel... yes this item actually exists.
A more recent item that can be found in the stores (although it has been available for a couple of years under various looks and names) is the Autolock. The Autolock is the patented version original sold for the past 1 1/2 (as far as I've seen) through the Infomercial circuit. You'll actually find quite a number of similar devices on the internet with a simple search through Yahoo! The device typically runs anywhere from $50-$100 on the internet and the infomercial depending on the deal and the manufacturer. This device attaches to the brake in your car. What's nice about this item? Well, the brake is made out of solid steel... i.e. near impossible to break with just basic pocket tools. It is far more difficult to access the device and brake that the Club as well. A bolt cutter or hacksaw will not cut though the brake or the device... neither will most thieves desire to cut the brake in order to steal the car. The one problem with this device... even though you car will be near impossible to steal to the common thief, they aren't likely to notice the device either. Although the AutoLock comes with a bright yellow and red steering wheel cover stating that the vehicle is protected by the great AutoLock, I haven't seen many people use it due to the garish colors.
The electronic key is another method of protecting your car. Your starter key is either made of a special material or contains a computer chip. This allows you to turn the ignition when the key is inserted into the steering column. A nice touch, but if your key is damaged... it could spell trouble for you and your use of the car.
What's the point then?!
The point is that you can make your car as difficult to steal as possible. Most thieves will not bother with a difficult car to steal if there are easier targets in the area. On top of that, you should know how desirable your car is to steal. When I was at school in Newark, the data of what car types were stolen were released to the students. Expensive car that easily stand out, like high class BMWs, Mercedes, and those people who actually owned Porshes and the such... these people were not the targets for most thieves. These cars would stick out like a sore thumb! Popular cars were the biggest picks. The Toyota Camries... the Honda Civics... the Honda Accords... these were the biggest targets. Parts were fairly expensive for these cars and the parts were in demand. Popular cars like Ford Explorers were not as big of a target since parts were considerably cheaper for these cars especially with many third party manufacturers making them.
As of now, I use the anti-theft alarm that came with my car and an AutoLock. I also placed the alarm stickers in the driver and passenger side windows where they could be noticed. In bad nieghborhoods, I would use the Truck Club as well just as a physical reminder to others (I don't usually lock the Club since the AutoLock is on). Regardless, this really prevent theft of the car. It may not prevent a thief from breaking into the car to steal any valuable good from it.
A combination of an audible car alarm with a reliable physical barrier (like the AutoLock) should give you peace of mind against your car being stolen. The alarm should drive away anyone who want to get into your car to take any valuables just because to the noise the alarm would make. Just to be safe though. Place your valuable in the trunk or the glove compartment (places that you can lock) if you can't carry your valuables with you. There is no guarantee against theft and break ins, but provide enough deterrents and a thief will think twice and likely ignore your vehicle for an easier target.
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