The electronic kind that make it impossible to start the car without using a particular key or a remote unlock device.

i have the older autolock with th e circular barrel key...i wonder how secure that type of lock is??

I wonder if it ever occurred to the guy who made the video that "hmm, maybe it's too dark and the angle is bad -- let me reshoot this video". Gahhh....

60 seconds? Once he actually put the tools in and tried, it was more like 16-18 seconds, and he was going slowly. I'd think 5-10 seconds would definately be feasable.

you know the economy is bad when people are putting steering-wheel locks and lojacks on their 6-year-old dented rav-4s ... and they're still getting stolen. what. the. fuck. no, seriously.

These things don't work. I used to live in an apartment complex where someone went in and unlocked a bunch of car's steering-wheel locks and put them on dashboards before stealing one of the cars.

[www.compustar.com]

They have online vehicle tracking so if your car gets stolen, know precisely where it is, via maps. It uses the cell phone network to report the gps data it recieves. You could literally call the cops and tell them where to find your car and hopefully the thief.

@B: Or an immobilizer chip that you pull out and it disables the ignition.

The Club is easy to defeat but involves sawing through the steering wheel. Generally just going totally overboard with highly visible deterrents should encourage a thief to take a an easier car.

Best security device?
Install one of these in your car...

I have one, but I thought mine was the "unbrakeable" (as in car brake) auto lock. Mine has a round key, the type commonly used on Kryptonite locks.

In the video, he starts in the unlocked poition, and moves it up to th epoistion it would lock in, and then slides it back down again. So while technically, I believe that if you slide it up into the locked position, you can't slide it back down without the key (or in this case picked), I don't know if it would be much harder to pull off, if he started in the locked poistion, rather than the unlocked position.
I have no knowledge of lockpicking, but I just noticed what he was doing in the video.

@B: That's what I have on my car. It doesn't even use a key, just a little rfid tag. If the tag isn't within a certain distance from the ignition, the car won't start. I can also leave the car running and walk away from it, but the steering and transmission will lock until I come back.

Years ago I thought the best security system would be to replace the driver's air bag with a 12 gauge shell and a primer that would activate when the vehicle is started in theft mode.

I figured the mess afterward would render the vehicle useless anyway, but revenge would be sweet.

If someone is determined to steal your vehicle, nothing short of armed guards will probably dissuade them. However, you can deter, slowdown and possibly thwart a theft long enough for you to detect it and realize your vehicle is a direct target. There are many companies making very sophisticated vehicle alarm systems these days.
One of the more popular after market alarm features is the new two-way communication remotes. Your vehicle can alert you that someone is tampering with your vehicle as it is happening, even if you are too far away to hear the siren. These alarms are HIGHLY advanced and some even come with video cameras mounted inside your vehicle, and will take a picture of whats going on inside your vehicle and send it to your remote so you can tell if it is a false alarm or not.
There are even systems that include highly advanced features such as GPS, similar to OnStar, but you have much more control over the vehicle. You can even disable the ignition remotely yourself with your cell phone.
Check into reputable alarm install shops and see what would suit your needs. But be forewarned, some of these systems may run upwards of $1,000 before installation, so just calculate how important your vehicle is to you.

Or, just get one of these:
[consumerist.com]
and miss a couple loan payments. Then nobody can steal/drive your car.

(disclaimer: I work for a company that does locations for cellular phones and produces another product for cars and pets that locates them using the cell network)

@jchabotte: The problem with that is if it's purely GPS based it's very easy to overcome. Just put the car indoors or drive in a dense urban area. Granted, you can go off of a last known location but that would depend on how well location records are kept. You can probably go off of cell towers to get a general area the car may be in, but that won't help all that much especially in an urban area.

UTDOA, however works indoors and is very accurate in urban areas (GPS is not very accurate in dense urban areas). But the problem with UTDOA is that it doesn't work that well when there's few cell phone towers in the area. Ultimately a hybrid solution is best, but doesn't exist yet because non E-911 UTDOA location services don't exist yet (but should in the near future).

Unfortunately the smart thieves use tow trucks now. You car then gets quickly parted out or shipped whole out of the country.

If caught, they claim they "mistakenly" towed your car if their fabricated excuse doesn't hold up.

@danio3834: Oh yeah, baby. I like it. Big 180 pound land shark guarding the vehicle. Until it bites someone and YOU are the one who gets sued. Don't laugh. It happens, and the dog owners are the ones who lose.

My favorite is what the Army does to secure its vehicles. Weld a heavy gauge chain to the floor of the vehicle. It should be long enough to wrap around the steering wheel. An equally heavy gauge padlock is then fastened to the chain. Unless you've got a hacksaw and a LOT of time on your hands, a tow truck, or a set of bolt cutters bigger than you are, you're not stealing my vehicle, dude.

@pferde_schwanz:
In NC the 2 most stolen cars are the 1994 accord and the 2000 civic. You can get tons of money for their parts, since there are tons of the same model on the road needing repairs, and parts are harder to track than a whole car.

@highmodulus: Of course, you won't be able to do much about PROFESSIONAL car thieves. Most consumer-level precautions are about thwarting the far more numerous amateurs.

my favorite anti-theft: "a big black guy named ben"..."get away from the car mother f***er" this repeated over and over when a car was bothered.

Living in a good neighborhood helps. So does a locked garage. Unfortunately, if someone is determined enough, they'll take it.

I had a friend who parallel-parked his Jeep Cherokee (back when they were semi-desireable) in a crowded city 50 feet from a police station. He had a club and an imobilizer. It took only 5 minutes - the family had had ice cream in a shop down the street - for the truck to disappear.

@K-Bo: Especially trunk lids. I wanted to replace the one on my 1999 Accord because it was rusted out from road salt. Had one hell of a time locating even a used one.

Pull the starter fuse. Zero cost, low-tech, and will deter most to move on to an easier target. Travelling to Mexico, I'd start my truck, pull the starter fuse and drive on.

Could also use a starter kill switch.

All I know is that if my car was stolen last night, I'd be too busy with insurance and police to send Consumerist an email.

Boot it. Go buy a wheel lock, same as the ones they use to boot vehicles that are illegally parked and boot your wheels.

Simple rule of thumb.

Anything with an absolute declaration in it's name (unbreakable, unbeatable, etc) - isn't. As a matter of fact, it's probably just the opposite.

@Steaming Pile: Yeah, kinda makes me want to get rid of my 2000 Civic, even used parts are expensive, and my insurance is sky high because of the likelihood of it being stolen.

@rolla: You mean this kind?

(I mean the lock cylinder, not the style of bike lock...)

The best anti-theft device is completely free!

Simply pull out the fuel pump fuse when leaving the car! I'd like to see them start the car then.

@Steaming Pile: Yeah, vigilantism doesn't seem to have a place in our sue-happy society.

Seriously, if car theives want your car, they'll get it. You can install all the devices and gimmicks in the world, and they'll flatbed it.

I just had a problem with my autolock 2 Fridays ago. Except my lock was different and almost impossible to pick (for an amateur like me, that is). I ended up having to cut the thing with my Dremel. The whole thing took less than 15 minutes (including time to locate an alternative plug)... I'm not planning on replacing my autolock. Here's a link w/ a pic of the final results on my blog.

Always bear in mind that most cars are stolen for a) the value of their parts, and/or b) their use in another crime (like residential burglary). So the most commonly stolen cars are very common, very non-descript vehicles like Honda Accords.

The Club et al are all pretty useless, as methods to defeat them are well known even to amateurs. LoJack is useful, but there was a recent case (unverified) involving a thief who claimed he could evade detection by parking the stolen cars under a metal roofed carport.

A new trend is the theft of catalytic converters from SUVs and pickups with high ground clearance. Roll underneath, crank up your battery-powered saw, and ta-da, you've got something worth $1000.

Useful devices: digitally-encoded ignition keys thwart amateurs (pros get a master key from their buddy at the car dealership). LoJack is good. An alarm that calls your cell phone is better.

And finally, never, ever buy a Honda Accord. Ever.

@Ron21: Yep, thats what I do when I park one of my cars outside for more than a day. If they have the balls to come into my private driveway and try and steal the car next to the house, they wont be driving it anywhere.

Then again, if they want it, they'll back the flatbed in. Boom, gone.

Yeah, I'm surprised to see how the Kryptonite/Bic Pen lock fracas has been forgotten already.

here is the solution.

drive a piece of crap that no one will steal.

@rkwadd: sawing through the steering wheel is old school son. nowadays they use a piece of pipe around 3' and bend off the hook in seconds.

Parts...definitely for the parts. Our neighbor had their 2004 Acura TSX largely stripped in the middle of the night while the car sat in their driveway a couple of weeks ago.

The car was parked around 11pm on a Friday and when they went to get the paper Saturday morning found the hood, doors, battery, radiator, driver's airbag, front seats, and front wheels gone. The police figure that a team of 4-6 finished the job in about 15 minutes.

The house has a side-load garage that is not very visible from the street which made the job a bit easier. Somewhat ironically, my neighbor had plans to install a motion-activated security light that weekend.

I once saw a gang fight in a Walmart parking lot where someone used The Club as an actual club to try and clobber someone with. The irony was breathtaking.

@Steaming Pile: You can saw though the steering wheel lickity split. Plus not much hope against a tow truck.

Two people in my family in Poland chain the tow hook on the front of the car to something big and immobile when parking.

@BoomhauerTX: "Starter fuse"? WTF is a "starter fuse"? I've been working on cars since before I was old enough to drive one, and I've never heard of a "starter fuse". When my dad was POed at my mom he used to pull the ignition wire off of the starter solenoid and tuck the loose wire under the fender lip where it wouldn't be noticed, but that involves opening the hood a lot and anyone casing your car will catch on fast, plus it only works on Fords and AMCs. switching the coil wire for #1 spark plug wire also works well, but with the same drawbacks.

Two things to keep in mind:

- Any anti-theft device can be bypassed if a thief wants your car badly enough.

- Unless your car is particularly desirable, you only have to make it harder to steal than the next guy's.

by danio3834 at 09:47 AM Reply *
Years ago I thought the best security system would be to replace the driver's air bag with a 12 gauge shell and a primer that would activate when the vehicle is started in theft mode.

I figured the mess afterward would render the vehicle useless anyway, but revenge would be sweet.

The think about booby traps is that they are often much more likely to kill the creator than a thief. I can think of few things dumber than driving around with a an electrically fired shotgun aimed at your face. Well, that and the whole "booby traps that kill make you guilty of murder" thing....

A long time ago, 20/20 did a piece on car thefts and the offered up the best advice I've heard to date (coming from a reformed car thief).

Use multiple systems that will slow down a potential thief. That means, a club, kill switch, alarm with visual indicator, etc... The key isn't to make your car theft-proof (that's impossible if someone is motivated enough), the trick is to make it less appealing than any of the cars nearby.

Most car thieves are motivated by profit and they aren't going to bother with your car if it looks harder to steal than the car next to it.

wow, I didnt know the auto lock had gone so down hill to use regular keys. I remember when the 1st gen ones used a raised bump key design, then they downgraded to the barrel style keys like they use on vending machine locks and shot a shotgun @ it to show how "safe" it was, now down to this....amazing

Re: the Video:
Classic Rake + tension wrench. Hell, it looks like those "space keys" are easier to rake then regular house key locks.

@danio3834: Those break down in the summer, and monthly maintenance costs are preventative :(

I have lost all faith in the GPS locater/LoJack systems when I was present as someone tried to actually, you know, find his stolen car. He had LoJack on his truck and it was stolen from a parking lot while we were at dinner. The system could only be activated by law enforcement Monday through Friday during regular business hours and the locater would only would only work within the continental U.S. - no great help at 8PM on a Friday when you're within an easy drive to either Mexico or the Port of Houston.

If they want it bad enough nothing will stand in their way.
Several years back one of the surronding counties was known for stolen vehicles.

The old saying went...

They are so good at stealing your car they will leave the radio playing for you.

I may have gone a little overboard:
1) Auto Club (round key design)
2) factory alarm
3) aftermarket immobilizer (RFID based)
4) Cobb AccessPort anti-theft program, which prevents the car from being started if power is cut to the vehicle. Car cannot be restarted without my _specific_ AP (they are "married" to one another) - you would have to replace the car's ECU ($1k+) to get it going.

Admittedly, and as has been pointed out, this will not stop a dedicated thief. But that is not my point. As Orv mentioned, my goal is simply to make my car too much of a PITA to bother stealing, and get the thief to move on to the next (easier) target.

@tkozikow: And the motion-activated security light would do what? Give them better light to work in? A motion-activated security DOG would probably be a little better. Or that anti-theft device that was in the Robocop movie that fried the thief when he got in the car. That is a good one.