Park your car somewhere safe

A

akina_speedstar

Messages
49
Im so incredibly irritated :grumpy: , my girlfriend and i just went to a movie premiere, and on returning to her S13 i found the rear passenger side window smashed. On top of that, the horrible excuse for a human had tried to "jimmy" the window out....:ouch: ?? Ruining both the seal and the paintwork. I think that they probably tried to reach around and unlock it... The dumbass didnt even know where the lock was and got spooked. Everything was still there, the sub, the head unit, cds, tv... not to mention the car itself.

I just get really angry though, my girl gets upset easily and her silvia is her pride and joy. On the way home she was saying how she doesn't even know why she bought it, and how she wants to sell it. I know she doesnt, but its not right that she have to feel guilty for having a nice car!


Look all in all i know its just a silvia and it needs a bit of repair here and there, but we love it, it a fun car to drive... so next time we will park it somewhere safer!! :sly:

MdnIte
What area do you happen to be in?

Actually a better question is what state?
Click to expand...

I live in Australia in the ACT.
 
What area do you happen to be in?

Actually a better question is what state?
 
Sound's like they were going to take the whole car not just the belongings in it, your girlfriend is very lucky but too bad on the damage, unfortunately S13's are one of the cars the thiefs target, I hope the car has a alarm and immobiliser at least.

I am paranoid about my car (my nice car not my daily) so I very rarely park it in carparks and leave it, I have it alarmed, immobilised, hidden fuel pump cut off switch, club lock (steering wheel lock) and If I am leaving for a period of time (very rare) I will disconnect engine sensors under the bonnet (hood) aswell. Yes many say extreme but I hear too many horror stories, a friend of mine had his SR20DET engine converted Nissan NX stolen and it was fitted with alarm and immobilser.

At home it is in the garage and our driveway is long so two other cars sit behind it.
 
This is kind of ironic. A co-worker just had his wife go out to her Dodge Neon and find that her stereo was stolen, while in their driveway. It wasn't a major loss because it only cost $100 new, but it is an annoyance.

The biggest issue was that she left her car unlocked. The people/person that did this took the time to remove teh stereo, properly unhook the wiring harness, and then dug through the glove box and armrest storage compartment to take the case for the faceplate and the remote.

My friend's car was untouched, but he has an alarm with theft deterrant on his Protoge.


Anyway, this kind of thing irritates me and is the biggest problem I have with just having bought a car. I am constantly afraid someone will do something to it, despite being fully insured. Whenever possible I park so that I can see my car. At work I have hit the lock button on my remote when I saw someone I didn't know looking at my car. That way it beeps at them once and they know I am watching.

I shouldn't have to feel this way and your girlfriend definitely shouldn't feel guilty for having that car, but it is a girl thing. My wife thinks that she shouldn't have her car everytime something goes wrong. I mean, my car is far from a Silvia but I get nervous every time I leave it sitting in a parking lot. It's just because it is the first nice and new car I have ever owned. Should I be paranoid? Should she be guilty? Should we both now feel like we have to park directly in front of security cameras or windows? I used to park in the back of parking lots just because the walk is good and there was less traffic when I pulled out. Now I want to park up front so that there are a lot of witnesses if something happens to my car. Your girlfriend will probably feel the same way.

You know, when you mess with another person's car you are a step away from messing with a family member. People love cars. They give them names or refer to them as a person. A car develops a personality that is attached to the owner/driver. If you damage another person's car you might as well walk up and slap their child. My reaction is likely to be the same.
 
A friend of mine left his car unlocked one night and left the stereo facia in the glove compartment by mistake, the next day the facia was gone but the stereo was still there. Bit of a waste, the theif can't do much with just the facia. That was only a cheap stereo as well he's not overly bothyered because he knows it was his fault his brain just switched off that night :lol:. I've never had a car broken into, crashed into but not broken into. Plenty of people I know have been broken into though.
 
Tough luck, most car parks in the UK have CCTV at the entrances and often on each level, making it a bigger deterrant also handy if someone does do something.
 
live4speed
A friend of mine left his car unlocked one night and left the stereo facia in the glove compartment by mistake, the next day the facia was gone but the stereo was still there. Bit of a waste, the theif can't do much with just the facia. That was only a cheap stereo as well he's not overly bothyered because he knows it was his fault his brain just switched off that night
Click to expand...
I remember when removable faceplates first came out and they actually put out warnings to make sure you take the faceplate with you as it was a big prank for kids to go through just stealing faceplates from glove boxes in order to make you have to pay the $100 or so to replace it.
 
Yeah i definitely think they were going to take the whole car, im just so glad that they got spooked. This situation could have been alot worse, i also forgot to mention that on a previous occasion in a very busy car park, some nasty deviant keyed it on both sides from the front quarter panel to the end of the door. (and they are longggg doors):sick:

Fool killer you are so right, a car does become apart of the family, its an object that you interact with all the time. The cops didnt care, well i didn't really expect them to, car thieves are nasty people and i bet alot of people on this forum would love to "sort" them out!!
 
If you are truly concerned about having the entire car stolen, pop the hood when you park and disconnect the battery cables. I gaurantee your car will still be where you left it, even if someone did try to take it while you were gone.

Also, parking next to or near a cop car is a good way to avoid people screwing with yours.
 
It sucks that people tried to break into your g/f's car, and the window is a pain since it'll cost money to replace and probably got glass everywhere. Sorry to hear about the paint and body damage. It sucks that there are people out there that are willing to take what other people have earned by force. These people obviously have no morals.

...but...

Your g/f could do very little to make your car a bigger target than it is. All of the extras, the wheels, the spoler, the interior... it looks like an absolute magnet to theives. I won't say she had it coming, because she didn't. There is obviously no excuse for what they did. But you've got to be aware that the car has a huge target painted on it.
 
3-Wheel Drive
If you are truly concerned about having the entire car stolen, pop the hood when you park and disconnect the battery cables. I gaurantee your car will still be where you left it, even if someone did try to take it while you were gone.

Also, parking next to or near a cop car is a good way to avoid people screwing with yours.
Click to expand...

Besides being an awful lot of trouble (especially in cold rain,) I'll rebut this in case anybody took it seriously.

Not only do you lose (probably) your clock and all your stereo settings, but the ECM has a volatile memory area as well, where trouble codes are stored and where it "learns" the proper control ranges for the sensors and actuators. Each car is a little different, and the ECM has to learn how to keep the idle just right, what the mixture is at a certain temp, etc. The method of erasing these areas on many cars is simply disconnecting the battery for a certain time period. Every time you start your car, it'll need to to relearn its own unique settings, not to mention losing any trouble codes the dealer could use for that warranty airflow meter replacement.
 
Also if you have one of thoes encoded stereo's then when you disconnect the battery it resets the stereo so you need to ring the manufacturer for the code to set it back up.
 
One of my friends once had someone unlock the door, (still don't know how) drive off & it got found the next day. But, the guys who stole it had been sick all over it & it still stinks even 1 year later. To be honest I'd rather have a broken window than put up with it. What's more it's an ancient rather dented rover estate, who would want to steal it? Drunk freaks.
 
3-Wheel Drive
If you are truly concerned about having the entire car stolen, pop the hood when you park and disconnect the battery cables. I gaurantee your car will still be where you left it, even if someone did try to take it while you were gone.
Click to expand...


wfooshee
Besides being an awful lot of trouble (especially in cold rain,) I'll rebut this in case anybody took it seriously.

Not only do you lose (probably) your clock and all your stereo settings, but the ECM has a volatile memory area as well, where trouble codes are stored and where it "learns" the proper control ranges for the sensors and actuators. Each car is a little different, and the ECM has to learn how to keep the idle just right, what the mixture is at a certain temp, etc. The method of erasing these areas on many cars is simply disconnecting the battery for a certain time period. Every time you start your car, it'll need to to relearn its own unique settings, not to mention losing any trouble codes the dealer could use for that warranty airflow meter replacement.
Click to expand...


Yep exactly, and not to meantion in my case that will set my alarm off (alarm has its own power) and for alarms that are not self powered it would disable them allowing people to fiddle with the car even if they couldn't steal it.

Also in my case the factory placed the battery under the rear parcel shelf in the boot with covers (over the rear wheels) so it's quite difficult to disconnect.
 
Wow, that sucks. Good thing the thieves didn't take the whole car..that's quite a nice car, really.

I tell my mom to leave the car unlocked, and don't leave anything except for paper towels and car manual in there. I mean, who would steal a '90 Olds 88, but I think leaving the car unlocked is a better way of parking it due to the thieves not needing to smash a window open which can cause a few thousand dollars of damage easily.
 
Story like this gets me really worked up, too. Nice Silvia though, btw. 👍

Just couple nights ago, kids near where I live went on to play baseball with car windshields, like you'd do with mail boxes. Bunch of busted windshields, and it was raining too, so ruined the interior as well. Many of the people interviewed on local news had insurance premium of $500(!). And speaking of car insurance, these break-ins and vandalism contribute to higher insurance premiums.

Anytime they catch these punks, they should make them pay double of the damage they've caused. :grumpy:
 
Hi guys, we recieved the first quote today. I didn't expect a small price as silvia's aren't an extremely common car in australia... but yeah $410 AUS for rear quarter panel window. We arent going to bother going through the ensurance company as the excess will most likely be even more, not to mention a higher premium. We dont really mind paying, i mean it has to be done; but there are so many more things we could of spent them on, for example $410 worth of christmas presents.

I will post pictures tomorrow, and danoff i totally understand where you are coming from, but i mean isn't a stock M3 just as bigger target? Its precisely my point i had before, the injustice of the situation is that she worked hard for the car therefore she should have a nice car. And some bludger who steals cars, and most likely has no job should never be entitled to such luxuries, until he earns his keep.

OK, here is the nasty scratch form them trying to jimmy the window out
 
In my bimmer I have several switches hidden all over the interior for switching off various vital engine components.

Depending on where I park I'll switch one or two or all of them.

Fuel injectors, ignition coil, ignition switch, etc...

Eventually I would like to wire up a high-charge capacitor to the door handles. It will power up when I lock the car, and if somebody touches the door handle, they'll be reminded not to do it again. Putting my key in the lock and turning to unlock will discharge the capictor to ground. I have to figure out how to wire all that up though...

I have no radio in my car, only an aluminum panel riveted where it used to be. I don't even have a glovebox that would look inviting to someone to bust a window and shuffle through. I have iS wheels, although I have two different wheel locks on each wheel. My car is essentially seats, steering wheel, and shifter knob. I can imagine my M3 steering wheel would be the only thing anybody would possibly be interested in that would be simple to remove. Even that has a limited market, as it only fits E30's and later E28 5'ers.
 
slowman
In my bimmer I have several switches hidden all over the interior for switching off various vital engine components.

Depending on where I park I'll switch one or two or all of them.

Fuel injectors, ignition coil, ignition switch, etc...

Eventually I would like to wire up a high-charge capacitor to the door handles. It will power up when I lock the car, and if somebody touches the door handle, they'll be reminded not to do it again. Putting my key in the lock and turning to unlock will discharge the capictor to ground. I have to figure out how to wire all that up though...
Click to expand...
While I think it would be funny to see someone who is curiously looking at your car get shocked I do have to warn you that you want to keep the voltage low. I know I have seen a couple of cases lately where people with medical problems have died from Tasers used by police. The Tasers are perfectly safe on someone healthy. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be reposnible for accidentally kiling someone that just thought they would look at your car or brushed it as they walked by.

I have no radio in my car, only an aluminum panel riveted where it used to be. I don't even have a glovebox that would look inviting to someone to bust a window and shuffle through. I have iS wheels, although I have two different wheel locks on each wheel. My car is essentially seats, steering wheel, and shifter knob. I can imagine my M3 steering wheel would be the only thing anybody would possibly be interested in that would be simple to remove. Even that has a limited market, as it only fits E30's and later E28 5'ers.
Click to expand...
And of course, reading this I wonder what all the security is for. I love a stripped down sports car, but if there is nothing attractive about your car, other than the kind of car, I would suggest just immobilizing your engine and being done with it. If there is nothing in the car to takle just leave teh doors unlocked and the engine shutdown. No need to shock people that can't actually get the car to run.

Out of curiosity, how bad of a neighborhood do you live in to feel the need to have all this on your car? Where I live a blinking light in the window will prevent 99% of break-ins. Now that I have immobilizer, alarm, theft deterrent, and glass etching I worry more about someone damaging my car. This is only because my last car had a very light scrape (as in only scraped the clear coat, not the paint) on the passenger side when I came out from work one day. I am paranoid someone will do something but no more than I fear someone will hit me while I am driving, but you seem like you have good reason to know it will happen.
 

Latest Posts

Back