Vehicle Break - Ins

[vatkens]

Vehicle Break - Ins

I’m with BMW of North America, LLC.

Most break-ins occur when thieves are either looking for a spare key or valuables left in a vehicle. Without a key, BMW’s are practically theft resistant. As far as we know, the only way that a vehicle can be readily moved is by tow truck or flat bed trailer. BMW has one of the finest security and anti-theft systems in the industry.

A determined thief can break into any vehicle. With this in mind, the designers of vehicle security systems have to develop a car that is secure enough to discourage the casual thief, while keeping the cost of repair damage within reasonable limits. A broken window or a pulled out lock cylinder can be repaired without too much expense, the more reinforcement is put into the car the higher the repair cost in case of a break-in. To be as safe as possible, never leave the spare or wallet key in the car, and don’t have a remote starter installed, as that necessitates disabling the electronic drive away protection built into every BMW. This would enable someone who gets into the car to get it started and drive it away as the security codes have been compromised.

Never leave valuables visible from the outside. If you must leave something in the vehicle, leave it hidden in the luggage compartment where it will at least be out of sight.

The adhesive shown is now available from BMW of North America, LLC. We recommend putting it on your window to further discourage a potential thief. To receive your free adhesives, please contact us at (800) 831-1117 or at NOKEYS@bmwusa.com with your mailing address, Vehicle Identification Number and the amount so we can send them out immediately.

[Marco]

Originally posted by vatkens
Vehicle Break - Ins

I’m with BMW of North America, LLC.

snip
The adhesive shown is now available from BMW of North America, LLC. We recommend putting it on your window to further discourage a potential thief. To receive your free adhesives, please contact us at (800) 831-1117 or at NOKEYS@bmwusa.com with your mailing address, Vehicle Identification Number and the amount so we can send them out immediately.
What adhesive? I don't see it.

[3seriesbimmer]

:confused:

[vatkens]

http://mywebpage.netscape.com/sbarrowclough/Label1.jpg

[drmwvr]

What is "No Key No Valuables" supposed to mean? Am I the only one who is confused by this? :dunno:

[Freaky_Monkey]

Originally posted by vatkens
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/sbarrowclough/Label1.jpg

Maybe they've developed special anti-thief shielding technology embedded in the sticker. As the prosepective thief approaches, the sticker activates and causes the thief to bounce off the shield. However, any self-respecting BMW owner can approach, knowing that the shields have been lowered. Neat!

Oh wait. No. It's a sticker. Theft protection value - $0.00.

[LeucX3]

Originally posted by Freaky_Monkey
Maybe they've developed special anti-thief shielding technology embedded in the sticker. As the prosepective thief approaches, the sticker activates and causes the thief to bounce off the shield. However, any self-respecting BMW owner can approach, knowing that the shields have been lowered. Neat!

Oh wait. No. It's a sticker. Theft protection value - $0.00.

Yeah, but i think it adds 5 hp. :rolleyes:

[Kaz]

Reminds me of those 'NO RADIO' stickers from the 80s.

[alee]

Definitely not a satisfactory solution. :thumbdwn:

[Marco]

Come on guys, give vatkens and BMWNA a break (no pun intended)!
The argument about break-ins and minimizing damage is a good one. (In 15 years of ownership, I never locked my convertible. I found sigaret buts in the car ashtry and an umbrella behind the seat. I also lost several maps, pens and other small items from the glove box, but nobody ever slashed the car's top.)
As for the sticker, aesthetically (sp?) doesn't do much for the car, but if it deters even only 0.01 % of thieves.......

[alee]

Originally posted by Marco
Come on guys, give vatkens and BMWNA a break
As far as I'm concerned, the stickers are an insult. Stickers simply don't work... if they did work, we'd all get insurance breaks from affixing stickers to our car.

IMHO, If BMW is suggesting the easily pulled locks are by design, they should step up to the plate and be willing to replace them at no cost when incidents do happen.

[Stuka]

Originally posted by alee
As far as I'm concerned, the stickers are an insult. Stickers simply don't work... if they did work, we'd all get insurance breaks from affixing stickers to our car.

IMHO, If BMW is suggesting the easily pulled locks are by design, they should step up to the plate and be willing to replace them at no cost when incidents do happen.

Why should they? I am glad the locks can easily be popped.:thumbup: On E36 cars, the theif often times will use a screw driver on the door handle, it is then repaint time.:mad:

A lock replacement is WAY WAY WAY cheaper than having body works done. And take it from someone who has had his car violated at the lousy Los Feliz multiple times, I would gladly have paid the hundred bucks to have the lock fixed than having to claim the body damage and lock replacement with my insurance.

They can't drive the car without the key, don't lock your glovebox. You'll incur minimum damage that way. That is the price of owning a BMW in high theft areas.:dunno: :rolleyes:

Andy
02 M3 CB/Cloth SMG, never driven near Los Feliz:bigpimp:

[alee]

I'm certainly not debating the merits of a cheaper repair (well relatively cheap... $120+ is still expensive).

I personally prefer my car NOT to be such an easy target. The whole point in rolling up my windows and locking the doors is that I should feel reasonably confident that my car will not be broken in to.

Popping the lock is VERY easy... and my take is that it's akin to leaving your doors unlocked to begin with. It makes the vehicle an easy target.

Certainly no car security is truly unbreakable, but between the E46 with the poppable locks and the E36 parked next to it with the double-lock deadbolts, which would you choose to break into?

[WAM]

Lets give BMW NA some credit here. We all, and most of your savvy crooks know that BMW's can't be hotwired like the average car. Therefore, crooks know that their best chance of stealing the car is to break in to see if the owner has left the keys in the glovebox.

The sticker indicates to the crook that the owner is aware of spare keys being left in the glovebox and has not left them in the car. So it isn't a bad idea.

The scumbag who wants to break in is going to do so regardless but this will deter at least some of them.

[alee]

Originally posted by WAM
The sticker indicates to the crook that the owner is aware of spare keys being left in the glovebox and has not left them in the car. So it isn't a bad idea.
I've seen cases reported over the last 2+ years... so assuming it was a good idea, why did it take 2 yrs for this to come out? :dunno:

[nowonder]

In the 5 years I had my jeep (cloth top)... I never locked the doors. In that time, I had a couple CD's stolen, a pair of expensive sunglasses (left in there when I was drunk one night) and the radio stolen.

The radio was the most expensive, but when I discovered it, I looked around and almost every other car in the lot had windows broken... The chance you take when parking at a sporting event.

The $200 radio was nothing compared to the $900 cloth top that would have been needed if they forced their way in.

--nw

[Matthew330Ci]

wow, i didn't know that there were still places where people actually don't lock their cars.

that is totally unthinkable where i live.

[01silber]

I agree its good that they are posting here, no matter what it is inregards to

[3seriesbimmer]

how about just adding a standard ALARM at NO CHARGE!!! like every other auto maker!!!!:tsk: :tsk: :tsk:

[Marco]

Originally posted by Matthew330CiM
wow, i didn't know that there were still places where people actually don't lock their cars.

that is totally unthinkable where i live.

See my previous post.
I lived in Hollywood for 15 years. Never locked. Only once somewone tried to hot wire the car but the steering wheel lock held (about $ 100 of damage).

[Parump]

Thank you BMWNA for offering the theft deterrent sticker. I personally think that this is an excellent strategy and offers a reasonable solution to a difficult problem. Yes, a reinforced door lock might increase the time required to breach the car's security features. However, most informed thieves would likely break one of the windows to gain entry. A removed lock versus a broken window is similar to "six of one, half dozen of another." If the motivation for entering the vehicle is specifically to remove the key stored in the glove box, then the use of a sticker seems to be a reasonable strategy. The best way to evaluate its effectiveness is to see if the number of affected cars decreases as a result of the sticker placement. I vote let's give this proposal a chance.

[Freaky_Monkey]

Originally posted by Parump
... If the motivation for entering the vehicle is specifically to remove the key stored in the glove box, then the use of a sticker seems to be a reasonable strategy. The best way to evaluate its effectiveness is to see if the number of affected cars decreases as a result of the sticker placement. I vote let's give this proposal a chance.

OK. Let's get practical. However well designed the sticker is, if you still don't take the key out, then the sticker's actual value is $0.00 (and no extra HP). I'd guess that most people on the boards have worked out not to leave the spare key in the car. After all, how many of us leave our spare house keys under our front door mats? Exactly. But the thieves break into the cars knowing that the less intelligent E46 owners (god forbid) are stupid enough to leave their keys in the car. So, I suggest an alternative approach. Attack the root cause - people leaving the emergency key in the car to start with. If people didn't leave it there, then after a while the thieves would work it out and leave our cars alone. So perhaps a somewhat more pragmatic approach for BMWNA to take (and the rest of the BMW world as well) would be to write to *all* owners and remind them that leaving the spare key in the car is asking for trouble. SO TAKE THE GODDAM KEY OUT!!!

[Terry Kennedy]

Originally posted by Parump
However, most informed thieves would likely break one of the windows to gain entry. A removed lock versus a broken window is similar to "six of one, half dozen of another." If the motivation for entering the vehicle is specifically to remove the key stored in the glove box, then the use of a sticker seems to be a reasonable strategy.I would love to see more informed thieves. Around here all we have are stupid drug addicts who will smash in a window so they can look around for any valuables in the car. They'll smash windows on unlocked cars because they are too dumb to check the door first. I've had them take a tire iron to the cassette slot in the radio to try to pry it out of the dash, that's how dumb they are. And that was on a 7-year-old econobox I used to drive.

I made the point at the local precinct meeting that I'd like the police to catch these idiots so they can be sent to prison where they can learn how to enter a car without damaging it. That got a round of applause from a bunch of my neighbors. Some mornings all you see along the curb is mounds of broken auto glass where they've smashed their way into a half dozen or so cars.

[Sabrina]

HEHEHE ... this place is funnier than the Off-Topic board ... I can't believe I've been missing out ... :bustingup :bustingup :bustingup ... I can just see the thief going up to a bimmer with this sticker on ... *Oh my Bubba we better leave this car alone ... it has THAT sticker on it, I bet the owners wouldn't be dumb enough leave the keys or any form of valuables in the car, lets take our crowbar and sparkplugs and find a car without this sticker on it* ... :bigpimp:




:sabrina: ;) :p

[GimpyMcFarlan]

The sticker might make a thief think twice before breaking in. I know folks that have the generic house alarm stickers and signs posted around their home. However, sometimes they do just because they can...

http://home.insight.rr.com/bstarner/RearWindow.jpg

Nothing was stolen out of my car when this happened. I had an expensive pair of gloves and a CD case full of music sitting on the front seat.

[variable42]

If the car thief is just a jackass in general, he may break into the car specifically because he sees a sticker that's supposed to deter him. Remember the type of people you're dealing with -- typically teenagers and 20-somethings. Not the most rational people alive.

[doeboy]

Originally posted by drmwvr
What is "No Key No Valuables" supposed to mean? Am I the only one who is confused by this? :dunno:

I'm a little :confused: by that sticker too....

Can we get one that says "Driver does not carry more than $20" or something too? :p

[ff]

Originally posted by 3seriesbimmer
how about just adding a standard ALARM at NO CHARGE!!! like every other auto maker!!!!:tsk: :tsk: :tsk:

That's asking for an awful lot. I mean, we didn't even get a CD player as standard on a $40K car, until just last year!!

[Artslinger]

I think this sticker is to help alleviate break-ins in the NJ area. There has been a rash of break-ins in certain cities because the thieves there believe people leave the plastic key in the owners manual in the glove box.

[drmwvr]

I think that the sticker would work better if it looked like this:

[Marco]

Originally posted by vatkens
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/sbarrowclough/Label1.jpg
Come to think of it, doesn't the circle with the slash mean 'forbidden'?
So the sticker actually means "in this car the use of keys is forbidden. (It is equally fobidden to carry valuables on board)."
This is a deterrent not for thieves (who don't have the key anyway and presumably little valuables), but for punks who would like to vandalize your pristine BMW by keying it.:D

[Freaky_Monkey]

Originally posted by Marco
So the sticker actually means "in this car the use of keys is forbidden. (It is equally fobidden to carry valuables on board)."
This is a deterrent not for thieves (who don't have the key anyway and presumably little valuables), but for punks who would like to vandalize your pristine BMW by keying it.:D

Or how about... "Do not key the car."

[01silber]

or better yet lets just start shooting car thieves and vandales in the knees ,then they will get the message

[sbeazel]

This is so stupid I almost took it for a scam to get owners' addresses and vin #'s.

[HW]

isn't the main point of the sticker to let would be theives know that they wouldn't be able to steal the car w/o a tow truck, flat bed or real good knowledge of the obc and have replacement/substitute components w/ them. :dunno: no one can stop someone from breaking in and taking the valubles from your car. :tsk:

[Matthew330Ci]

unfortunately, this is another example of someone leaving their valet key in the car (an m3 in this case) and having it stolen.

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=86978

[Artslinger]

Right Matthew,

This is why BMW has issued the sticker. I guess some dealers and stupid owners leave the plastic key in the glove box owners manual. The sticker lets the thieves know that you have no key in the manual, and hopefully this will prevent car thieves from pulling the lock or breaking the window. This is not meant to stop people from stealing belongings in the car. And without a key just about impossible to steal a BMW other than towing it away.

Quote from efanatics...

"yea i had the valet in the car, and the movie theater is 190th and horace harding expway in queens... dont gooooo there.."

[NOVAblue740iL]

people actually LEAVE THEIR key in their car??? jeezus

if your this dumb then you deserve to get your **** stolen :thumbdwn: