Effectiveness of passkey system?

Does anyone here know how good the passkey system is? I was wondering because in the paper today it said that newer gm cars like malibus, impalas and aleros are some of the most stolen cars in this city. These cars are being stolen by kids under 16 and used for joyriding. There was one impala where they propped the gas pedal down and crashed it through someones house!!
I always thought the passkey would keep my Camaro safe from these punks but I guess it won't.

When ever I have a computer problem I go nextdoor and ask my seven yr.old neighbor first,you say these kids are 16. :)

The VATS system in F-bodies is, believe it or not, actually quite good at preventing stealing the car;). Because of the resistor chip in the key, if the start circuit doesn't see the exact resistance it's looking for, it will A) not engage the starter, and B) not allow power to the fuel pump. Now I'm sure that "people in the know" can get around the system quickly/easily, but not your average 16-year-old kid:no:. Really, I can't say I've heard of any F-body thefts:think:.

The only quick way to bypass the system is to have the key resistance. You can get a log of all the resitances and wire a quick connect fitting which can utilize different ones quickly to speed the process up, but it will still be mind numbigly complicated. Especially with the pressure of stealing a car on your back as it is :D

Most cars stolen probably had the key in them or were stolen by someone close to the person.

-Shannon

thats odd to me because the dealer says that you have to wait 20 mins with the key off before you can try a different vats resistor. there was 15 total vats keys in 1997, but if you know someone at the dealership, they can run the vin through gm and get the vats code that the car was made with, thats what i had to do and it worked for me.

Unless the time changed, I think it's only 4 minutes between attempts:think:.