Wow. Just wow.

 

If this were truly the case, modern cars would not get stolen at the rate they still are...I'm telling you, key or no key a thief who knows a little bit about the modern electronics in these cars will drive off with them. Heck, there are bypass kits for sale online for most modern makes and models!

 

Damn you are naive.
A professional theif can just put the car onto a flat bed and take it somewhere and strip it. Almost any car with an aftermarket remote start has a bypass to start it up built right end. Cut the wire that runs into from the brake sensor and boom you can steal about any car with one. Also the keys that use a RF signal to transmit to the car to identify the right key, the RF signal can be picked up and cloned (just like with cell phone signals). You own a Nissan right, why don't you go around to your local Nissan dealerships and see if your keyless entry opens any other cars than your own, if you visit enough you are bound to find one that works.

Finally Redzed: Why are you on this board? All you do is talk up Nissan and other foriegn manufactures. You down GM for doing something that ALL manufactures will copy within the forseeable future, including DCX and Nissan. Seriously you have made some good points quite a while ago but you are just getting f*cking annoying now.

Jason Debbler will you warn Redzed to quit bitchin' or if you have already done this then just ban him already.

 

[QUOTE=Z28Marcus]They don't need to.

I'm as big a proponent of privacy as you'll find. Tracking all the vehicles on all the highways is much more difficult than you think. It's a lot bigger task than a select few cameras.

There are far more serious risks to privacy than OnStar. We are on one of the least private areas one could imagine... Yep the internet.
I'd avoid it if you are concerned about big bro...

Credit cards? Don't use them... They'll track you with ease...


Cell phones? Someone's listening...'cause they can? Of course they're paying some to listen to every call...

Internet?... I'd avoid it if you are concerned about big bro... Credit card? They'll track you with ease...

Let's not talk social security car numbers... Avoid the postal service...it's run by the government you know...

The good thing about too much data - is that there's too much for anyone to read.

 

my name is Rusty Shackelford. <~~ Dale Gribble's alias

sorry, couldn't resist.

 

Man...where have you been?

Car theft is a declining, but it's a big. bg business. ANYTHING can be stolen.

 

Instead of flatbed, that professional thief could use a gigantic magnet suspended from a helicopter to ****** your car while you're driving along at 85MPH on the Long Island Expressway.

 

1. Very old cars (10 years old+) top the "most stolen" list. Autotheft is mostly centered on cars that were produced before immobilizer chips became pretty much universal.

2. Can you offer some actual proof that a car with an immobilizer-chip-in-the-key can still be "Gone in 60 Seconds?" I somehow doubt that criminals can easily bypass immobilizer chips while the car is still on the street.

 

Isn't amazing how Toyota has gained a Volvo-like reputation for safety? Isn't equally shocking that Volvo enjoys a Toyota-like reputation for reliabilty?

 

Drove. Past tense.


Actually, the flatbed only had to come a couple miles and my autoclub has amazing regional service.



I knew where I was, because I actually pay attention while I drive - including route numbers and intersections. I knew where the flatbed was coming from because I'd passed the garage a couple miles before the breakdown. I ALWAYS carry a fully charged cellphone and my cellular provider has excellent coverage.

I didn't need the help from the "three motorists and a state trooper," but I was sure glad to know that there are so many good samaritans out there. Have some faith.


Again, your simple, close minded comments leave a lot to be desired.[/QUOTE]

I think all those OnStar television spots just play on people's insecurites.



My old car dated from the Bush administration (George Herbert Walker, that is) so a break down wasn't shocking.


To save $16.95/month, I'm willing to live life on the edge.


I don't know about you, but I personally don't cart around all that much valuable stuff.

 

WRONG. Autotheft is most often centered on how much the parts are worth at a chop shop. Older cars are generally stolen most frequently not necessarily because it's "easier" but because they are more common on the road, thus their parts are more valuable.

All I can offer you right now are statistics. Statistics that basically de-bunk your argument. See this: http://www.auto-theft.info/Statistics.htm

The stats may be from 2002, but you'll notice that 4 of the top 10 most stolen cars in 2002 were model years 1996 and up, well within the standard for "modern" passive ignition security systems. In fact as you see, the 2000 Honda Civic was the third most stolen vehicle. Scrolling down, the two most popular model years for thefts were 1995 and 1994. What's interesting is that my old '94 Z28 came equipped with PASSKEY, and I'm assuming most GM vehicles of that vintage did. Perhaps none of those cars were GM vehicles....but I highly doubt it.

Scroll down further and you'll find that the Cadillac Escalade and Lincoln Navigator are among the most stolen vehicles in terms of thefts per registered vehicle. Are you telling me these late model, high end SUV's don't have "sophisticated" ignition security systems? Or are all these theives running around with keys?

 

This might be the ONLY time that I actually agree with you whole heartly 100%. I didn't think it would ever happen. You hit the nail right on the head with those OnStar commercials.

Now why do you have to post in such a childish manner the other 99.99% of the time?

 

Were 1989 Camrys (the most stollen car) really common back in 2002? Are '89 Toyota parts worth their weight in gold. Around where I live, most Toyotas of that vintage were were worn or rusted out. No, the list is full of older cars because newer cars are just about impossible to steal.



1. Not all GM vehicle had PassKey back in 1994. The F-body was just about the first to get it - for very obvious reasons. F-bodies used to be right at the top of that list.

2. Escalades and Navigators were pretty darned hot back in the day.

 

Arguing with you is like a Monty Python skit. I give you all this information showing that modern cars are stolen at quite an alarming rate and you spit back out the same totally illogical line. You're about to bore me into submission.

Actually the first GM vehicle to get PassKey as far as I could tell was the 1986 Corvette. The technology has been around a while.

I'm not really sure what this is supposed to mean?

By the way, I think we'll all agree that the 1989 Toyota Camry was certainly not the nicest car around, and pristine examples 13 years later were most likely few and very far between. That doesn't matter. It's illogical to assume they were just stolen because it was "easier", you see as cars age they need parts (duh) and since a lot of people are still using them as transportation the demand for good parts is high. I'm not going to argue with you that it was easier to steal a car of that era as opposed to today, but it's simply short-sighted to see the auto theft business as nothing but a collection of knowlegeless, lazy hacks who just choose the easiest target.

 

Just so you know I haven't seen too many OnStar commercials (sigh...) I have presented a real world situation in this thread that actually happened to my inlaws, in which a life was saved.

Seriously... if you want to debate the "Big Brother" aspect of it, that's fine I guess... but there is no way on this planet that anyone can say that having OnStar does not increase your overall safety vs. not having it. Period. OnStar can SAVE YOUR LIFE. Not having it CAN NOT. End of story.