Theft prevention

[Simon50s]

I've been watching some episodes of Blue Light on Youtube and one PC commented that the RS3 is the 'car of choice for criminals'.

I was just curious to know whether RS3 owners in the UK are worried about this? or even worse, had there's stolen.

Seems the thieves break into houses for the keys these days.

 

[kayemill]

I've been watching some episodes of Blue Light on Youtube and one PC commented that the RS3 is the 'car of choice for criminals'.

I was just curious to know whether RS3 owners in the UK are worried about this? or even worse, had there's stolen.

Seems the thieves break into houses for the keys these days.

Someone on here definately had their's stolen, Just remember it was a Saloon I think, and yes they went for the keys.

 

[Jsimba]

Relay theft is nothing new for any car with keyless entry/start and something like our RS3s will always be a desirable one to target. Land Rover has suffered massively in the last few years from exactly this issue.

Hiding your keys and putting them in a Faraday pouch will prevent theft from anyone trying to relay the signal from outside the house, and adding physical protection like a Disklok or Stoplock will be a good visible deterrent. They'll be some scum brazen and dangerous to break in and threaten for keys to be handed over, but most will be looking to take a car as quickly as possible and with minimal interaction with the owner.

Beyond that, it's really worth investing in an aftermarket alarm or immobiliser system, ideally with OBD immobilisation or remote engine cut-off, whether that's Starline, Metalok, Ghost, Pandora, etc. Cost for those can run to £1,000+, but I was happy to pay that for piece of mind

 

[Jsimba]

Sorry, Monday morning getting the better of me! That should've read: "There'll be some scum brazen and dangerous enough to break in and threaten for keys to be handed over..."

 

[neil_1821]

There's plenty of preventative measures even if they manage to take the keys, CCTV, retractable bollards, trackers and ghost immobilisers which means you can't even start it without knowing the combination of button presses. I get that it's more expense but I don't know why you wouldn't bother with it after spending so much on a newer car.

 

[flybynite]

There's plenty of preventative measures even if they manage to take the keys, CCTV, retractable bollards, trackers and ghost immobilisers which means you can't even start it without knowing the combination of button presses. I get that it's more expense but I don't know why you wouldn't bother with it after spending so much on a newer car.

The problem is those that are tooled up enough to break into an occupied house know their way around things like that. CCTV has to be really good to get any useful detail. Ghost is easily bypassed these days along with most alarms. Bollards work only if there is no easier way out through a wall fence or hedge. Many don't survive a sideways yank with a chain.

Quite a few cars stolen just after ghost was fitted (including at least one RS3 I know of), doesn't take a genius to work out what might have happened there

 

[Houston]

I had a Ghost in the past and for me it was more of a pain in the **** than it was worth. That being said, other than a car being towed away or an owner being forced to give up their code is it really easily bypassed?

I believe the early units had issues that meant they could be but I though that the current ones were pretty much secure if they couldn't be located?

 

[Mike.46]

If thieves are brazen enough to break into your house for the keys they are probably brazen enough to re enter to ask you for the ghost code, Ideally and IMHO you need a system that allows them to take the car and then immobilise the car once away from you, hopefully allowing you to wake up or make your getaway if the car was taken under threat in say a Supermarket car park.
Of course with enough time they could locate the unit and remove it, but I doubt they are going to want to spend half an hour removing it tbh

 

[neil_1821]

I know of a few cars that have been broken into and they couldn't get it started because of the ghost, perhaps they weren't entirely clued up like those who make their careers stealing cars and thankfully where my car is parked there's no chance they could drag it out as it's surrounded by bollards.
If they want to break in to steal the keys they'll have a nasty surprise waiting for them

 

[M3 Convert]

We had ours stolen from the drive earlier this year. Thieves broke into the house at night and took the keys which were stored downstairs. We had a steering lock but that was only use as a visible deterrent when parked away from home as they got the key for that too. Having been through this, my advice would be in priority order:

1. Always set your house alarm - even overnight.
2. Install high intensity security lights over your drive.
3. Install Ghost or Pandora.
4. Install CCTV. Mine was used by the police when the thieves were eventually caught and brought to trial.
5. Consider intruder spikes for back gates etc.
6. Think about where you want to store the keys. Downstairs to avoid confrontation or upstairs if you want to be brave!

 

[Simon50s]

We had ours stolen from the drive earlier this year. Thieves broke into the house at night and took the keys which were stored downstairs. We had a steering lock but that was only use as a visible deterrent when parked away from home as they got the key for that too. Having been through this, my advice would be in priority order:

1. Always set your house alarm - even overnight.
2. Install high intensity security lights over your drive.
3. Install Ghost or Pandora.
4. Install CCTV. Mine was used by the police when the thieves were eventually caught and brought to trial.
5. Consider intruder spikes for back gates etc.
6. Think about where you want to store the keys. Downstairs to avoid confrontation or upstairs if you want to be brave!

Sorry to hear about your rather unpleasant experience. It sounds like the only way to prevent this is to turn your house into a mini fortress.

 

[M3 Convert]

Sorry to hear about your rather unpleasant experience. It sounds like the only way to prevent this is to turn your house into a mini fortress.

Thanks. To be fair, we live in a nice part of Surrey and the car had been parked on the drive fine for 2.5 years before the theft. I think we were just unlucky to get targeted by a ring operating around the M25. Anyway - if you only do one thing then make sure it's to set your house alarm at night. We got complacent.

 

[Jsimba]

After having a Starline system on my 8V previously, I finally got around to putting an aftermarket alarm on my 8Y last week, and went for the Meta Trak Deadlock Pro on top of the Stoplock which I use as a visual deterrent.

The Meta Trak seems very similar to the Starline I had in what it provides (alarm, immobiliser and tracker) although the app is less intuitive than the Starline app, where you got far more info on status etc. But for all intents and purposes, it's largely the same in what it provides in terms of security. One benefit it does have is that the different alarm elements connect to each other wirelessly, making it (hopefully) much harder to find.

Interestingly, I spoke with the insurer to have it logged with them and not only did it not affect the premium (for better or worse) but they said they didn't need to make a note of it on the policy either

It adds some extra piece of mind at least.

 

[Terminator x]

Don't modern keys "sleep" after a short period so the relay theft doesn't work now.

We also have a M3 Touring and I know their key does that.

TX.

 

[Jsimba]

Don't modern keys "sleep" after a short period so the relay theft doesn't work now.

We also have a M3 Touring and I know their key does that.

TX.

Unfortunately that doesn't stop thieves getting into the car via the OBD port, or picking up the signal from the key at an earlier point to return later on - or indeed just taking the key from the house. If there's no other form of protection, physical or otherwise, then a car is going to be vulnerable.