How to steal an allroad ?

[ColinRyan]

Hi,

My 2002 AR was stolen from in front of my house recently. I'd appreciate your opinion on the facts:

- We have two key fobs which were not taken during the robbery
- No alarm went off
- I bought the car from a garage 7 months ago
- I found the car 10 days later parked up on a residential road
- The car was locked but the inside has been rummaged through
- No visible sign of doors being bent/jimmied
- No major body damage to car (execpt for rub below)
- A policeman friend (in car crime unit) has seen a rise in the incidence of stealing 8/10 year old cars for parts/'export', often without keys - they are either towed or 'lifted' - Not easy with a quattro automatic.
- Whoever did it cut the break lines to the ABS unit before they left it
- I think it was driven as there is a rub on the driver side rear wheel arch
- I have looked into previous requests for keys but cannot find any via VW/AUdi Ireland - that said their history/tracking record is patchy once you go back a bit - in fact they were quite unhelpful

What do folks think:
- How technically possible is to get access ot the car without a key
- How can people get keys without going through main dealer
- Why steal it drive it and then just park it up neatly again (having ripped out my baby seat and hands free kit but left CDs sunglasses etc in place)
- Have you heard off Allroads being lifted/towed by theifs?

All opinions appreciated ...

C.

 

[205man]

maybe the previous owner or friend etc of them has another key cut/programmed

the first thing id is to take both your sets of keys to your main dealre and get them reprogrammed along with the car just to be sure

 

[ColinRyan]

Found the car since. Parked up and locked. Am getting new locks and keys. I'd still be interested in hearing the theory as to how the car can be taken/driven with/without coded keys ...

 

[NHN]

I'd say someone copied the keys mate, cloning keys is possible, they left parked up to see if had tracker.

Ask dealer to 1st check before coding anything new, to see how many keys the car showed as coded to it, there is an option to show this with diag tools, if shows 2 then someone has cloned a key, if shows more than your 2 then its obvious someone has another key.

 

[PeteS]

I would take the car to the dealers the good news is that they can disable all the keys and then reprogramme the keys that you have. If some one has a spare key or a cloned key then this will not start the car any more. It may still be possible to use the key to unlock the doors so it might be worth seeing about changing the locks. Your insurance company may foot the bill so it might be worth talking to them. One other thought is do you know that the car was not just towed or picked up and taken to where you found it. In this case the car would still be locked and maybe no one has a key.
Hope this helps a bit.
Pete