Why I don't believe in 'car alarms' anymore.

[wolfwings]

They just plain don't work, and give insurance companies a reason to deny your claim if you get your car swiped.

News flash: Honda's not the only company that stuffs handbrake-and-ignition codes into their cars. Just about all newer cars have these sorts of funky 'codes' to disable or enable various features such as stability control, or in this case, a VIN-specific code to bypass the built-in key-ID system. One that I'm willing to bet isn't highly unique and that someone with some brains could reverse-engineer or find a pattern in pretty easilly.

But this is all another reason why I look at car security as pointless once someone is inside your vehicle. You might as well just remove the ignition key entirely and replace it with a simple kill switch under the dash and a push-button wired to the starter. Nothing you can do will deter a criminal once they're inside your car.

Comments

[lironess.livejournal.com]

I saw an anti-theift program at work once. They also said the only thing that works is a kill switch, hidden somewhere.

Insurance companies suck.

[aerowolf.livejournal.com]

The problem is "hiding it". If it came as a standard feature, it wouldn't be hidden.

[lironess.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they said to install it yourself, aftermarket, as most cars don't have one now. This was also a long time ago. The program also came in handy when my exboyfriends car was stolen. The pulled the ignition out so I told him to borrow a screwdriver from the tow guys to start it...and he was shocked when it worked. He is one of those guys who knows everything, but he didn't know about that. It was pretty funny.

There is one other thing that works...

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

...and that's Ravelco though in effect that's a massive delay device. It runs most of the important wires in the car in identical colors to a single multi-pin plug.

Personally, I'd remove the ignition cylinder, put one of those in since that can be wired to control the accessory switch. So it'd be 'insert wierd fob thing into dash, push button on dash' to start the car. :-)

Re: There is one other thing that works...

[(Anonymous)]

Sounds cool to me! I am not to worried about my old car, it is almost off of the blue book. But someday I will have a good job and I will get a new car.
Wanna help me anti-theft it? Are you still in CA?