The MR2 Owner's Club of New Zealand

Doing up your MR2?

You don't want it stolen and stripped by some jerk eh...

Remember that this area of the forum is on the INTERNET and is visible to ANYONE.

So don't post that it lives on the street at night, or any other info that might lead to it being nicked.

And be wary of anyone wanting to rock over for parts etc, cos they might be just sussing where that beast built from expensive after-market parts can be found.

Meet at a different place, or at least deal with a paid-up member (name in gold) as the club have their address etc. Whereas a forum user whose name is in grey... who knows who they really are? Maybe they are SWeet as bro. But we don't necessarily know.

I would encourage folk to post up things on their Rides thread that would help ID their cars if stolen. Serial numbers of parts, pics of uncommon rims etc... Document those kind of details here on your Rides thread. Might help forum folk ID a part if it turns up on Trademe or something. Or give you a record for the cops.

You can carve / dot punch unique identifying marks into parts so you can ID a part without seeing it. Eg "There's blah-blah markings in the casing of the..." So the cops would say "ok yeah it must be yours". These markings are for your info only though so don't post them up. Keep them safely in your head. Or on your own computer.

You might also engrave your phone number into various parts.

Do it. Let's make this forum a reason why a thief will NOT steal your MR2...!

Any other anti-theft ideas, post 'em here.

Don't make it easy would be one thing. I know people who park their car outside their house overnight, unlocked and they have nice sounds inside. Lock your car, even if it's garaged but especially if it's not. A steering lock (not the cars one, a bar that goes across the steering wheel) is always good, those only doing it for spur of the moment probably won't bother with a car with one. If you have an outside light, set it to auto. If someone rocks up and a light turns on on them, hopefully being in the lime light would stop them trying anything too naughty. If you're going to be away from your car for a period of time like a holiday, leave it with very low fuel, so either they run out or do a petrol drive off sooner, so then it's in the system sooner rather than later. None of that is bullet proof, but it's going to help if they're not targeting your car.

Also, going on from what Charlie says, careful who you bring to your house. Not just from our forum, but trade me would be another one. Meet somewhere else if they're picking up something car related (someone buying furniture is probably ok). If you have a really nice car in the garage, perhaps have the garage closed when some random does turn up so they don't know it's around. If you live a decent distance from a main road, keep an eye in your rear view mirror. Unlikely but not unheard of someone following you to see where your nice car lives at night. Give them a test, take a different side street or pull over, see what they do. If you suspect they are following you, don't bring them near your home, use your judgement what to do with each situation. 99% of the time it'll be completely innocent and coincidence. But it only takes the 1% to figure out where to find your car.

Move to the SI, get a dog and buy a rifle.

Ha! ^
Buy some cameras, even web cams will do the trick and they don't cost the earth and aren't hard to set up
I do the BNZ systems for work so if any one needs some info or help setting them up a big system in AKL area feel free to PM me

Need to enable guests + members post edits (or even thread deletion) just in the Rides section.

I have multiple cameras, a gun, and shortly a dog.

Benckj wrote:Move to the SI, get a dog and buy a rifle.

nocheck, check, multiple check!
Have someone else park behind you, know your neighbours and be willing to earn a reputation of not being worth the risk

Dare I add, even fake cameras are a good deterrent
Dogs a good deterrent too
Guns better again haha
Unfortunately some of these aren't options for some people

Much to be said for a simple kill switch and removing the coil lead when parking in the public domain

Also been looking into gps tracking, once installed only costs 10-20 bucks a month to keep the sim topped up
Snitch seems to very popular and accurate with loads of different settings for text/call/email alerts

http://www.gpstracking.co.nz/snitch.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Perhaps I'm naive from living in a relatively safe area, but I always assumed your car was more likely to get nicked when you went out somewhere and parked it in an unfamiliar spot? For that reason i've never really understood the people who hide the numberplate when they sell their car on trademe. It inclines me to think that the car has a dodgy odo/history they are trying to hide..

ClanFever wrote:Don't make it easy would be one thing. I know people who park their car outside their house overnight, unlocked and they have nice sounds inside. Lock your car, even if it's garaged but especially if it's not. A steering lock (not the cars one, a bar that goes across the steering wheel) is always good, those only doing it for spur of the moment probably won't bother with a car with one. If you have an outside light, set it to auto. If someone rocks up and a light turns on on them, hopefully being in the lime light would stop them trying anything too naughty. If you're going to be away from your car for a period of time like a holiday, leave it with very low fuel, so either they run out or do a petrol drive off sooner, so then it's in the system sooner rather than later. None of that is bullet proof, but it's going to help if they're not targeting your car.

Also, going on from what Charlie says, careful who you bring to your house. Not just from our forum, but trade me would be another one. Meet somewhere else if they're picking up something car related (someone buying furniture is probably ok). If you have a really nice car in the garage, perhaps have the garage closed when some random does turn up so they don't know it's around. If you live a decent distance from a main road, keep an eye in your rear view mirror. Unlikely but not unheard of someone following you to see where your nice car lives at night. Give them a test, take a different side street or pull over, see what they do. If you suspect they are following you, don't bring them near your home, use your judgement what to do with each situation. 99% of the time it'll be completely innocent and coincidence. But it only takes the 1% to figure out where to find your car.

I'm going to take note of this. Another thing to do is if dealing with other people, just tell them your address is the neighbour's, or somewhere short walking distance of yours. To beat thieves you have to think like one. I personally think a steering lock bar can be ripped out by a determined thief pretty easily, and if a thief really wants your car, he/she will get it. All the other stuff will merely slow them down, I think the best thing would be a clever kill switch and GPS.. not too sure of the technical details but if certain wires are hidden and not located in/around ignition it should slow down an idiot thief..

And off the record, but insurance companies can rob you too, so maybe it is possible having a driving camera up front (and maybe smaller to show different angles etc though maybe a bit excessive) in the case that you need to make a claim.

And +1 on the dog!

seagull wrote:Perhaps I'm naive from living in a relatively safe area, but I always assumed your car was more likely to get nicked when you went out somewhere and parked it in an unfamiliar spot? For that reason i've never really understood the people who hide the numberplate when they sell their car on trademe. It inclines me to think that the car has a dodgy odo/history they are trying to hide..

I may be wrong, but I believe it is from the days when you could go to the post office and pretend to be the owner and get all details of the vehicle... not sure, never tried to be a car thief.. however I do know some crims hang outside police stations to try and ID cops.

I know of guys that stole cars using a tow truck. one in the suit with a clip board, puts official looking papers on the door of the house, other loads the truck...

looks legal, to the neighbours.....they did drop the car back after though...picked clean(almost, still had plates on the car when they dropped it back, so the guy knew it was his:()

moral to the story, "if they want it bad enough, there is nothing you can do to stop them".

steering wheel locks get cheated with a hacksaw(cut the rim of the steering wheel, twist and remove)
the exception was the "auto taser", which was a "crookhook", with a 3 foot tube off it with exposed metal strips running down it, that arced close to 50.000v(low current, but was uncomfortable to hold onto, and a 130db siren for good luck)pity they were outlawed because they could cause harm to a car thief(seriously)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey3XDc27RCw

Sketchy wrote:the exception was the "auto taser", which was a "crookhook", with a 3 foot tube off it with exposed metal strips running down it, that arced close to 50.000v(low current, but was uncomfortable to hold onto, and a 130db siren for good luck)pity they were outlawed because they could cause harm to a car thief(seriously)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey3XDc27RCw

Wow that's cool!

I think I would build something similar in to the door handle. Nobody should be sticking their fingers underneath the handle cover to open the door but me! If you had GPS with a geo boundary, at least you would be alerted to the fact your car might be on the back of a truck and be able to track it so long as the transmitter was not removed.