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After what I went through last week, renting my first keyless car, I came back home and all but kissed the fenders of my 1985 Toyota Supra! And learning what it cost to replace one of those Fobs (up to $1k), and how many times I've lost my car key over my 45 years of driving, I'm going to hang on to that car until my heart stops beating!!! Only costs me $3 to get a duplicate!
Go ahead, mechanic! Tell me the next repair bill is $1k, I'll give you a kiss, hug and big tip to get it fixed!
I had a flat tire last week, and of course, they don't make 15 inch tires anymore for my vehicle, you have to special order them, but, yeah, $175, I happily paid it!!
I had a client of mine, one time, lose a key to his Lexus, cost him $600 to get another one!
It hasn't showed up yet on the auto maker's radar screens: we're becoming a 3rd world country! And? Simplicity is a sure sign of maturity!
It's a pretty brazen (and stupid) thief that would go after a car with a good security system. My car had a Lojack system installed in it at one point in time, it doesn't now, but the sticker on the driver's window is probably about the best deterrent there is. Even with a tow truck, they may get the car, but they give away their location and most likely will get caught.
most thieves are going to take late model cars to chop shops, so they can get rid of the car quickly and let the shop take the fall.
A good trick to disable a car is pull the main fuse for the engine from the fuse block. I have seen people get real creative in seedier parts of LA county boxing a car in with cheaper cars so you can't physically move it.
Instead of having all of the electronic gimmickry to prevent car theft, how about making auto theft a federal crime with a mandatory 30 year prison sentence with no possibility of parole? 50-75 year sentence for individuals convicted of knowingly trading in stolen vehicles. Car theft problem solved.
Gas IS 88c a gallon, in 1975 dollars. When i was a kid in the 1940s, gas was 25c a gallon. IT STILL IS, in 1950 dollars. Then, a gallon of gas cost as much as a pack of cigarettes, a paperback novel, a large chocolate malt, eight postage stamps, or five local calls from a payphone.. Now, a gallon of gas is the cheapest item on that list. Next time you're at your gas station, start filling cups with cola at the fountain until you have a gallon of pop. See how much that costs, and think about where it came from and how it got made.
Gas was 75¢ a gallon in 2000. That's about 88¢ in 2013 dollars.
Instead of having all of the electronic gimmickry to prevent car theft, how about making auto theft a federal crime with a mandatory 30 year prison sentence with no possibility of parole? 50-75 year sentence for individuals convicted of knowingly trading in stolen vehicles. Car theft problem solved.
and this will work how again? you get the death penalty for 1st dgree murder, and it doesnt stop criminals. you get a minimum mandatory 5 year sentence in arizona for armed robbery, yet they still occur. you get life without parole for kidnapping, and yet they also still occur.
and this will work how again? you get the death penalty for 1st dgree murder, and it doesnt stop criminals. you get a minimum mandatory 5 year sentence in arizona for armed robbery, yet they still occur. you get life without parole for kidnapping, and yet they also still occur.
That's the usual straw-man argument. Severe penalties won't stop every criminal, but it will deter many of them. Severe penalties like long incarceration without possibility of parole can be an especially strong deterrent to criminals who are only committing crimes to make a monetary profit. Stealing a car to take to a chop shop would lose a lot of its appeal if the perp knew he would go to prison for a third to a half of his life for doing it.
I remember the days, of having a car key made down at the Ace hardware, cost about $1.50. Then came the new Japanese cars, with the double edge, added another dollar or two. But this new era, of electronic keys, is completely different, keys for my Honda, cost upwards of $45. Each!
I got a few new keys for my car several months ago, paid for them, had to wait for the keys to come in, a few weeks wait, no problem.
Fast forward to this week, holidays and all that. My kids all have keys to my car, from when they lived with me, and...their keys no longer work, because the car was re programmed when I got some additional keys made several months ago...how did I find this out? Well, I needed to start my car, it had been left out, and it had been below zero that night, I used my daughter's key, the car would not start. Hmm, maybe it is the battery, okay, called AAA for a jump. This was a hassle, but he came our, and could not start the car, he told me it was not the battery.,,hmm...okay, tow car in to Honda, find out the problem...
The problem? The car would not start with my daughters key any longer, because when I got some additional keys, the car was reprogrammed...only those new keys worked, along with my same old key...okay, Honda reprogrammed the car keys again, but I did not realize ALL keys had to be there...
Sigh. I wish the days of just getting a new car key, at the Ace hardware still existed.
When you live in an area where most people don't find it necessary to lock their house doors at night, all the security features they add in on cars these days go from boon to bane real quick.
If the $1 key from the local hardware store is good enough for my house, why wouldn't it be good enough for my car?
If we lose both keys to either of our cars, the dealership has to tow it in and then match a key to it with some computer or something. I don't even want to know the price.
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Only costs me $3 to get a duplicate!
