Once upon a time, car radios were often stolen. Today car radios are rarely stolen.
After that phase, mag wheels were often stolen. So is stealing mag wheels a dying crime?
I ask because I just got a new car and I wonder if I should buy wheel lock nuts for my 19" OEM wheels?
and your car gets broken into, the key taken from glovebox and wheels gone
Or just the key taken, what a hassle.
Once upon a time people use break into peoples houses… does that even happen now?….
I don't know about Sydney but, in Melbourne, they seem to have upgraded to home invasions!
It’s unlikely to happen (depending on what type of rims they are obviously) but for $50 ish why wouldn’t you just get them to be safe?
I wouldn’t bother for OEM wheels. Unless you regularly leave it parked in high crime areas, especially overnight or perhaps if it’s a highly desirable model for drug dealers.
If you do get them make sure you know where the key is all the time.
Then again, it’s cheap peace of mind. The previous owner of my vehicle left it on the side of the road to advertise when selling. Came back and found (OEM) wheels gone. So I bought it with several spare wheels because they replaced with a cheap second hand set.
what car?
Nissan ute. It has an uncommon bolt pattern. I guess someone saw an opportunity for cheap tyres.
My Forester came with factory 'mags' (nothing spectacular) and lock nuts.
The key is kept with the 'tool kit' under the spare; handy if I got a flat and not a big deal to fish it out when it needs any tyre work.
The day I got back to the train station and found 3 nuts laying on the ground reminded me that
1. it was wise to not remove the lock nuts for convenience
2. thieves are idiots - they removed 3 nuts before they got to the obviously-different one that didn't work.
That was rude they could have at least refitted the nuts if they weren't going to steal them.
Turns out common courtesy isn't all the common anymore.
Thieves these days. Sheeeeesh.
shakes head in disgust
What station was this?
Kelmscott in WA.
Not the most salubrious location - parking next to a patch of broken window glass was more common than you'd like.
@AnneThrope: Yup, thanks for teaching me a new word today! :D
Was thinking about buying a property in Perth. Will strike Kelmscott off my list.
This post comes across as someone that once had a lucrative career in car parts and has become frustrated in their career as trends and preferences change.
Maybe a Government Grant for upskilling or a visit to Career Reference Centre… Just say you want the file on trends in what is lucrative in car parts and give them "the nod" :+)
Catalytic converters? lol
Catalytic converters?
Yes this seems to be the trend - Police warning as thieves target car exhausts worth more than gold
Today car radios are rarely stolen
They still get stolen, but they're more 'targetted' these days. The manufacturers combatted the thefts by making the shape of the units and dashboards non-standard so the market isn't as wide anymore. The popular cars amongst the younger crowd, such as the 86, still get their unit stolen on a regular basis.
… if I should buy wheel lock nuts for my 19" OEM wheels?
Is it a popular car? Hyundai i30N? The nuts aren't expensive so there's no harm getting them. Even if it acts as a deterrent just once, it's made it's already made it's money back several times over. I had plans to get them myself, but my car came with them from the factory.
I asked the dealership this question and the answer was "More trouble than it is worth" because the wheels are common. I guess it depends if the OEM is Porsche or Hyundai.
From what I've heard "swapping" wheels is a thing.
Pick an unsuspecting granny with a similar new car and swap the wheels over for the new tyres. Seems risky to me as surely there's an identification/traceable stamp or serial number inside the wheel. Maybe not.
Don’t know why you were negged, but this is an issue. Had a friend selling a car, guy came up to look at it. Buyer handed over his wallet, license and car keys to take the friends car for a test drive. Came back 10 mins later said it wasn’t what he was looking for.
About a week later, he realised that they had stolen all 4 wheels off his car and replaced them with near worn out ones. It had factory alloys on it so the thieves obviously had the same car waiting nearby and just swapped them over.
He didn’t keep any of the guys license details and from his surveillance camera, he got the number plate of the car the thief arrived in and police said that plate was reported stolen.
That sucks.
Seems like so much effort/risk for not much pay off. Surely there are better things to do…
Don’t know why you were negged
I'll tell you why. Because some members are:
I get that last one a lot. Or, they can’t neg my comment with 20+ upvotes on it, so will go find some comment from 2 weeks ago with no votes or 2 negs and leave a neg there because “I’ll teach him to make me look like a fool…”
This happens with rental cars. I've even read about entire engines being switched out.
weird that they let the buyer drive it without supervision. I would never trust anyone, even holding their wallet.
He said the guy seemed legit and handed over his wallet full of cash, his car keys without any issue and my friend though, well, if he doesn’t bring the car back he has a wallet with ID, some cash and the dudes car keys. It wasn’t an expensive car by any means, so he was cool with letting him test drive it.
He has more faith in people than what I do. I would never let someone test drive a vehicle I own unless I was driving or I was with them.
Wheels could be stamped and identified, but who checks them? I don't think it's common enough to bother.
If you had a newer car that was easy to rent, that's where I'd be looking for spares.
I always put locking wheel nuts on my cars, cheap insurance.
It also gave me the opportunity once to tell the service department at a stealership that they were a pack of liars.
Picked up my car after a service and was told that they had rotated my wheels for free, as a friendly gesture.
When asked how they managed that when the vehicle had locking wheel nuts and I hadn't given them the key 1 red faced employee stammered out that he was told it had been done.
As the saying goes, you don't need it until you do. cheapest insurance is to just get them. I have them on my car sh*tty runabout that has aftermarket rims but not on the more expensive family car with oem's.
About 15 years ago I owned a mint VX Commodore S Series II. One Saturday afternoon I took it into my local Bob Jane and had 5 new Continental tyres fitted.
Less than 48 hours later on the Monday morning, I walked to the carport to leave for work.
I discovered my Commodore on bricks with 4 wheels missing.
I always wondered if it was just a coincidence even though the Bob Jane store had my address.
Needless to say, I have since bought lock nuts for my cars.
Supercharged or NA?
Supercharged, 17" alloys, leather…
Awesome. Bet you still had it. Worth $7k+ easily.
Once upon a time, car radios were often stolen. Today car radios are rarely stolen.
Have you seen current day radios? Near impossible to 'steal' and near useless for any car outside of the one you stole it from.
I ask because I just got a new car and I wonder if I should buy wheel lock nuts for my 19" OEM wheels?
OEM wheels, I highly doubt anyone will be out stealing them. What sort of car, how much are the OEM wheels? If we are talking your every day run of the mill Toyota/Ford/GM OEM wheel, no one will think twice in my books.
But a set of wheel lock nuts are cheap as, so if it helps you sleep at night, then get some!
Had a 2nd hand VW with wheel lock nuts, but had no idea they even existed until took it for a service and the mechanic called asking for the lock nut key, because it was missing. I said I didn't know or have it, so they said they would have to get one from VW at my expense, I said I suppose so if that's what needs to be done.
They called back a bit later to say another VW came in for a service, and their lock nut key matched mine, so they were able to borrow theirs. So lucky I suppose, I mean what are the odds? I dunno how many different keys there are? At a guess 10 to 20?
They then just put normal nuts back on after that for me.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/302818409922?hash=item4681623dc2…
Yeah around 10 and you can — like pokemon buy them all.
My brother in law had an Amorok from new. A few years in he discovered the spare wheel had a lock nut on it. Went back to VW for them to sort it out.
It’s more likely that you will have your wheels stolen now for the rubber that is on them and not the rims themselves. 19 rims would have some pretty expensive tyres on them and the local bogans with 19 inch chromies on the front of their Bombadore might sniff out some replacements.
Original factory rims are usually being given away on Fartbook or Scumtree, so there is no point stealing something you can’t sell.
only if you have a $4k set of Rays, enkei's or BBS
Don't forget the security screws for your number plates as well…..plate theft is very common these days.
It's really easy to take locks off, even the fancy kind. I wouldn't bother. But then again it is another layer of deterrence so who knows.
You can get universal keys for the cheap kind, and the expensive kind you hammer on an impact socket.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Universal-Locking-Removal-Aftermar…
And here are universal keys for the McGard type:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/113757531259?hash=item1a7c7a2c7b…
Unless you are transporting your keys back and forth every day your car will just get broken into and they will take the key.
Generally people who steal these things are part of an organised crime "squad" so to speak, they carry most keys and target very specific wheels.
It really depends where you live and where you park.
Park your car in a garage at home and only use it to drop of kids at school and short stops at the grocery store? I wouldn’t bother.
Install wheel lock nuts. One-off minor purchase. Keep a key in the glovebox. You don't need to spend more time and effort in your day thinking about this.