Anti-Theft

[BuckNaked]

Without arming the enemy, does anyone know the weaknesses of these cars, and any tricks to deter theft. My car stands out in my area. I bought it for that reason, but I want to protect it. At this point I don't care what amount my insurance would give me in the event of theft, all I would want is my car.
It's parked outside my bedroom window in the driveway when at home, and in the parking lot camera 'sweet-spot' at work.
When I leave it, I lock it with the remote and visually check the doors to be sure the locks are down.
I don't think I have the towing alarm thing, how would I know if I do? what do I look for? I am concerned about vandalism, and more concerned about it being outright stolen. I am pretty confident in my current practices and the cars anti-theft systems, but I am always looking for input.

[Boone.Msi]

hmm, towing alarm...

Care to indulge?

[mattyb]

I think he might be referrring to a movement sensor, dont know if we have one of those

[yaofeng]

Look at your owner's manual. I don't know the details of it but it is described in there. I know only because I looked after trying unsuccessfully to have the remote key reset itself.

[yaofeng]

The 95 has it.

[DanDombrowski]

I always wanted to put a kill switch on my cars, but never got around to it. I think they're great because they work weather or not you already have an alarm, and they're very simple to put in.

Only problem with them is operator error when you forget you put it in after coming back from a week vacation.

[yaofeng]

I always wanted to put a kill switch on my cars,

I saw your signature with the speed indication and could not resist uploading a picture I took of the 5 door 1.8L 5 speed Astra we rented in Spain this past January. With 5 adult passengers and full luggage, we pushed it to the limit. But 195 km/h was as fast as it will go.

[DanDombrowski]

Photobucket is blocked at work, I promise to look when I get home though.

Yeah, those 1.8L in europe usually have a little pep. We were lucky, I think ours had a 2.8L motor in it - it was way bigger than what most people were driving around (ours was a rental too BTW, went to Germa...excuse me, the FATHERLAND).

The max I got the Vectra up to was 230kph on an open stretch of the autobahn (with the GF ). The reason I have the photo of going around 185 or so was because my GF was fooling around with the camera and taking a picture of the GPS unit in the car, and I didn't notice the speedo in the picture until we were showing our photos to my GFs parents!

[Ross]

If you concerned about the driveaway type thief then a fuel shut off switch is your best investment. Connect a switch, either hidden or assign one of the existing ones a new purpose, to the fuel pump relay. No gas, no go.

[Tiger]

Factory alarm is already fuel cut off... not starter cut off.