security
AudiWorld Member
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 279
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From: Toronto, Ontario
The factory alarm?
That would probably curtail most attempts. In the event someone does manage to rip off your ride even though it has an alarm, let them have it -- they deserve it 
Does the factory alarm have a fuel cut-off? I know it has a tilt sensor (is that factory on all A3s?).
Most common theives would just smash a window and try to hotwire. I doubt you can hotwire an A3 due to the security features I assume it posseses. Anyone who really wants to and has the means to circumvent the A3 security system is probably an idiot because they should be using their "skills" to mission things like Porshes, Ferraris and the like...
Does the factory alarm have a fuel cut-off? I know it has a tilt sensor (is that factory on all A3s?).Most common theives would just smash a window and try to hotwire. I doubt you can hotwire an A3 due to the security features I assume it posseses. Anyone who really wants to and has the means to circumvent the A3 security system is probably an idiot because they should be using their "skills" to mission things like Porshes, Ferraris and the like...
AudiWorld Super User
Joined: Mar 2000
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You can't hotwire it...it has an immobilizer--you have to have the right key...
to start the car. As a matter of fact, some people have had problems trying to start their A3 because they were jumping in and trying to start before the immobilizer had recognized the chip in the key...
Member
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 590
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tow truck
You asked for "the most likely" scenario:
Somebody "orders" an A3 through their friendly neighborhood thug posse and a tow truck pulls up to your car, winches it onto the flatbed and drives off. The tilt sensor might make it squawk, but who pays attention to underhood noisemakers these days?
-dan
Somebody "orders" an A3 through their friendly neighborhood thug posse and a tow truck pulls up to your car, winches it onto the flatbed and drives off. The tilt sensor might make it squawk, but who pays attention to underhood noisemakers these days?
-dan
Member
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 590
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Then there's the wingnut option . . .
I swear I am NOT making this up. I saw it with my own two eyes.
Back in the early 1970s, when I worked at Commonwealth Porsche-Audi in Boston, we had a customer with a 911 who had bright orange stickers on his windows which said something like: "Danger: Poison Gas Security System."
He was very short in stature and so the seat was run way up toward the dash. He had installed small vials of some ugly-looking liquid (my guess is stink bomb stuff, not really poisonous, but I never found out for sure) on the driver's seat rails, so that anyone who ran the seat back more than a few inches would crush the glass vials and release the .. whatever ... gas.
We used to have the shortest guy in the shop drive the damn car onto the lift for us. We skipped the road test whenever possible.
-dan
Back in the early 1970s, when I worked at Commonwealth Porsche-Audi in Boston, we had a customer with a 911 who had bright orange stickers on his windows which said something like: "Danger: Poison Gas Security System."
He was very short in stature and so the seat was run way up toward the dash. He had installed small vials of some ugly-looking liquid (my guess is stink bomb stuff, not really poisonous, but I never found out for sure) on the driver's seat rails, so that anyone who ran the seat back more than a few inches would crush the glass vials and release the .. whatever ... gas.
We used to have the shortest guy in the shop drive the damn car onto the lift for us. We skipped the road test whenever possible.
-dan
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Member
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 590
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no need to chop
Once the car is out of sight, there are ways to make it drivable and sellable. For obvious reasons I don't want to provide details, but let's just say that one man's immobilizer key is another man's challenge, which takes about an hour to overcome.
Plus, the answer to your question of who buys hot A3 parts is, maybe nobody today, but tomorrow and the day after ...
I guess my overall point is that while the A3 (and many modern cars) are fairly resistant to joyriding or casual theft (except of course of contents - hide that radar detector and GPS), they are still vulnerable to more "professional" approaches.
-dan
Plus, the answer to your question of who buys hot A3 parts is, maybe nobody today, but tomorrow and the day after ...
I guess my overall point is that while the A3 (and many modern cars) are fairly resistant to joyriding or casual theft (except of course of contents - hide that radar detector and GPS), they are still vulnerable to more "professional" approaches.
-dan
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,047
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LoJack, and here is why:
Will very likely be found within the next hour after it was reported stolen. So, you'll get a good car back.
Otherwise, you'll have to wait up to 30 days before you get your money from insurance, and if they find it before that time is up, you'll have to take back whatever it was abused to (they will fix damage, but it won't be the same anymore).
Immobilizer is good but only as good as the thief is uneducated. Every system can be broken, every car can be towed.
One car gets stolen every 25 seconds in America.
Otherwise, you'll have to wait up to 30 days before you get your money from insurance, and if they find it before that time is up, you'll have to take back whatever it was abused to (they will fix damage, but it won't be the same anymore).
Immobilizer is good but only as good as the thief is uneducated. Every system can be broken, every car can be towed.
One car gets stolen every 25 seconds in America.